ABSTRACT
The reality after
graduation is becoming more challenging for youths. In the past, most
graduates are dependent on the government for employment after graduation, but
now, that is not the case, it is therefore required of every youth to take
self-employment with high esteem, as such, it cannot be overemphasized that
entrepreneurship development is the appropriate program to mitigate this predicament
of unemployment because jobs have to be created by and for the people to
accelerate economic growth which, in the long run, leads to economic development.
It is the goal of the writer to explore entrepreneurial development as key to
Nigeria’s economic growth and development. The Biblical and intellectual
approach was copiously employed in this essay for an effective analysis of the
topic. This essay, however, looks at entrepreneurs as a key to economic growth
and development, and the challenges being faced in Nigeria. Furthermore, it
x-rays the role of the believers, church, educational system, and government while
providing a way forward to challenges already identified.
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is naturally
endowed with natural resources, a variety of unexploited minerals, and a wealth
of human capital. However, Nigeria still falls far short of the economic and social
growth let alone development given that over half of Nigeria’s population lives
on less than one dollar a day. To add salt to the wound, Nigeria has a low
score on the Human Development Index (HDI), an index that measures the average
achievement of a country in terms of the cost of living and standard of living.
Economic growth is certainly an essential factor to foster economic development
of any nation, economic development which is being measured by improved living
standards of the populace have remained a great challenge in the country.
According to Nigeria
employers’ consultative Association (NECA), the rate of unemployment was
forecasted to hit 33.5% in 2020 from the 2019 rate pegged at 23.1%. Many
graduates who by chance got admitted and having graduated couldn’t get a job
usually ends up being restless and try anything such as crime or deviant
behaviour to make ends meet, hence there is a need for empowerment and
provision of technical skills which will birth self-employment and financial
independence. Moreover, the current global pandemic has made matters worse in
Nigeria as some companies are operating below capacity level, more secure jobs
will be lost and few jobs will be created owing to the loans being currently
serviced by Nigeria, and the current predicament in the financial sector,
particularly the money and the capital markets which will have an adverse impact
on the economy. This is not only visible but will be highly challenging as far
as employment and job security are concerned.
Considering the
Nigerian youth unemployment challenges among similar others, these can be mitigated
through sustained job since entrepreneurship remains the viable option for
wealth creation. In the opinion of Lemo (2013), he observes that
entrepreneurship is a catalyst to reduce unemployment, reduce poverty, aid
youth empowerment concerning their business’s development, and contribution to
overall productive capacity, which in the long run facilitates the national
economic growth and development.
In the last two decades, entrepreneurship has become one of the economic variables that attract the attention of governments and researchers both in developed and developing countries. The reason is not far-fetched; it is because of its role in economic growth and development. Entrepreneurs are considered to be the veritable backbone on which the world and modern ideas continue to develop and are fast becoming the bedrock of modern civilization amidst concerns of unemployment.
To buttress this,
interests in entrepreneurial development continue to occupy a centre stage
in the developed and developing countries of which Nigeria is not an exclusion.
In 2012, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) accelerated its program by
introducing the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED)
initiative to facilitate access to requisite skills, resources necessary for
successful entrepreneurship and to support the federal government’s aim to
launch economic transformation through the promotion of entrepreneurship and
self-reliance initiatives, particularly among youth, but then this scheme has
not been working as expected because the mindset of graduates is to get a
white-collar job.
DEFINITION AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Entrepreneurship
The concept of
entrepreneurship is dynamic and many academic disciplines have contributed their
perspectives on the concept of entrepreneurship. The term “entrepreneurship” is
seen in different ways with varying conceptual schools of thought in different
fields of study such as economics, management, and psychology. However, despite
these differences, there are some common ingredients such as creativity,
tenacity, independence, taking a risk, and rewards embedded in the different
schools of thought. Indeed, entrepreneurship entails the introduction of a
change, an innovation, or a new order.
In Nigeria, domestic
entrepreneurship is often discussed within the context of Micro, Small, and
Medium Scale Enterprises (Nwokoye, 2013). Certainly, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship
is a behavioural characteristic of persons, but then it should be noted that entrepreneurship
is not an occupation and neither is it a small business. Enterprising
individuals in larger firms usually referred to as ‘intrapreneurs’ or
‘corporate entrepreneurs’, undertake entrepreneurial actions as well, as such
entrepreneurship is not restricted to persons starting or operating an
(innovative) small firm.
