ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF POLICY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRO-BASED MICRO-ENTERPRISES IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR OF BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

Thesis Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of policy on the developmentof Agro-based micro-enterprises in the informal sector of Bayelsa State ofNigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 150 microenterprisesthat were randomly selected. Descriptive statistics, multipleregression, Access model and the t- statistics were employed for data analysis.Among the major findings were that the agricultural micro-enterprises span theentire agricultural sector of crop production, animal, fisheries, processing andtrading. The age range of the entrepreneurs were between 31-65 years(85.4%), with women dominating the sector (58.0%).The level of educationwas appreciable with 44.0% having more than primary education, theenterprises were relatively new with experience range of 1-10years and 80.7%employed between 1 and 10 persons. The average income was N100,000 perannum and an asset holding of N100,000 to N150,000. Econometric estimationshowed that experience, size, income level, value of asset-holdings and credithistory affected the amount of micro-credit obtained significantly. Also, age,gender of entrepreneur and level of education did not affect the amount ofcredit obtained significantly. Further findings showed that only 23.3% hadaccess to training and only 9.3% have benefited in government marketfacilities. The access index of micro-credit was 0.26 representing 26.0% in theentire state.The survey also showed that tax policy also significantly affectedthe development of urban and rural micro-enterprises. Also poor transportation,poor road network, poor electricity supply, inadequate market infrastructure,inadequate subsidies and micro-credit were the identified constraints to microenterprisesdevelopment. It is therefore recommended that the government,NGOs multinationals should re-address the infrastructural policies, micro-creditpolicies, tax, training programmes and if possible partner with privatecompanies for a total over-haul of the sector.