Title:
FACTORS AFFECTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT AMONG STREET VENDERS IN CHINHOYI

Authors:
Dr Faitira Manuere ,Maxwell Chufama and PiasonViriri ,Zimbabwe

Abstract:
The aim of this study is to investigate some of those factors that affect the entrepreneurship development of street venders in Chinhoyi Town. The literature on street vending shows that street venders are on the increase in most towns in developing countries, such as, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe Street vending or street commerce was caused by the devastating effects of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) which led to high unemployment due to massive retrenchments of labour in the public sector. Street vending in Zimbabwe shows that the demographic profiles of street venders keep on changing to the extent that single women, married women, men, the youth and educated people have joined the practice as street venders. Street vending is considered a menace by urban Municipalities and as such municipal police and street venders have developed a relationship of cat and mouse. (Gwendoline, 2016). According to Njaya (2014) street vending is an illegal business activity in Harare and other towns in Zimbabwe.Extant literature on street commerce shows that the government of Zimbabwe has not developed appropriate policies to support the activities of street venders. The study therefore adopts the quantitative approach in which a sample of 250 respondents is selected using purposive sampling methods. The data is collected using structured questionnaires and frequency tables are used to analyse the data. The findings of the study show that, lack of permanent site, lack of capital, lack of managerial skills and competition in street commerce are the main factors that affect entrepreneurship development among street venders. The study recommends that the government of Zimbabwe should consider street vending as a critical source of employment in the informal sector of the economy and therefore funds should be available for the development of entrepreneurship among street venders.