From a Biblical
perspective, one of the key ingredients to entrepreneurship is longsuffering, however,
diligence allows the Christian to live with excitement and passion to complete
his work and calling from God (Proverbs 10:4; Romans 12:11; Colossians 3:23). More
so, they are faithful in service to others as detailed in (1 Peter 4:10). If
all of these features are evident in the bible then a Christian is a potential
entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is
beyond a person starting a business, the word “entrepreneur” can be traced to the French word, “entreprende” which means “to undertake” (Akanni, 2010). It is
also used to describe taking charge or leading a project, which would deliver
values and bring it to completion. This is an indication that an entrepreneur
is simply a risk-taker. In the opinion of Hornby (2006), he describes an
entrepreneur as a person who makes money by kick-starting or running
businesses, especially when it involves taking financial risks. In other words,
an entrepreneur is a person who does not only starts a business, but he moved further
to identify a business opportunity to organising resources, to the management
of the risk of a business or an enterprise despite heavy challenges.
Entrepreneurship development
Entrepreneurship development
is simply the process of enhancing entrepreneurial skills and knowledge through
structured training and programs. Several scholars such as Ndechukwu (2001),
McOliver (1998), Ameashi (2006) among many others have defined entrepreneurship
development by referring to the qualitative and transformational growth of an
entrepreneur, they all see the term as the ability to take calculated risks,
the identification of business opportunities, the prowess to harness the
necessary resources to use opportunities identified, the tenacity and the
willingness to initiate and sustain appropriate actions towards the actualization
of business objectives despite daunting challenges.
Furthermore, entrepreneurship development centres on
the expansion of the entrepreneurial base to ensure that the pace at which new
ventures are birthed is increased as it centres more on growth potential and
innovation which therefore accelerates employment generations as well as
fast-tracking economic growth and development.
Economic growth and development
Economic growth is the sustained increase in the welfare of an economy together with the ongoing
changes in that economy's industrial structure and distribution of income. Just
like a firm keeps a record of the progress it makes over the years, so do an
economy maintains its record of performance by the national income accounting.
Economic growth is usually quantified by Gross domestic growth (GDP). Gross
Domestic Product is designed to measure the totality of those activities that
fall within the boundary of the national accounts system i.e. The total number
of goods and services produced in a country within a given year.
Development is simply
progress in a structural or physical setting. Abianga (2010) echoes the same
perspective when he stressed that development is the act or process of growth,
progress, and improvement within a physical setting.
Economically,
development suffices when there has been consistent growth, measuring this development
involves quantifying the increase in welfare to endowing with numerical precision
the large-scale economic and social changes taking place in an economy; gross domestic
product, export, employment creation, capital formation, and per capita income.
ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA’S
ECONOMIC
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
It is not an
assumption, neither is it a tentative statement that entrepreneurship is linked
to economic growth because activities that are needed to channel ideas into
economic opportunities lie at the very heart of entrepreneurship. Moreso,
entrepreneurs are the link between new ideas and economic growth, little wonder
why Henderson (2007) explains that entrepreneurship is increasingly being
recognized as a primary engine of economic growth by combining several existing
resources with innovative ideas, adding values through the commercialization of
new products and the creation of new jobs.
Entrepreneurship is a
cornerstone of development strategies, it births new enterprises, new commercial
activities, new economic sectors, generate jobs for others, produce goods and services
for society, introduces new technologies and improves or lower cost outputs.
The quintessential account of some entrepreneurs includes Larry Page and Sergey
Brin who founded Google while they were students at Stanford University.
Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg with the help of Andrew McCollum both computer
Science students of Harvard University created Facebook. These entrepreneurs
are currently global guns in their respective industries and adding value to
the economy.
Additionally, the
general acceptability of entrepreneurship education speaks volume of its usefulness
and importance in the present realities with the creation of jobs and
investment in people which spurs innovation and serve as opportunities for the
poor. It also has several multiplier effects on the economy as a better source
of competitive advantage since other natural resources can be depleted.
