Youth Entrepreneurship Dynamics in Benin: Was Access to Finance the Missing Piece for Opportunistic Self-Employment?

Young people in developing countries and more especially in Sub-Saharan African countries are seeking employment opportunities in challenging economic and social environments. Entrepreneurship appears then as a key factor in reducing unemployment, grasping for a sustainable job and reducing poverty. Both national and international authorities are taking steps to facilitate youth entrepreneurship. In that context, this study aims at reexamining the effect of access to finance on the dynamics of entrepreneurship of young people in transition from School to work in Benin. Using a SURE Probit procedure on data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) we estimated jointly the predicted probability of entrepreneurship intention and the access to finance. Findings show that effective financial inclusion is very important for the dynamics of youth entrepreneurship in Benin but due to the nature of the youth entrepreneurship in Benin, driven essentially by necessity purpose, there is a need for policies measures towards education and particularly entrepreneurship education that are key in the effectiveness of youth financial prosperity