Non-Farm Enterprises and the Rural Youth Employment Challenge in Ghana

Abstract

Non-farm enterprises have generally been perceived as a silver bullet solution for rural unemployment. This article therefore provides some insights on their potential to resolve the youth unemployment challenge in rural Ghana. Non-farm enterprises in Ghana are heterogeneous in nature based on type of enterprise, range of activities and productivity. Evidence suggests that motivations for operating these enterprises are mixed. Some households operate them as a coping mechanism to deal with household or agricultural shocks, while others may also be operated as business entities with the potential to grow sustainably and offer employment to young people. In order to harness the full potential of non-farm enterprises to address the rural youth employment challenge, it is imperative for policymakers in Ghana to identify specific sub-sectors that lend themselves to growth and have the capacity to offer sustainable employment avenues, and to critically interrogate and examine the primary reason of their establishment.

Impact assessment of non-farm enterprises on poverty status of rural farming households in Nigeria

“…A number of studies (Anyanwu, 2010;Awoyemi, 2011;Abbott et al, 2012;Scharf and Rahut, 2014;Katsushi et al, 2015;Oladimeji et al, 2015;Adjognon et al, 2017;Lambon-Quayefio, 2017;Nagler and Naude, 2017;Iqgal et al, 2018;Megbowon and Mushunje, 2018;Kinuthia et al, 2019) have been carried out on non-farm enterprises as National livelihood strategy but none assessed their effect on rural farming households in Nigeria using panel data with the use of a counterfactual framework. This study evaluates the impact of non-farm enterprises on the poverty of rural farming households in Nigeria.…”