ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IN NIGERIA

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ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Nigeria is bedeviled by a myriad of problems which, despite her oil wealth, inhibit her development and even threaten her continued existence as a sovereign state. Nigeria’s socio- political and economic circumstances give the significant indication that many of her problems stem from an origin of artificial colonial construct which lumped together a variety of separate peoples. Fragmentation of the nation is seen as a distinct possibility unless its citizens can be induced to accept a new sense of Nigerian identity, involving a commitment to the survival of the present state as a cohesive entity. This would necessitate a number of radical changes, not only in the political and economic structure of the country but also in the psychology of the people. Nigerians have lived through series of administrations under different governments, and the question still arises, ‘is Nigeria a nation at all?’ A critical look at what the government calls reform reveals a personally instituted concept of governance, filling the seats of power with those they believe to be their kin, rather than have professionals in the positions of merit, and a breed of people typified by their integrity of heart, ingrained in the trainings and qualifications they have received in the course of service to the nation.

The increasing number of those who are not gainfully employed or adequately educated in the country, remain preys as political tools of violence as it has been seen in the history of violence occurring in the country over a period of time. The country has depended much on oil as its major source of revenue for years, however, the current administration also fails to recognize that the future of the country may very well depend on the economy of its people (the youths), which is possibly the only untapped, ill harnessed, most lucrative resource of the

country. If it remains this way in the next ten years, putting into consideration the effect of increased poverty, lack of employment, poor educational system, it is unpredictable what the result will be.

The table below shows the statistical data of the rate of unemployment and the population rate from 2006 to 2011 in Nigeria. It is the result of a survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics and shows that persons aged 0–14 years constituted 39.6%, those aged between 15 ‐ 64 (the economically active population), constituted 56.3%, while those aged 65 years and above constituted 4.2%. Analysis of employment data for the past 5 years show that the rate of new entrants into the labour market has not been uniform in the past five years. The rate was on the increase from 2007 to 2009 but declined significantly from 2009 to 2010. The rate increased again from 2010 to 2011. Within the five year period, there has been an average of about 1.8 million new entrants into the active labour market per year.

Table 1.1: Trend of new entrants into the active labor force from 2007 to 2011

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

Table 1.2: Unemployment rate by Educational level, Age group, sex and sector (2011)

Evidence from a range of sources including the report of the National Committee on Job Creation and Putting Nigeria to Work (World Bank 2010) reveals that the biggest drivers of Nigeria’s current youth unemployment crises are:

Lack of jobs

Lack of skills and experience
- Mismatch between supply and demand for labour
- Numerous barriers to youth entrepreneurship

Plethora of job creation interventions

in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, including Nigerian Directorate of Employment (NDE), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), only reaching fewer than 100,000 youths a year. These initiatives struggle to transform the lives of Nigerian youth because of their:

Limited scope and scale

Limited focus on the unique needs of young Nigerians

Poor collaboration and cooperation across the sectors

Outdated and theoretical training models

Distance from the grassroots.

In the ‘NeXT Generation Report’ of the British Council in 2010, it is highlighted that

Nigeria needs to develop the infrastructure that will underpin a world class economy, spending up to an additional 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on this task. It should diversify away from oil, with an emphasis on sectors that will improve employment prospects for young people, while removing obstacles to economic growth and private enterprise. The oil industry contributes as much as 40% to national GDP, but is highly capital-intensive and employs only a tiny fraction of the population. Other industries still in their infancy offer greater potential to Nigeria and Nigerians: communications; manufacturing (textiles, clothing and footwear; automobiles); and the mining of resources other than oil.

Clearly, national development cannot be spoken of without the citizenry first believing in a common goal that obliterates segregation between people of differentiated peculiarities in a community. This is critically supposed to be heaved on the responsibilities of the government. Poverty and lack, illiteracy and miseducation, bad leadership and poor governance are the threading of the society, that when weaved with the economy of the people, brings about dissociation from any that shares no particular quality with themselves. However this has to be changed through changing the mindset of people through the quality of education received within the walls of our institutions.

According to National Bureau of Statistics (2009:238; 2010:2), the national unemployment rates for Nigeria between 2000 and 2009 showed that the number of unemployed persons constituted 31.1% in 2000; 13.6% in 2001; 12.6% in 2002; 14.8% in

2003; 13.4% in 2004; 11.9% in 2005; 13.7% in 2006; 14.6% in 2007; 14.9% in 2008 and

% in 2009.

Lack of entrepreneurial education, that creates a self-reliant ideology in people will lead to gross unemployment, which results in poverty and lack; this in turn creates survival instincts in individuals, and then brings about segregation among the people, Nigeria could

never attain integration with the current educational strategy being used.

