Daniel Chigudu
The objective of this study was to investigate the level of youths’ participation and opportunities in SMES for the sustainability of their livelihoods against rising unemployment in Bindura urban area of Zimbabwe The problem is that the economy in Zimbabwe has not performed well over the past years making the rate of unemployment to soar up to about 84% in 2014 and a lot more in 2020. This exposes the susceptible young people to engage in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the informal sector for their livelihood. This is the economic hub and provincial capital city for Mashonaland Central province. The methodology used was the mixed research approach based on a single case study as the research design. The collection of data was through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that there are lots of opportunities in the form of entrepreneurship expertise to swap over and labor production at a low cost for the youths. The study further uncovered major obstructions to the growth of economic activities such as, competition for the market, bad infrastructure, inaccessible capital in the form of finance, technological issues, bottlenecks in registering and obtaining business licenses. Such barriers weaken the reasons for which these SMEs are set to achieve. The study provides recommendations to government and local authorities. Further research needs to be done with respect to adult entrepreneurs in order to get a holistic impression of the challenges and impact of participation for livelihood sustainability.