Self - Employment Among Youths in Ojo and Alimosho LGA, Lagos Nigeria: Perceptions, Attitude and Contributions – A Statistical Assessment

This study examined the perceptions, attitude and contribution of self – employment among youths in Lagos State with the aim of ascertaining the factors that inspire perception, attitude of youth self-employment and how it impacts the youths. A survey was conducted among youths in Ojo LGA, Lagos State Nigeria using a self - designed questionnaire collect data on different factors related to youth perception, attitude and contributions to self-employment. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistic, Chi Square test and Analysis of Variance with the aid of Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS). The result show that 57.0% of the youths agreed that self-employment development among young people is high and this was significantly associated with perception and attitude of self-employed youth (p < 0.05). However, the perception, attitudes and views on contribution of self – employment differed significantly among youths from the major ethnic nationalities in Nigeria (p < 0.05). It was therefore concluded that some demographic factors are significantly associated with perception and attitude of youths on self-employment. Also, self – employment improves the standard of living of youths and increase national income while lack of conducive business environment, high cost of doing business and lack of strong and consistent patent – law was among the factors that significantly negatively impact self – employment drive in the country. The study recommended that the government should create a conducive business environment and work towards reduction of the high cost of doing business as a way of encouraging youths into self - employment. Keywords : Self – employment, perception, contribution, standard of living, youths DOI : 10.7176/JPID/51-05 Publication date: November 30 th 2019