This paper is on influence of youth empowerment on performance of youth owned enterprises in Imenti North Sub County, Meru. Three study questions guided the study. Literature review focused on call for adequate youth empowerment to enhance performance of youth owned enterprises in Kenya and internationally. The study also focused on the variables that influence the performance of the youth owned enterprises which include intrapersonal empowerment, behavioural empowerment and interactive empowerment. The study used the descriptive survey design. The target population for the study was 560 comprising of 110 agriculture enterprises, 210 trade enterprises, 240 services enterprises from the department of trade, Meru County. The sample size of 233 youth owned enterprises was selected from the target population. Based on the findings the following conclusions were made: majority of the youth were motivated to form their enterprise by the desire to create wealth and as a form of employment. Youths also possess high entrepreneurial skill for management of enterprises attributed by education and training in management skills. However, youth still needed more training and development on management skills. The study also concluded that youth owned enterprises should conduct frequent assessment to improved performance of their enterprises and that most enterprises should conduct benchmarking to acquire new ideas to help boost performance of their enterprises. The study revealed that effective leadership practices were enhanced which encouraged goals setting and motivation. In addition, leadership also enhanced provision of enthusiasm and creative encouragement. The study concluded that adult mentorship, impacted on the success of enterprise and that resources provided by adults, contributed to success and delivering of set goals of youth owned enterprise. The study also concludes that youths networked and it impacted positively on their business activities with majority rating at average level but very useful. The study established that most youth owned enterprises had borrowed loan maybe for expansion purposes, or for financing activities of the business. Also the study revealed that youth owned enterprises faced competition especially from other youth owned enterprises when carrying out their business activities. The study concludes that location of the enterprise is a contributor to good performance of youth owned enterprises. The researcher also concludes that availability of customers, influence performance of youth owned enterprises. This study also concludes pricing or costing of various products and or services influence performance of youth owned enterprises.
