CHAPTER ONE

1.1.      BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Over the years, it has being proven from other research work and in developed countries that Entrepreneurial development is a major factor toward ensuring that a country experience growth in terms of employment and self-dependability. Economic displacement is one of the external forces that influence the development of entrepreneurship (kuratko, 2009). This is why Alam and Hossan (2003) see entrepreneurship as playing a key role in the process of econominc growththrough creation of employment, increasing investment and consumption in a nation. In similar vein, Chigunta (2001) notes that entrepreneurship has been receiving increasing recognition as a source of job creation, empowerment for the unemployed and economic dynamism in a rapidly globalizing world. Also in the word of Garavan and O'Cinneide (1994) in their contributions maintain that entrepreneurship is often used for developing enterprising people and inculcating an attitude of self-reliance using appropriate learning processes. In Nigeria before the advent of colonial government, unemployment was a rare phenomenon because the people were highly entrepreneurial and productively engaged in subsistence jobs and farming. This entrepreneurial engagement is prevalent in Yoruba land of western Nigeria, Hausa land of the northern Nigeria, and among the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria.

 It is on record that Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups are great entrepreneurs in pre and post independent Nigeria. The Igbo ethnic group particularly is recognized internationally for its culture of entrepreneurship and enterprise development (Dana, 1995). This is why Ananaba (1969) asserts:   

“The economy of the various states which make-up modern Nigeria was basically a subsistence economy and customs had established the practice that people serve their parents, village heads and the community without remuneration. On a given day, people went  and work for a particular individual1. Through economy the higher would be the poverty level and   associated welfare challenges.

Entrepreneurial development has also led to employment generation, growth of the economy and sustainable development. The current number of colleges and universities offering small business management and entrepreneurship development programme has grown from one university in 1947 to over 1600 in the 1990s (Solomon and Fernald, 1991; Solomon et al, 1994; Solomon, et al, 2002).

White and Kenyon (2000) also found a „flourishing youth enterprise culture‟ in the United Kingdom among young entrepreneurs aged 18-24 years. In Zambia, it was show that 25% of the youth are self-employed (Chigunta, 2001). Most of these young people, especially younger youth, tend to be concentrated in marginal trading and service activities. Findings in Ghana of small scale enterprises reveal that young people owned almost 40 percent of the enterprises (Osei, Baah-Nuakoh, Tutu, and Sowa,1993).

Similarly, research in South Africa suggests that the probability of self-employment among young people rises with age (Chigunta, 2001). When Nigerians especially unemployed youth are mentored and provided the needed resources and enabling environment for business start-ups, they will economically be engaged thereby shunning the illegal acts of hostage-taking, kidnapping, bombing and vandalism and homelessness.

According to Groves (1997), in Nickels, McHugh, and McHugh (1999), job-creating power of entrepreneurs can be worked at of some great American entrepreneurs from Du Point in 1802 to Avon in 1886 and Bill Gates to Ted Turners in the recent times and also in Nigeria we have the likes of Alico Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Jimoh Ibrahim etc who have stood out over the years as a result of entrepreneurial spirit in them as they started small but today they are people that everyone wants to reckon with and not just in Nigeria but all over the world.

Small and Medium Scale Enterprises often owned by entrepreneurs are sub-sectors of the industrial sector which play crucial roles in industrial development (Ahmed 2006). Also, following the adoption of Economic reform programme in Nigeria in 1981, there have been several decisions to switch from capital intensive and large scale industrial projects which was based on the philosophy of import development to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises which have better prospects for developing domestic economy, thereby generating the required goods and services that will propel the economy of Nigeria towards development. 

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