As this is not ''someone break my heart'' thread, again, we won't find them here. Infact, stay out of this thread. God bless you op. God knows I never partook of that enterprenueral rubbish in camp. I rather practiced more of O'level Maths and I tutor younger minds.

op yu don't reli knw anyfin about entrepreneurship. .....go n learn more about innovation n creativity b4 yu wil condemn entrepreneurship here

Acidosis:


My brother we have been trying to raise them to world standard since 1900. The problem is the average I.Q of a Nigerian cannot process the same thoughts and abilities of the average Korean. Let's give up on trying to make chips. It is not a must to make chips. This is the time to embrace competitive advantage.

The Nigerian situation can be likened to a pig. Wash, tosh and clean up, it would land in the mud at the end.

We could focus on things we are good at, such as: service sector, entertainment, may be football and comedy. Let's leave engineering to those who can do it better and cheaper.

What is the average IQ of Nigerians? I think you are talking nonsense. I do not know what you know about IQ but I will tell you a few facts .
In Western societies IQ is measured on a scale up to 100(generally but could be more)
"Normal" is considered at population level. and is considered to be about 100 with a range of 85-115. a standard deviation of 15 points from 100 is considered "Normal" so when we you talk of "average" IQ you could be talking of any of 3 measures of central tendency.

What you display is an unfortunate tendency to make ignorant but confident and sweeping pronouncements on very complex issues of which you have threadbare knowledge and zero expertise.

The reality is that human intelligence and intellect is a very formidable weapon even at low levels or marginally subnormal levels.Rarely is human intellect optimally deployed and often the main constraints are environmental i.e cultural,institutional religious political etc

FYI

the available records of WRITING date back about 5000 years. There is a clear correlation between civilization and the acquisition of writing but even at that if one considers the journey of the Human Race from 6000 years ago it may be argued that Mankind has been SLOW taking thousands of years to discover engines. Where were your "genius" Koreans 1000 years ago? or even 200?
Western Europe specifically the Germanic peoples the Celts and even the Slavs lived in caves like savages for centuries cut off completely from the civilization that blossomed around Mesopotamia and the Levant. Today the Germanic peoples and their descendants dominate the planet. Their IQ has not changed they have acquired or been acquired by a different "culture"

Acidosis:


I know where you're driving at; discontinuous innovation is a paradigm shift, not necessarily a complete overhaul of a preconceived idea.

Someone introduced VIDEO cassettes, another shifted to CD Disk, ROM, someone else thought about Memory Card, these are discontinuous innovations, i.e. A shift from the norm.

If by tomorrow, I introduce a Phone with same specs with Samsung or Tecno, it is still INNOVATION (continuous innovation). So why does it seem like OP has a problem with bead, kunu makers, fashion designers, barbers, and other trades? Is he sad because they don't have the money to be as great as Adidas? Viju milk? Does it mean Viju is innovative while Kunu is not?


By the way, I did not introduced these terms, I'm only pointing out to key understandings on the matter. OP sounded like all big companies are innovative while the petty entrepreneurs are redundant.

Ironically big companies are not that innovative like petty entrepreneurs.

Innovations usually start from petty entrepreneurs, big companies only buys into it when they realize it will drive up their profit and give them advantage over their competitor.

One adds:
Nigeria is a sham with a President Buhari who asks:
"those in the Niger delta who think oil belongs to them, where were they when we fought a civil war that cost about 2 million lives"?


Where are the Barcarnistas of the Niger delta, the Ikwerre-no-be-Ibos in Rivers state, do they now see clearly that some set of Nigerians regard them as conquered and second class citizens of one Nigeria for ever?

Acidosis:


I know where you're driving at; discontinuous innovation is a paradigm shift, not necessarily a complete overhaul of a preconceived idea.

Someone introduced VIDEO cassettes, another shifted to CD Disk, ROM, someone else thought about Memory Card, these are discontinuous innovations, i.e. A shift from the norm.

