Entrepreneurial Resilience in Conflict and Fragile Settings and Graduate Self-Employment in Small Enterprises: The Case of Selected Higher Institutes of Learning in the Bamenda Municipality, North West Region of Cameroon

This paper explores the effect of entrepreneurial resilience in conflict and fragile settings on graduate self-employment in small and micro-size enterprises in the North West Region of Cameroon. The first objective investigates the role of endogenous and exogenous factors in influencing graduate self-employment. Secondly, we assess how conflict-fragile setting factors cause the dilemma of graduate self-unemployment. Thirdly, we examine how entrepreneurial resilient factors affect graduate self employment. The primary data collection method is implemented by distributing questionnaires to at least 310 of these graduates. Logistic regression analysis is used to assess the three objectives. The results of the first objective indicate that graduates who indulge in studying courses that have no relevance are 8.5% less likely to be self-employed than those who engage in studies that are more useful in the contemporary world. These results are statistically significant at a 5% level. Secondly, we observe that graduate entrepreneurs living in the crisis zone, like the North West Region of Cameroon, have a 21.9% lower probability of establishing self-employment business ventures than graduates of the other zones in Cameroon with no Anglophone crisis. The results are statistically significant at a 1% level. The third objective of the discoveries is that a graduate entrepreneur who is self-efficacious and capable has a 2.4% higher probability of being self-employed than a candidate who lacks this characteristic. The result is statistically significant at a 5% level. We conclude that it is of prime importance to encourage graduates to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship for self-employment and self-reliance.