INSECURITY AND PERFORMANCE OF SMALL SCALE BUSINESS IN YOBE STATE, NIGERIA: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This study investigates the relationship between insecurity and performance of small scale business in Yobe State. Nigeria, the mediating role of socio-economic development. This study adopted a survey research design, the population used for this study was all small businesses in Damaturu and Patiskum, Yobe State, the sample size used for this study was three hundred and twenty (320) and convenience sampling technique was used to select the respondents for this study. Questionnaire was utilized as instrument for data collection. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM-PLS) with multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data with the aid of Smart-PLS. The findings reveals that, incidence of insecurity has positive and significant effect on both socio-economic development and small businesses performance in Yobe State. Also, socio­ economic development has positive and significant mediating effect on small businesses performance in Yobe State Subsequently, recommendation were made to government to ensure improved security for small business operators/managers to always adopt innovation in order to continue improving the overall performance oftheir businesses.