Entrepreneurial education will however lead to increased employment, reduce poverty level, bring about entrepreneurs working together for common good and consequently establishing a stronger economy than the present Nigerian economy. Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the nation’s state to grow their businesses, create jobs and employment for required skill sets they will find within their societies and grow.

Poverty entails more than just the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making. Various social groups bear disproportionate burden of poverty.

A social perspective on poverty should contribute to the debate on the effectiveness and limitations of current poverty reduction strategies, one of which is education. Education is critical to the development of personal economy from poverty level to at least the level of self-sustenance, however, the current curriculum of the Nigerian educational system, prepares the average graduate to be prepared to become employed by the available firms or business owners in the society, which an approach grows the number of unemployed in the society. Entrepreneurial education emphasizes more on the quality of education administered, than the number of students that pass through school, according to the goals of the United Nations for developing countries.

Among the barriers that would hinder progress within the current Nigerian education systems certainly are (these are however, not unique to the educational sector):

Rigidity of systems: Certain people benefit from the status quo, and are resistant to change. Others are unable to see the possibilities for change, or lack the commitment, courage or energy needed

Governments, or local leaders, who are generally not held accountable for how much money is spent, and how education systems are managed
- Sufficiency attitude – what is provided for the poor is good enough

Inadequate pro-poor infrastructure or support systems – this makes it difficult to implement successful poverty eradication interventions
- A lack of systematic tracking of pro-poor interventions – in this way, it is extremely difficult to know if the activities and programmes implemented have had any impact at all.

Nigeria cannot combat the ills of the society just by raising its budget; there should be a strategic systematic approach to education that would bridge the gap between its service delivery and its effectiveness in the country.

Statement of the Problem

Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting the surging rate of unemployment in the country, therefore the breeding of psychological dependence on direct access to money. Entrepreneurial development through education will advance the economy of the nation; much credence should be given to it and ingrained with focus on profitable personal development. Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing through it.

This should be the core message of the evolving educational policy of Nigeria which is devoid of a system of education that emphasizes on the need to culture the country’s young through the knowledge of rudimentary entrepreneurial development, common cultural heritage, and identification of exploitable strengths of structures, systems and cultures of others.

Objectives of the Study

To appraise if educational styles arouse interest of students in the industries of their discipline.

To explore the effectiveness of entrepreneurial development course/training in education in universities that offer it.

To see if the current university educational system stimulates entrepreneurial creativity in its students

Research Questions

Do the educational strategies arouse in the students mature curiosity in the industries of their discipline?
1. Are the entrepreneurial development strategies being implemented truly effective?
1. Does the university classroom stimulate creativity necessary for entrepreneurship in the students?

Significance of the Study

The focus of this study brings to the fore the crucial need for entrepreneurial education in Nigeria, putting more consideration on the educational system, strategies and its eventual social developmental effect in the society.

The study highlights the problems of the level of education in the country and its equivalence to level of poverty in the society by virtue of lack of employment or knowledge of how to startup businesses.

One of the MDG goals highlights education as a critical factor for reducing poverty and dependency in developed nations. Therefore, this thesis contributes to knowledge by

identifying what is important to the economy, which is qualitative education focused on the

needs of the economy per time, rather than the resolution of the United Nations to increase budgetary details or increasing the number of people that go through school. This is not the first paper on entrepreneurial education; however, it is the first to do a comparative study on what is being implemented by different universities to see its effectiveness in order to ascertain the strategy which would eventually help for the Nigerian economy in truly eradicating unemployment in Nigeria.

Scope of the Study

The study examines the role of entrepreneurial education in the development of Nigeria, its significance in the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria and including a comparison between universities that implement para-entrepreneurship educational systems. The study considered the undergraduates of the current university system, from levels one to the final year, those who gained admission into the university in the last five (5) years. This study period is considered to be relevant because of its immediate impact on the future of Nigeria, through which one can discover if the role education plays currently will facilitate national development.

The study considers students and graduates of Covenant University, Ota and Federal University of Technology, Akure as case studies. It is a comparative study between the two universities; the former being a Christian private university, and the latter a federal university. The two universities have embraced entrepreneurial education as part of their curriculums for at least three (3) years.

Limitations of the Study

The limitations to the study are listed below:

Classroom observations were inhibited by the long and cumbersome process of obtaining permissions to carry out research.

Knowledge of lecturers about research would impede the regular style of lecturing to attempt including entrepreneurial mentions during classes

Responses from some undergraduates were possibly laced with ideals rather than realistic perspective of what they do experience (please see chapter four)