Youth Unemployment and Entrepreneurship Development : Challenges and Prospects in Nigeria (original) (raw)
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Entrepreneurship -A Panacea for Youth Unemployment in Nigeria: Implication o
Introduction: In Nigeria, unemployment is a very serious problem combating all the states. Although accurate statistical data are lacking, local media reports however indicate that half of the Nigerian population of about 150 million are youths and that about 95% of them are unemployed. Idleness, decadence of economic stagnation and poverty have driven a large percentage of them into robbery, prostitution and violence. Nwachukwu and Nwamuo (2010) noted that when youths are not gainfully employed either in the public or private sector of the economy, they become very vulnerable to criminalities such as kidnapping, armed robbery, and many other social vices which are a menace to the society. In the same vain Ewumi, and Owoyale (2012) noted that one of the many pressing challenges facing Nigeria today is youths unemployment with the ripple effect of their resort to violent crime. All forms of antisocial vices are traceable to the unemployed youths. In order to address this issue of unemployment, the Federal as well as the State governments have made some efforts through some agencies by creating skills acquisition programmes, yet many graduates and even postgraduates degree holders are still parading fine and quality certificates without employment either by public or private organizations. As a result of this, the importance of entrepreneurship development of the economy has received increased attention in Nigeria in the recent time. The Federal Government of Nigeria since 1960 has put in place different kind of institutional frame work to promote small scale enterprises in the country. These include the establishment of industrial development centers (IDCS), the Small Scale Industries Credit Scheme (SSICS), Credit Guidelines to Financial Institution (CGFI), Working For Yourself/Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WFYP/EDP), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERF) and the Endorsement of Micro-finance Banking System (EMBS) whose duty is to give loans to enable their customers establish small scale businesses. All these are geared towards the promotion of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship, in this context, is seen as the process of discovering new ways of combining resources and becoming aware of business ownership as an option or viable alternative, by developing ideas for business; learning the process of becoming a business owner, undertaking the training to acquire the skills required to establish and develop business. It includes the practical application of enterprising qualities such as initiative, innovation, creativity and risk-taking into the work environment (either in self employment or employment in small start-up firms) using appropriate skills necessary for success in that environment and culture. The entrepreneur is often referred to as the agent of social, economic and technological development. The formal processes of equipping the entrepreneur with necessary insight and skill are through formal education, entrepreneurial training and development. Training is considered as the organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and/or skills for definite purpose (Bench, 1975). The objective of training is to cause changes in behaviour of the trained. It should be noted that training means to guide someone through instruction and drill for skills acquisition. Learning is another related concept which means the human process by which skills, knowledge, habits and attitudes are acquired and utilized in such a way that behaviour is modified. Thus education as used here is inclusive of training and learning process (Ogundele & Kio, 2002) and the essence of these training is for development. Development at the individual level according to Rodney (2005) is the increase in skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline responsibility and material well being. The achievement of any of these aspects of personal development is directly related to the state of the society as a whole. At the level of social groups, development implies an increasing capacity to regulate both internal and external relationship. Rodney (2005) is of the view that the tool with which men work and the manner in which they organise their labour are important indices of social development. He further noted that development when used exclusively in economic sense, refers to how members of a society increase, jointly exercise their capacity for subduing the environment. Capacity here is dependent on the extent to which they understand the laws of nature (science), technological know-how and organisation of work which are assisted by the processes of formal education,
Youths Entrepreneurship: A Panacea to Employment Generation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria
The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 2017
The role of youth entrepreneurship in the economic development has been well recognized in the literature. In a liberal market economy, entrepreneurs coordinate economic activities in such a way that factors of production are moved to areas in which they are fully utilized while they also bear risk and uncertainty in the process of arbitrage which eventually leads to the expansion of the production possibility curve, socio-economic growth and development. In contemporary time, the movement by nations of the world towards a neo-liberal economic framework has elevated the study of determinants of entrepreneurship to the centre stage. It has been established from past studies that entrepreneurship especially among youths has become antidote to joblessness and underdevelopment. This paper, therefore, examines the role of youth entrepreneurship development as a panacea to sustainable development in Nigeria. The paper suggested that if Nigeria in her quest to reducing unemployment and pov...