If by tomorrow, I introduce a Phone with same specs with Samsung or Tecno, it is still INNOVATION (continuous innovation). So why does it seem like OP has a problem with bead, kunu makers, fashion designers, barbers, and other trades? Is he sad because they don't have the money to be as great as Adidas? Viju milk? Does it mean Viju is innovative while Kunu is not?


By the way, I did not introduced these terms, I'm only pointing out to key understandings on the matter. OP sounded like all big companies are innovative while the petty entrepreneurs are redundant.

A good definition is explicit and does not resort to examples it should stand on its own and then we can determine whether the examples match the definition and not the other way round

So annoying. After 5 years of those terrible equations in natural sciences, you now resolve to reaching me how to make local polish after graduation in Nysc camp....chei...this country!!

Acidosis:


My brother we have been trying to raise them to world standard since 1900. The problem is the average I.Q of a Nigerian cannot process the same thoughts and abilities of the average Korean. Let's give up on trying to make chips. It is not a must to make chips. This is the time to embrace competitive advantage.

The Nigerian situation can be likened to a pig. Wash, tosh and clean up, it would land in the mud at the end.

We could focus on things we are good at, such as: service sector, entertainment, may be football and comedy. Let's leave engineering to those who can do it better and cheaper.

you just spoke mind...i was about saying the same thing.
In otherwords, A pig can never be thought hygiene, the dirt traits is in its DNA.

However, i beg to disagree with you, the IQ ish to me is rather foundational and due to faulty mindset

Jethrolite:
That thing you call tuxedo, is that what a real tuxedo looks like? You are a typical example of what op is talking about but instead of accepting, you are arguing. Yes, you must not invent but then you go on to innovate. Look at your products and ask yourself what you have really done.

Now, do not get me wrong. I am not trying to say your business is wrong or detrimental to the economy rather the opposite is the case but if you take op's advice you should be thinking of creating products that can compete globally. This is the reason the white man has mostly no regard for us because all we do is mess things up and we term it innovation.

The irony of life is that most times, we put the wrong foot forward which is evident in your post. The second paragraph would have been off the first. I want to assume you know about sport cars. Are all sport cars built the same way having the same structure? Before you stereotype next time, consult GOOGLE.

If you can't build a tower, don't bulldoze others'

Cheers.

blueseacats:
You nailed it, one thing the op did not mention is that sme's account for more than 80% of employment in developed world . Our major problem is corruption and lack of orientation for the populace.

My brother what kind of smes are you talking about? Some of these smes you are alluding to are franchises of major cooperations that produce real innovative products that stimulate an economy not the fabricated craps that are found in third world countries. Artisans that make soap and fix computers or phone repaires can never grow an economy its only real entrepreneurs that produce innovative products and services that would take us there.

oneolajire:
I have spoken the bitter truth about Nigeria and not rubbished it. We have been moving in this directionless policy, yet no breakthrough. Why don't we practice entrepreneurship the way successful countries have done?

I believe the best way to develop a country is not by using crude means of production, but by using modern machines and other technological devices that can be improved over time. Blacksmiths can never have the capacity to supply our iron and steel demand, likewise the crude means of refining fuel can never provide quality fuel as well as produce significant quantity to supplement that of the standard refineries.

Please, what does being Enterprising mean or being and Entrepreneur mean?

What you are saying is solely dependent on how the owner of a business sees his business. This is why reading is VERY important, which is what many are lacking. When you read books written by other entrepreneurs, you will begin to see things differently.

Do you notice anything about top entrepreneur? They don't engage in businesses that can not affect more their local environment, they think Global when they first started.

That is the key!

I think there is a lot of naivety on display here. Ultimately the strong dominate the world. If you do not have technology you take it ,steal it or buy . There is a political dimension to the strength of nations and their economies. A cursory study of Empires and imperialism demonstrates that very well. Those who invented gunpowder are not necessarily the strongest nations. The US is strong today because of a combination of factors not least that it did what it needed to do at critical moments in history. Even in business companies are acquired or merged with and technology is transferred. Technology has no master once it is unleashed > Those who innovate do not necessarily derive the most benefits.
International power politics is just as important

Read later

ade2008:
Another lazy Nigerian graduate.Being a graduate does not means you should not get your hand dirty.Your paper qualification is what is deceiving you. Learn from the IBO , that's why they have less unemployed people

My sentiment exactly! Dude is all about paper or what he has read.


