Assessing Financial Literacy on Agricultural Education Graduates’ Engagement in Ganoderma Mushroom Enterprises in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the influence of financial literacy on Agricultural Education graduates’ engagement in Ganoderma mushroom enterprises in Abia state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study determined the influence of financial literacy on Agricultural Education graduates in the planning, production and marketing of Ganoderma mushrooms. It adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population for the study was 684 Agricultural Education graduates currently engaged as teachers in the Abia state Secondary Education Management Board. A sample size of 135, was drawn from the population, using multi-stage sampling. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts: one each in Agricultural Education, Biology and Entrepreneurship Development from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Cronbach Alpha method was used to test the reliability of the instrument, and the test yielded a coefficient of 0.73. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions raised in the study. The results show among others that, financial literacy to a low extent influenced Agricultural Education graduates in the planning and production of Ganoderma mushrooms but to a high extent in their marketing. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that, the Abia state Government should enhance the knowledge and skills of her citizenry in Ganoderma mushroom enterprises through awareness creation and capacity-building programmes.