Undoubtedly,
entrepreneurship contributes to the economy through the goods or services produced
for which they are paid for by consumers, through the generation of economic activities
such as buying, selling, marketing, payment of taxes to the government,
undertaking corporate social responsibility to the various stakeholders within
the community in which the enterprise is being operated among many others.
In Nigeria, the introduction of Presidential Initiatives, such as the You Win establishment, friends of Osinbajo, programmes and specialised institutions such as the small and medium enterprise development agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Bank of Industry(BOI), the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB), the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI), the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Industrial Development Coordinating Centre (IDCC), the NYSC venture price competition among many others formed to sensitize and create awareness in Nigerian youths, awaken their entrepreneurship expertise, and orientate serving youth corps members towards seeking alternative employment options, in particular, self-employment and the creation of the centre for entrepreneurial development being established in each of the tertiary institutions where different skills would be taught to a large extent shows that the Federal Government of Nigeria recognized the role entrepreneurship could play in jumpstarting the growth and development of the economy.
OBSTACLES STOPING RAPID
ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
It is more than evident
that entrepreneurial development plays a vital role in fast-tracking economic
growth and development as Nigeria has enough resources to develop itself from developing
to developed state but bad governance becomes a bone to pick. Apart from policy
inconsistencies and political instability which adversely affects the growth and
survival of the small businesses in the country, access to finance is a core
stumbling block in the way to set up successful enterprises and the realisation
of economic development, the following are some of the obstacles facing rapid
entrepreneurial development:
• An inefficient
pro-active regulatory environment that encourages innovative enterprise development
at the grassroots level.
• Epileptic and
dilapidated infrastructural facilities (especially with regards to roads and electricity)
• The presence of
administrative and heavy trade barriers that hinder capacity building and
operational supports.
• Corruption and
absence of regulatory mechanisms for effective oversight of enterprise development
initiatives, especially those in the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME
) space.
• Insecurity and spate
of conflicts among Nigerian societies and communities.
THE WAY FORWARD TO
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
Entrepreneurship cannot
grow in a vacuum, since the process of entrepreneurial development emphasises
on training, re-learning, reorientation, birthing conducive and a hitch-free environment
for the growth of enterprises, therefore fostering entrepreneurship is a
collective responsibility of individuals, higher institutions, bigger firms, and
the government. Needless to say, is that the road to Nigeria's emergence as an
economic superpower is blurry, thus more than just optimism, it calls for a clever economic restructuring that will help turn the country's fortunes around
for good. However, entrepreneurship development is a good fit for this.
Additionally, since
youths constitute a larger percentage of Nigeria’s population, this calls for the
need to engage the youth more to venture in productive activities, and also,
the wide-spread level of unemployment in the country would be minimized if
Nigerians youth irrespective cultural differences and backgrounds are being
exposed to entrepreneurial learning, unlearning, and re-learning to foster
economic maturity and development. It should be noted however that some
individuals will naturally become entrepreneurs, no matter what, while others
in that same society will never become entrepreneurs, no matter the support
they receive or the circumstance. In between these two extremes, lies largely
numbers of individuals whose capacity to become entrepreneurs will depend on
the circumstances they are faced with. The identification of those
circumstances that are conducive to turning a majority of potential entrepreneurs
into productive entrepreneurs should not be taken with levity hands by relevant
stakeholders.
Importantly, Christians
should understand that God calls not only ministers and other spiritual workers
but everyone to specific roles in His kingdom. As Christian, we must realise
that our calling is to kill cankerworms in society while establishing and
leading business organisations that are designed to achieve positive results in
the secular world. The following building process will help to unleash the
Nigerian entrepreneurship system which will, in the long run, leads to economic
growth and development:
• It is high time the
policymakers became aware that entrepreneurship deserves equal emphasis as is
being placed on science and technology; it is the entrepreneur that translates
the innovation in science and technology into wealth. The church should reiterate
the need for believers to develop a business that blends business excellence with
Christian, Biblical, and theological perspectives. To buttress this,
governments should also develop a culture of entrepreneurial thinking. This can
be done in several ways such as getting entrepreneurship more integrated into
the educational systems, encouraging calculated risk-taking, and embarking on
national campaigns for entrepreneurship mindsets.