This kind of person will rather wait to have 1Million before starting out. Lol

@oneolajire

This is indeed a mastermind piece from you. Well done! BUT...

Your article is more channelled towards engineering as a field of study as far as entrepreneurship is concerened because it mostly leads to invention. What is your candid advice for a student of Business Administration, and some similar fields, because these courses do not have much to do with invention?

Reminds of one chinese furniture company that I happen to work there as spray-painter.
Those chinese use our local woods and personel to produce but use imported machine equipments, like shooters instead of hammer and nail we use here, the shooter makes nailing become like u r playin,neat,fast and firm. Hammer for where?
Machine do the cutting of woods,thereby, making work easy and very fast. Politicians do go there to buy their furnitures for homes and offices. Govs,ministers et.c.
Another interesting thing is,you are paid 10k when first got there,later increase it to any amt if you improve on ur skill acquisition. Division of labour is well practised. From pple that cut to decorators,to sanding with diff grades of sanding paper,b4 it nw gets to spray-painter to Installer.
All I'm saying is we need capital(money) to buy all these machines as the ones they are using,likewise our graduate engineers have to be up to their game as engineers that manufacture some little machines.
One useless commisioner asked if we can work for him if he establish furn. Company like this. He asked if 10millions would be enough to start? We replied "yes". Only to see him buy furnitures for his new house after two months. "Government no dey send their citizen"- Oritse Femi.

One of the greatest speech of all time is, "ask not what your country would do for you but what you can do for your country" plz, if u really know the full meaning of entrepreneurship, u won't write this long article. Well, u are subject to your own view.

Anyway, entrepreneurs are the drivers of every economy including Nigeria. Please take time out and really read the history of the world including Africa. The rich are always the business gurus. U mention a few successful business men in America in product line but left people in service line. May be you don't know some of them.

I will luv you to do a Lil research about China economy as to North Korea. Please, we need more entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Both in vocational and professional field.

JohnNgene:
Hmmm... Your article is deep. Very deep!

The problem I have with it however is that you're attacking our local entrepreneurship from the angle of globalisation.

What do you have to say about the indigenous refining of crude oil in the creeks of Niger Delta for instance? Do you support the further destruction of such resourceful improvised efforts by the Nigerian government under the tag of "illegal refineries"? So that the Nigerian government can build proper refineries of "global standard"? Or do you realise that if government were to support and regulate these so-called illegal refineries, Nigeria would no longer need to import foreign refined oil in about five years time?

And please do not look down on our artisans, soap makers, bead makers, etc. These people would be the CEOs to invest in the industrialization that our country needs.

Forget about the Nigerian government. Have they provided basic amenities like roads and power? Talk more of having a long-term vision of global industrialization you're advocating for here?

The leader of Nigeria's government today is only after having his region recolonizing the rest of Nigeria.

Buhari jets about the world signing military pacts with Sunni Muslim countries, and with neighbouring African countries - for Pacts to conserve the existing flawed political structure and unitary government system of Nigeria which favour only the Buhari clan.

Without seed fund from Angel Investors, where would Zuckerberg and Bill Gates be. Stop comparing apples with oranges. We need to start from somewhere, what you should advocate for is support for inventors, entrepreneurs, hustlers or whatever you may call them.

No matter there level or standard, they will create employment and add value to society. What was the quality of Chinese products in the 60's and 70's when they were just copying and reproducing American and European products. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Lets come together and see where we can help or support our local entrepreneurs.

Maybe instead of spending money at clubs buying champagne or buying Luis Vuitton shoes, if we invest some of that money and our time they might amount to something.

I will always use chivita as an example. When five alive and just juice were flooding the market, compare chivita's quality then to when OBJ banned importation of foreign juices and quality of chivita afterwards.

Charity begins at home, lets put our money where our mouth is

You have said it's all,my brother..niceone

oneolajire:


Let's start to tell the govt and policy makers that they need to invest and equip the Nigerian students so that they'll solve national problems. Nigeria needs modern libraries, laboratories and workshops so that we can develop goods and provide modern services for our nation.