Entrepreneurship development and employment generation in Nigeria: Problems and prospects
This paper took a study of Nigeria's growing unemployment situation and how it increasingly dwindles the potentials of the country, especially following official figures from the Bureau of statistics that puts the figure at about 20% (about 30million), which still did not include about 40million other Nigerian youths captured in World Bank statistics in 2009. By implication, it means that out of the 150 million Nigerians, 50% are unemployed, or worse still, at least 71% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. These days, employment creation is no longer the prerogative of government but, a joint effort between the public and private sectors. It is in this regard that this paper seeks a permanent solution to this endemic and pandemic phenomenon in Entrepreneurship development. In doing so, the paper is divided into eight segments, covering the background of the study, literature review and theoretical discourse on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria and its potency in employment generation as well as its problems and prospects. At the end of the study, having utilized the secondary source of data generation to source data for the paper, relying extensively on current articles from ardent scholars on entrepreneurship development and government statistical documentations, the paper made several findings and recommendations among which is that government should make entrepreneurship sellable to the people by inculcating it into the educational curriculum at every strata of the educational sector and also utilize a re-modeled NYSC scheme to educate the youths more on the importance, essence and need for entrepreneurship development especially on a practical basis and then find a means of supporting these entrepreneurship projects cutting across all spheres of the country; and also create enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive by ensuring social security and adequate infrastructural facilities.
Abstract This research work examines the impacts entrepreneurship development programmes and youth unemployment in Benue State, using Youth Entreprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN) programme as a case study. The study used survey method in data collection where primary data were used. The logistic regression was used to test the hypothesis formulated for the study. Results showed that YouWiN programme has not significantly contributed in reducing youth unemployment in Benue State with only 12%. This is due to the fact that it is faced with numerous problems and challenges including: inadequate funding by the government, corruption, nepotism, information asymmetry and misappropriation of funds by the YouWiN officials. The research concludes that for entrepreneurship development programmes (Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria) to effectively and efficiently reduced youth unemployment, the problems identified as militating factors of the programmes must be effectively handled in order to allow effective and efficient execution of these programmes. The research recommends that: Government should strive to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria, Nigerian youth should stop relying entirely on what government and finally, government and policy makers must ensure that all the policies and programmes aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial activity must be safeguarded to avoid being hijacked by politicians to enrich themselves.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS A WAY OF CURBING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA
One of the biggest challenges of Nigeria today is youth unemployment. Nigeria, being the giant of Africa has the largest number of youths who are yet to be properly mobilized and empowered for gainful economic activities. This can only be tackled through Entrepreneurship Education which involves teaching and learning of the needed skills, values, attitudes and knowledge that equip one to become self-reliant through being a good citizen who is an effective manager, value agent and risk bearer of business undertakings. Therefore, this paper discusses Entrepreneurship education and unemployment reduction in Nigeria, problems facing education and its graduate and ways of addressing this problems so that our national and human resources will be properly employed for economic emancipation, so as to turn our youths into job creators and not job seekers.
Entrepreneurship Education: A Remedy to Youth Unemployment in Nigeria
International Journal of Advanced Academic Research, 2021
In a developing nation, entrepreneurship education has been and would likewise continue to be a great economic stimulation to serve as a remedy to the youth unemployment in Nigeria. This paper focused on entrepreneurship education as a remedy to youth unemployment. Some issues discussed include the youth unemployment, causes of youth unemployment, effects of youth unemployment, the concepts of entrepreneur, importance of entrepreneurship education as a remedy to youth employment, as well as often encountered challenges of entrepreneurial education and the strategies/solutions for effective entrepreneurship education. On the basis of these and other auxiliary discourses, conclusion was reached and recommendations were raised for consideration. These include a call for all stakeholders to allow the entrepreneurship education to reach out to the youth, regardless of theirethnic, cultural, religious, geographical or political affiliations by establishing good scheme aimed at encouraging...