• Emphatically, a more
sustainable action to social vices and poverty reduction is through encouraging
youths, particularly those with identified entrepreneurial skills to go into private
business particularly in science and technology because these have natural potentials
for business development. As a result, there is a need for restructuring in the
educational settings to prepare the minds of students for self-reliance.
• The government should
make provision for access to local and international markets to aid
entrepreneurial expansion and proliferation.
• Improvement in
infrastructure (mainly of power and electricity) that could cripple new and
existing businesses in the economy.
• The provision of
access to finance and the introduction of a favourable loan policy that would
address the specific needs of enterprises is quintessential.
• The government should
enhance the entrepreneurial environmental conditions to galvanize Nigeria’s
total entrepreneurial activities towards improved national economic growth and
development.
• Corruption and
nepotism have made government efforts to promote entrepreneurship to below
expectations; hence to make a significant contribution, nepotism and corruption
being a cankerworm should be shunned.
CONCLUSION
The quest for the
attainment of a great and dynamic economy in this 21st century is important for
Nigeria not to be left behind the rest of the world in the march towards the
millennium development goals coupled with the pressure of globalization and the
future of work. To achieve this, the government can utilise several measures
such as religion to harness, inculcate and develop the entrepreneurial career
of the younger generations that cuts across the entire spectrum of the
education system from primary school to higher institutions as well as in the informal
system and also improve their potentials toward entrepreneurial skills which
will consequently foster economic growth and development while ensuring an
enabling a conducive environment for business to strive.
Essentially, believers
should know that we do business while being guided by the Holy Spirit as
indicated in Ephesians 2:8-10; John 15:16a and 1Corinthians 12:12-18. As such
our businesses should differ from secular businesses as Apostle Paul admonished
in Ephesians 4: 17-18, “so I tell you this, and insist on it in the lord that
you no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking, they
are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because
of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
An excellent spirit
like that of Daniel is expected because we are salt of the earth and light of the
world. As Christian, Galatians 6:9 detailed the need to develops endurance and
staying power to accomplish God's will. Indeed, there is a need for Christians
to pick up the mantle as an agent of change who are poised to spreading
innovative ideas, accelerating and making positive change in this generation.
Conclusively, the business purpose is to “Let God’s Kingdom come on earth” and to be King, Priest,
and Prophet in business and private life. The world must see Jesus in our
actions, entrepreneurs who are deeply rooted in the word can be even more
relevant when they become mentors, care-givers, and visionaries in their areas
of influence. Potential entrepreneurs display initiative and ambition, have
business sense and foresight, and are decisive, however, it must be conceded
and addressed that until Christians take the gauntlet and build a new entrepreneurial
mindset and by extension, a business anchored on Christ, economic growth and development
would be a distant dream for Nigeria.
REFERENCES
Abianga, E. U. (2010). Effective Leadership and Followership Drives
Community Development. International Journal of Management and Enterprise
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Akanni. (2010). Refocusing Education System towards Entrepreneurship
Development in Nigeria: A tool for Poverty Eradication.
Amaeshi, U. (2007).
Entrepreneurship as a core Economic Development Strategy for Nigeria. Journal
of Business & Management Studies, 1(2), 1-9.
Henderson, J. (2007). Understanding rural entrepreneurs at the country
level: Data challenges. Paper presented at the Frameworks for
Entrepreneurship Research in Food, Agriculture, and Rural Development Workshop.
Kansas City.
Lemo, T. (2013).
Development and the entrepreneurial challenge
policy and execution. ThisDay.
McOliver, F. (1998).
Business Enterprises (How to start and succeed. Benin City: Uniben Press.
Ndechukwu, F. N.
(2001). Packing Small and Medium Scale Industries
for Equity Investment. At a Workshop Organize by the bankers Committee for
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
Nwokoye, E. S., Onwuka,
K. O., & Ogbonna, I. C. (2013). Business
mentoring and domestic entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s manufacturing sub-sector:
The place of foreign direct investment inflows. Journal of Developing
Country Studies, 3(8), 8-18.
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