I personally will NEVER depend on a government to equip me, then my purpose and time in school was a complete waste.

youngdad:
Thanks for rubbishing your country what have you contributed in improving your immediate environment.What impact have you made on other people.Abeg start something that will help those around you,forget the Government.

In as much as I like your last sentence, your first sentence is insulting.

The OP spoke the bitter truth and until we start thinking like developed countries, we will remain shallow and still creeping in development.

Even if the OP has not contributed something physical, his article alone is an eye opener.

aribisala0:
I think there is a lot of naivety on display here. Ultimately the strong dominate the world. If you do not have technology you take it ,steal it or buy . There is a political dimension to the strength of nations and their economies. A cursory study of Empires and imperialism demonstrates that very well. Those who invented gunpowder are not necessarily the strongest nations. The US is strong today because of a combination of factors not least that it did what it needed to do at critical moments in history. Even in business companies are acquired or merged with and technology is transferred. Technology has no master once it is unleashed > Those who innovate do not necessarily derive the most benefits.
International power politics is just as important

THis is the stealthy, raw and cold truth right here.

An extremely myopic post. SMH.

ourchoice:
Yeah, but then every problem creates an opportunity for great minds.

I remember one Indian guy who graduated from MIIT where he went to study mechanical engineering; automotive major.

This guy didn't stay back in United States after his graduation like many Nigerian youths would do, what did he do?

He left US back to his remote community in Southern India to do what you may ask?

In his village, they didn't have government electricity but they farm.

He used the waste materials produced by his local village farmers to design a steam engine plant that converts the waste to hot steam, and he used to steam to drive/propel a locally manufactured electricity generator with very large coil that ended up producing over 300kva electricity.

This guy designed 3 of this local steam plant in his community and started giving them constant electricity, and charged the villagers some money as electricity bill.

You need to see his local office, lol

He then hired more village boys as his staff, who helped him to maintain the plants, and also hired two ladies as bill collectors.

He didn't wait for his government, he gave his people rare solution to their problem and charged them.

This happened in 2002/03.

Later, when government wanted to electrify the community, they had no option than to partner with his existing electricity power company, and now he owns a big power generation company, expanding into other communities.

But if it were a Nigerian youth, he will never do that! It's degrading to his title: A GRADUATE!!! He will rather spend his entire life planning how to get job at Chevron, Mobil, Agip, Schlumberger, etc

I am sorry to say that we Nigerian youths aren't inventive enough...if we are, we won't need government in most things, but government will be forced to work and partner with us

you should have quoted the OP when you made this post, bro. Nice one.

ade2008:
Another lazy Nigerian graduate.Being a graduate does not means you should not get your hand dirty.Your paper qualification is what is deceiving you. Learn from the IBO , that's why they have less unemployed people

Oga we're out here already getting our hands real dirty, but that doesn't dispute most of the op's assertions. The government seems to wear this "graduates are lazy" armour as the usual defense whenever they're being reminded of their monumental failures.

FxDuke:

THis is the stealthy, raw and cold truth right here.

Someone said something about IQ I would say geography and location is important. You have better prospects in life if you are born in the US than in Burundi than a person of same IQ. This is equally true for Ikoyi, Victoria Island on one hand compared to Mushin Olosha on the other hand.
That same principle applies to nations and the spread of technology. We must not forget that while nations have been literate for millenia in much of Africa we have not been writing/reading for up to 100 years whereas in the Middle East even before Christ was born they were damming the River Euphrates>

Knowledge and Technology can spread in much the same way as the Flu or a Cold. We ,have been cut off from for a long time from much off humanity because of geography, that is the correct way to appraise our innovative deficit.

One cannot understand these issues if one is ignorant of the history of nations and regions going back thousands of years .Then one can begin to analyse why the earliest movers are not on top today

"Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam."

