Youth Entrepreneureship: An Alternative Strategy To Poverty Alleviation In The Mano River Union (MRU) Sierra Leone As A Case Study

The overall objective of this research is to advance an understanding of how youth entrepreneurship can be an alternative strategy to poverty alleviation in the Mano River Union, using Sierra Leone as a case studyThe study attempted to examine whether there is a positive correlation between youth entrepreneurship development and poverty alleviation in sierra lone. In executing this study Sierra Leone is use as a case study analysis. The questionnaire was administered to 150 SMEs owners who included youth entrepreneurs who come to China to do business in Guangzhou,100 questionnaires were administered in Freetown and 50 were administered online to Sierra Leonean youth’s entrepreneurs and workers living in Liberia, Ghana and Guinea. One on one interview was conducted with staff of National Youths Commission, the Executive Director Call to Business Micro-Finance and Presenter Life by Design SL and Head of Privatization Commission in Sierra Leone-2016.The quantitative data was analysis using SPSS and the qualitative data was analysed using interpretation. Also both theoretical and empirical literature were reviewHowever, the research findings and results reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between youth entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation, which means youth entrepreneurship, could be use as strategy for poverty reduction in Sierra Leone and other MRU countries. A model on effective youth entrepreneurship development was developed.The limitations of this study are that much of the literatures used on the analysis were captured on youth entrepreneurship programs, government policies and World Bank reports from developed and developing countries. There are scarcity of secondary data on youth entrepreneurship and its composition in Sierra Leone.