ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ALTERNATIVE TO UNEMPLOYMENT   24 March, 2014 | Ruth Olurounbi | Nigerian Tribune The turnout for the just concluded NIS recruitment exercise that left scores injured and about 21 people dead has underscored a very chilling point: unemployment is still very much an issue that threatens the economic survival of the people and that of the nation. Unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to 23.90 per cent in 2011 from 21.10 per cent in 2010, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and it has expressed worry that it may rise by an additional two per cent before the year ends. Given the NIS recruitment turnout, many people are wondering if the figure had not been doctored. Since the exercise, however, an outcry has been raised against the state of unemployment in Nigeria and several alternatives have emerged to unemployment in the country. One is entrepreneurship. The question, however, is can entrepreneurship solve the youth unemployment crisis? A group of entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs believe that, yes, entrepreneurship can indeed solve the youth unemployment crisis, and then called on all stakeholders, especially the government, to ensure entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. A group of researchers, in their “Entrepreneurship Development: A Panacea for Unemployment Reduction in Nigeria”, published in the Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, agreed that it was imperative to “increase entrepreneurial activities to reduce high rate of unemployment” in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship development, they said, “has led to employment generation, growth of the economy and sustainable development,” adding that entrepreneurship plays an important role in bringing down unemployment in the country. Just last year, the Global Entreprenuership Monitor reported that entrepreneurs in Africa help boost employment and GDP rates. Countries like Nigeria, Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia were listed. “The entrepreneurial landscape in sub-Saharan Africa is changing rapidly and the region is now becoming a Mecca for business development and growth,” remarked Mike Herrington, lead author of the report and GEM Executive Director and Professor at University of Cape Town, South Africa, on GEM’s website adding that “opportunities abound and a positive spirit is emerging amongst the population of these countries.” •Roles of entrepreneurship in national economic development The United Nations (UN), has also observed that global development is entering a phase where “entrepreneurship will increasingly play a more important role.” The body cited three major reasons for this observation. In the West, it said, the managed economy of the 1970s-2000s was characterized by reliance on big business and mass production and thus, gave way to “a so-called entrepreneurial economy.” It observed that in this age and time, knowledge-driven goods and services have become more flexibly provided by smaller firms, forcing the emergence of a creative class to require less interference, but more facilitating state. Second, in the emerging countries, it said, especially – Brazil, Russia, India and China, “impressive growth has been driven by a veritable entrepreneurial revolution. The need in these economies to sustain growth through sustainable access to resources, knowledge, markets, and low-carbon industrialization puts a premium on innovative entrepreneurship.” And finally, in the least developed countries, where aid dependency is high, donors have been shifting the emphasis in development cooperation towards private sector development, the UN said, adding that “promoting youth entrepreneurship here has become a vital policy objective of many development organisations and donors.” •Roles of entrepreneurs in national economic development In discussing the roles entrepreneurship plays in bringing down unemployment in the country, it is pertinent to seek out the role of entrepreneurs in economic development. As someone succinctly put it, an entrepreneur plays a pivotal role not only in the development of industrial sector of a country but also in the development of farm and service sector. Dr Gbemisola Oke, Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Ibadan, while delivering a paper at a recent day SMEs event organised by the Oyo State government, noted the role of an entrepreneur in economic development bringing about growth. This growth, she said, comes in different forms. Young entrepreneurs in Nigeria are also saying that with the new upsurge in entrepreneurship in the country, they are introducing new ideas into a fledgling economy that can help the country grow. These entrepreneurs believe that entrepreneurship is one of the most important input in the economic development of a country, while noting that as entrepreneurs, they act as a trigger head to give spark to economic activities by their entrepreneurial decisions. One of such entrepreneurs is Bukola Fasuba, Founder mhqstore. Fasuba, a lawyer schooled in Foundation in Law at Stafford House College, Kent, England before going for a graduate degree in LLB Law from University of Leicester, England, said her business is changing the phase of traditional market places in Nigeria. She considers herself as a business leader who looks for ideas and puts them into effect in fostering economic growth and development. Entrepreneurs spoken with in the course of writing this report unanimously agreed that they promote capital formation by either borrowing or/and using their own resources for setting up their enterprises. They said that apart from the fact that they promote the country’s export trade, they increase countries’ Gross National Product and Per Capita Income, thus improving the standards of living in several nations. •The role of the government in promoting entrepreneurship The UN, in its “Entrepreneurs and economic development” report, observed that “for entrepreneurs to play an appropriate role, the role of the state remains important, if not more so than before. Strong states, as regulators and gatekeepers, play a particularly vital role. In the absence of appropriate ‘rules of the game’, entrepreneurship may result in undesirable social outcomes, including corruption, crime, speculation and financial crises, and may worsen the vulnerabilities of people during natural disasters.” While entrepreneurs and bodies like the CEI have constantly advocated for friendly policies to encourage the SMEs and startup entrepreneurs in the country, the Nigerian government has insisted that they are making sure that the Nigerian entrepreneurs are giving level playing grounds to do business. For instance, the Federal Government, in collaboration with foreign bodies have been making capital available to SMEs. And experts believe that the international organisations have, since mid-1980s, continued to play vital roles in providing foreign capital to some SMEs in Nigeria. World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), are among the said organisations. It could be seen that entrepreneurship business was, hitherto, neglected in Nigeria. Also, some of the agencies such as the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), among others, have been established by government to aid entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship opportunities in Nigeria Tech-based businesses are currently revolutionalising the way business is done in Nigeria. According to Mr Tomi Davies, the CEO of TechnoVision, “technology has infinitely improved communication of ideas through its making tools available for entrepreneurs to express their visions... It is already changing the way we search for, buy and even consume our food. From recipes to restaurants we are seeing the incursion of technology.” Agriculture is another goldmine that entrepreneurs can tap from and so is fashion and entertainment. In the coming weeks, we will be examining each industry and the business prospects there in.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:38:29 +0000
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