Trickling down youth unemployment in Nigeria by leveraging on Entrepreneurial Education
According to the 2012 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s population is said to have grown to about 167 million. The population influx includes approximately 50% young people who are between the ages of 15 and 34 years old. This demographic figure has been left out of the economic dividends with the prevailing rate of unemployment among the youths. In 2012, the number of unemployed youths was approximately 11.1 million. University graduates also constituted about 20% of the youth unemployment and often remained unemployed for five years or more post-graduation (NISER, 2013). Various international organizations in the field of development have signaled that this figure could constitute a huge ticking time bomb in Nigeria if nothing is done to reduce the unemployment rate. There are many contributing factors why the prevalence of unemployment among Nigerian youths is at an all-time high. Reasons such as high population growth rate of 3.5% per annum; poor educational curriculum that does not reflect or meet the challenges of the 21st century graduate; skills mismatch between graduates and potential employers; infrastructural deficits due to weakening effect brought about by the structural adjustment program (SAP) and unsound, inconsistent, distorted public policies relating to youth development and unemployment all contribute to youth unemployment. These listed reasons, although quite tangible for unemployed graduates to overcome, are difficult to reach because graduates lack essential entrepreneurial education. With proper entrepreneurial education, youth could diminish a critical social divide and other societal vices within the country. Young people can indeed become game changers by strengthening the informal sector of the country. Although ignored, the informal sector currently contributes about 57.9% of the country’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In an effort to decrease youth unemployment, this paper seeks to present the new model of education that has been tested at various fronts within Nigeria to curb unemployment, while also promoting job creation vis-à-vis economic empowerment. The paper critically looks at how various stakeholders can work together to absorb the dividends by promoting entrepreneurial education to strengthen the sector. This paper will give examples of local success stories to illustrate how a social business such as Business Management Consortium (BMC) and other institutions within Nigeria have been able to leverage the Entrepreneurial Education tool to bridge this employment divide . As strategic planning is needed to exact change, and combat the menace of youth unemployment plaguing the nation of Nigeria, the proposal provides insights into models that already exists within the framework of BMC as a social enterprise; the possibilities existing across various sectors and points to action elements on how to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that this youth bulge does not constitute a greater burden to the country in the future. Keen attention is given to concrete implementation strategies that can be locally promoted across different scales but with a long-term national and regional outlook.
European Journal of Business and Management, 2014
Human resources is a blessing to any nation because of diverse opinions/views that will be shared on issues affecting such nation but when the able bodied youths, educated who are to take over the leadership or governance are unemployed after years of graduation looks frustrating and thus posed as security challenges to such nation. Skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training for the youths will serve as succor to ameliorate the high rate of unemployment rather than allowing the youths to roam the street and thereby engage in unwholesome practices to earn a living. In our findings, we explored the recent employment saga in Nigeria, the effect of unemployment and youth vanguard and the consequences of youth unemployment and security challenges. In conclusion, we advocated that the insecurity in Nigeria as a sectarian violence should be discarded rather it is caused majorly by unemployment.
Entrepreneurship Education: A Panacea for Unemployment Reduction among the Youth in Nigeria
International Journal of Academic Management Science Research (IJAMSR) ISSN: 2643-900X Vol. 7 Issue 3, March - 2023, Pages: 55-58, 2023
The study examined the relationship between entrepreneurship education and unemployment among the youth in Nigeria. It adopts a descriptive research design which was conducted randomly among the selected final year students in the Faculty of Business and Management Studies which consist of three departments namely Accountancy, Banking and Finance, and Business Administration and Management. The questionnaire was the major instrument used to gather the relevant information. The study revealed that entrepreneurship was found to be positive and significant in reducing unemployment among the youth if properly implemented and therefore conclude that skill acquisition through entrepreneurship education should be a continuous process in the curriculum of higher institutions of learning in Nigeria in an attempt to reduce the level at which graduates wait endlessly for white collar jobs that do not exist and government should provide an enabling environment through the provision of security, electricity, and availability of raw materials that will promote the local production of good and serve as encouragement for the young entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship Education In Nigeria: A Panacea For Youth Unemployment
This paper discusses the need for entrepreneurship education in Nigeria geared towards enhancing sustainable development in the country. Since entrepreneurship skills remain vital in the real sector and the sustenance of economic development, it has become imperative for government to pay attention to this sub-sector. The problems facing the country ranging from acute poverty, youth and graduate unemployment, dependence on foreign goods and technology; to youth restiveness and violence among others has prompted government's recognition of this fact that has led to the introduction of entrepreneurial studies in tertiary institutions. The concern is to encourage youths to engage in useful livelihood. This paper therefore argues that entrepreneurship education will equip the students with the necessary skills with which to be self-reliant. The objective and strategies for re-designing entrepreneurship education are also discussed. The paper recommends that educational programmes at all levels of education should be made relevant to provide the youths the needed entrepreneurial skills.