Interesting. I thought i was the only one tired of all that celebration of entrepreneurship. I don't know how everyone has failed to see that this trend only signals a terrible failure on the part of government. Come to think of it, has the government even provided those conditions favorable to job creation? Why must everybody be an employer? How is self-employment generally doing in Nigeria? When everyone learns to Bake chin chin. Make paint and beads. Sew clothes. Drive a cab. Etc. Who will patronize who? How is the government supporting the already existing small businesses? Does Our Buhari shown himself to understand the concept of free market?

LordIsaac:
So annoying. After 5 years of those terrible equations in natural sciences, you now resolve to reaching me how to make local polish after graduation in Nysc camp....chei...this country!!

You guys are really pathetic. With all the information available on the internet, you should be teaching people and not vice versa.
Nobody can force you to do business, but remember that the richest people are business men and not salary earners.

oneolajire:
Nigeria is a country where all big investors have no inventions (tangible or intangible) to their credit. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Thomas Edison and the likes all have products to patent, but most entrepreneurs we have in Nigeria have invented nothing and have made it through dubious means. 

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of telling the youth and graduates that she (the government) lacks industrialisation and job creation strategies while the youth have been left to fate.

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of making the youth/graduates look intellectually lazy and burdensome as well as telling them that they are have been abandoned in the valley of unemployment. Unemployment rate increased simply because government owned industries and companies get strangulated by the python of corruption as well as the refusal of the government to establish new ones.

Entrepreneurship in advanced countries is about innovations, inventions, improvements, expansions, people and institutional empowerment. Modern and sophisticated skills are being utilised to manufacture goods and services which culminates into abundant job creation.

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is of the graduate job seeker told to engage in bead making, soap making, hair dressing, laundry and so on. These businesses have neither inventions nor advancement to add to the business practice and the economy, as they also have little or no impact on the international market. 

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is also of the rich that colludes with the government to defraud the masses, destroy public corporations and infrastructures in order for them to import alternative goods. The rich set up few enterprises and often pay peanuts to their employees in order to increase their wealth; culminating into increase in poverty level and underemployment in the country.  

The government of advanced countries often invest billion of dollars on education and research, so they always have intellectuals who will offer innovative products and services to the world. These products and services are initially developed into small scale businesses as they many even grow into large enterprises. While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds on Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, yet the businesses are nowhere to be found.

Only an insane person will keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. Am yet to see a nation that got developed by investing so little on the education of her youth and students but spend so much on SME propaganda. Still searching for a nation that gave nothing more than mere, non-professional, common, stark and non-sophisticated skills/training to her youth and achieved rapid industrial development.

Why should we buy a trailer engine, fix it in a car and try to make it compete with an aircraft? Why should we make people earn mere skills and expect them to compete with foreign sophisticated technologies? We have to know that the issue of local production of goods and services is a serious competetion with the developed nations.

Some questions for the proponents of entrepreneurship/vocational education.
 When will out textile, fashion and leather industry be able to make products of international standard? When will a Nigerian mechanic be able to manufacture car engines and other motor parts? When will our furniture makers be able to make furniture that will compete with ones made overseas? When will a computer repairer be able to produce motherboards, memorycards, monitors, just to mention a few?

Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's  mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam.

Take a look at the furniture industry in Nigeria, you'll discover it is almost dead because foreign furniture has flooded the Nigerian market. Foreign furniture makers have been able to introduce much variety of products with various designs, even at exorbitant prices, yet people still buy them. Imported furniture  attains this much because modern machines are regularly produced to make new designs of furniture, but here in Nigeria, we only buy simple tools, we don't engage in design and manufacture of  machines/tools to be used in the furniture industry, so we are perpetually making furniture that cannot compete with the foreign ones. It is only engineering that provides modern machines, stack entrepreneurship cannot.

Entrepreneurship and and vocational education has never helped Nigeria in the manufacture of modern machines for production of finished goods that can compete favourably with imported ones. The best entrepreneurship has offered us is to use social media means to engage in selling of imported products as well as setting up of few businesses with the use of foreign machines. It is appaling for government to still keep preaching the sermon that can never bring solutions to us.

