ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A PANACEA FOR JOB CREATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

INTRODUCTION

 It is no news that unemployment has taken a toll on the world in general and has contributed negatively to the activities going on in the world today, these activities includes: crime and social vices. There seems to be inadequate job provision for the over seven billion people living presently on the surface of the earth with sub-Saharan Africa having more than its fair share of this problem. Unemployment no doubt is ravaging both the society and the economy on a regular basis but the question becomes how can such a scourge as unemployment be tackled if not reduced to its minimum? The answer to this question is not far-fetched as Entrepreneurship undauntedly is the way out of this maze. Before I go any further about the subject matter, it is important I define key terms in order to enhance a better understanding of the subject matter and in order to drive home my point successfully.

Entrepreneurship is a persistent pursuit of opportunities to create wealth through innovative creation of products and services that meet customers’ need and expectation of stakeholders whose role sustains the business.

Entrepreneurship according to Hisrich and Peters in Lankford 2004 is the process of creating something different with value by devoting the necessary time and assuming

 the financial psychic and social risks and receiving the resulting rewards of most personal satisfaction. On the other hand Entrepreneurship can also be seen as a dynamic process of vision, change and creation (Mainoma and Aruwa 2008: Cone 2009). Having established what Entrepreneurship is, it is important to know who an Entrepreneur is.

An Entrepreneur according to Collins Dictionary for Writers and Editors is a owner of business who takes risks or uses initiative. Aluwong equally sees an Entrepreneur as a person who establishes a business from the raw materials of his or her ideas, and has the following characteristics, which makes him stand out among his contemporaries:

-        He is a risk taker

-        He identifies and solves problems through critical thinking.

-        He creates new markets as well as products and services.

-        He is an innovator

-        One who is passionate about what he or she is doing.

-        He is a team driver and a leader.

-        He organizes necessary resources together

-        Identifies business opportunities.

-        An employer of labour.

While development is a state of continuous or sustained growth, therefore Entrepreneurship development is the sustained growth of the process of value creation which is aimed at satisfying human wants.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL TO CREATING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND TACKLING UNEMPLOYMENT

Current statistics reveals that out of the 167, 912, 561 people residing in Nigeria about 40, 000, 000 of its youths are unemployed, thereby raising the percentage rate of unemployment from 19.7 in 2009, 21.1 in 2010 to 23. 9 percent in 2011 and this is happening at such a time when the country is recording an annual population growth of 5.6 million people, with a yearly turn-out of over 2 million graduates to add to the existing unemployed and this is responsible for the increasing crime rate experienced in this part of the continent of Africa. This is equally responsible for the 69.0% poverty incidence recorded in Nigeria as at 2010 against 54.4% witnessed in 2004 with an average Nigerian living on $62.8 per day. Poverty and crime rate are not the only negative effects of unemployment, however they are considered to be focal points for the course of this study. As earlier stated the importance of Entrepreneurship in curbing this trend can’t be over emphasized. If Entrepreneurship is given the needed support, it will;

-        Reduce crime rate

-        Create employment opportunities

-        Increase the standard of living

-        Facilitate national and international cooperation

-        Ensure proper utilization of resources

-        Develop the nation’s economy

-        Reduce poverty rate

-        Encourage innovativeness as well as technological advancement

To further buttress my points, I will like to cite example of two prominent Nigerian Entrepreneurs; Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Otunba Mike Ishola Adenuga, both graduates of Business Studies and started business in the 70s. Dangote Group of Companies has 13 subsidiaries and currently operates in 14 African countries including: South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroun, Congo (Brazzaville), Ethiopia, Zambia, Sierra Leone to mention a few. The company before acquiring the Benue Cement plant to have about 22, 000 employees and the cement plant having a capacity of generating 66, 000 jobs, making Alhaji Aliko Dangote the highest employer of labour aside the Federal Government with an estimated figure of 82, 000 employees  on his payroll in Nigeria alone. Dangote and Mike Adenuga has not only generated employment opportunities for Africans but also for Brazilians, Indians, Iranians, Pakistanis thereby making a global impact in addition to creating value for those in need of it. Globacom which is owned by Mike Adenuga has over 24 million subscribers in Nigeria alone and as we speak it is already operational in other African countries, the UK, US as well as the Middle-East. Conoil which is also owned by Mike Adenuga produces 100, 000 barrels of crude oil per day. These two entrepreneurs are only a few of those making global impact, the likes of Bill Gate, Carlos Helu Slimms, Michael Dell and late Steve Jobbs who have put their initiatives into the creation of goods and services, thereby creating room for employment and same time reducing unemployment, crime and poverty rate as well as social vices which many youths are involved in by engaging some of them gainfully, in addition to the 500, 000 self employment the solid mineral sector of the Nigerian economy is generating entrepreneurship can be said to be capable of tackling the situation at hand.  Entrepreneurship and job creation can never be separated and as Theodore Roosevelt (former president of the United States of America) once said ‘don’t think of what your country can do for you, but rather think of what you can do for your country’ entrepreneurs are doing this cautiously on a daily basis and in a long run changing the status quo in their little way.

WAYS TO DEVELOP ENTREPRENEURSHIP (THE WAY FORWARD)

Both the public and private sector have crucial roles to play as regards to this effect and if unemployment must become a thing of the past. Here are some of the ways to develop Entrepreneurship:

                         

-        Encouraging skills acquisition

-  Government should formulate and implement policies that will favour Entrepreneurship.

-    Entrepreneurship education should be encouraged.

- Soft loans should be provided for graduates of Entrepreneurship schemes as well as individuals with good and probable ideas.

-    Entrepreneurship education should be inculcated into our secondary school curricular.

CONCLUSION

Picture a society where we don’t have to depend on white collar jobs that are not even there. Picture a society where people are self employed and do not have to wait for government to do everything for them. A society where people provide and produce what they need without relying heavily on importation. Such society or county is guaranteed to prosper, experience a drastic decline in crime, poverty and unemployment rate; experience fast economical and technological growth as well as an increase in the standard of living. Such a country will no longer be referred to as a developing or third world country, its currency will have value and foreign exchange earnings on the increase, such is the fate of a country where Entrepreneurship is developed and encouraged.

REFERENCES

-       National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) popular version (Abridged) reproduced by Central Bank of Nigeria.

-        Youth Restiveness and Unemployment The way out part 1 by Peter Osalor

-        National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

-        Collins Dictionary for Writers and Editors

-        Practice of Entrepreneurship lecture note for NDII BAM students by Christopher Peter

-     Combating security Challenges and the way forward for Nigeria Economic Transformation by Prof. Mike Kwanashie  

A paper written and delivered 

by Enyinnaya Onyemauchechukwu Iroadumba