Every sector of the Nigerian economy has been badly affected by the erroneous policy of entrepreneurship and vocational education. From the agricultural sector to the transportation sector, from manufacturing to education, from construction to entertainment, name it, we have rendered our nation incapacitated when it comes to production of goods and services. There can never be abundant job opportunities as long as we keep executing this lame practice. 

I wonder why we have not given so much vocational training to professional operating as doctors, nurses and pharmacist in the medical field. We give this set of people trainings that can make them compete favourably with their foreign counterpart. I believe it should appear proper to the government to substitute entrepreneurship and vocational education with the training they receive in the teaching hospitals.  The government (after emptying the laboratories and workshops of polytechniques and universities) substituted requisite training for our engineers and scientist with entrepreneurship and vocational training, so they are rendered handicapped when it comes to provision of modern goods and services as well as job creation.

It is high time we changed our job creation policy of entrepreneurship and vocational studies to provision of qualitative education at all levels, especially science and technology education so that Nigerian graduates would possess requisite modern and sophisticated skills for our nation and the world market at large. It is only qualitative education and intensive research that can initiate intellectual thinking for creation of innovative goods and services.
 
Entrepreneurship and vocational studies have been found to have contributed immensely only to economy of nations with massive investments in education and research. Singapore and South Korea are the examples of nations that have eradicated illiteracy and have invested huge funds into science and technology education, so entrepreneurship thrives there.

Let the laboratories and workshops of our secondary schools and higher institutions be adequately equipped with modern and facilities so as to provide avenues for learning practicals. We need to replicate the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who utilised the qualitative education they obtained in the tetiary institutions to create worldwide business ventures in their fields.

Real entrepreneurship is when Nigerian graduates of electrical engineers can produce transformers, power generation turbines, alternators, televisions from local technologies. Metallurgical engineers must be able to produce steel for oil and gas pipelines as well as in train and car manufacturing. Combustion engines, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic parts must be what our mechanical engineers must be able to manufacture from their companies. Businesses of agricultural science graduates should able to feed the nation cos they should empowered to do so. This is what is called real entrepreneurship.

Businesses that leads to industrialisation are offshoots of science and technological discoveries and investments. The kind of entrepreneurship Nigeria needs is one in which Nigerian chemical engineers can set up refineries and petrochemical companies with the aid local resources. I would also love to see mobile phones, computers and other information technology gadgets developed and commercialised by Nigerian graduates of computer science. 

The entrepreneurship that Nigeria needs is one in which local engineering enterprises will be able to metamorphous  into multinationals like General Electric, Ford Motors, Chevron, Microsoft Corporations,Tata Steel and the likes. This is how we can solve the problem of unemployment as well as put an end to the massive importation of good in Nigeria. However, with this, Nigeria will become industrialised and be listed among the developed nations of the world.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

what annoys me the most is seeing how the governement distributes "1000 KEKE Napep" as poverty eradication programs. that inflated purchase could be use to build a small factory where mechanics can manufacture keke napep

ITSaWRAPPP:
Entrepreneurship is not only about invention but creating opportunities for yourself, taking risks and managing your time for no one but yourself. I did not invent how to make suits or other corporate wears but I run a fashion outlet. Not been an inventor does not disqualify me even though I strive to strategically add my creative ability to give my brand a unique identity.

Not all inventors are entrepreneurs and not all entrepreneurs are inventors.

Let me rent a space for my business eFyer here. M o d, please no vex

THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS THREAD. ASSUMING THE GOVERNMENT GIVES MAXIMUM CONCENTRATION AND INVEST WISELY ON YOUR BUSINESS, YOU WILL BE MORE CREATIVE THAN YOU ARE AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

What an average Nigerian youth aims to achieve by learning vocational skill(s) is to earn money to feed and become financially relevant.

I quite agree wit the OP. Entrepreneurship is beyond learning vocational skill - It could be the starting point though. Our government has a bigger role to play if we are to catch up with advanced countries.

Entrepreneurship requires a lot of huge capital investment, which an average billionaire might not be able to handle.

Our government can keep failing us, but my advice to the youth is that they engage in legitimate profitable business and look out for opportunities.