THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NIGERIA
By Inyang, Victor

Entrepreneurship is as old as man itself. It started when man began the quest for creating and amassing wealth. It also underscores the fact that man needed to propagate wealth for his wellbeing. This was regarded as the beginning of early entrepreneurship in Nigeria. In ancient times, the man had the competency to produce the implements and other tools that made his profession easier. The farmers, for instance, went into the production of local hoes, cutlasses, etc while the fishermen meticulously crafted baskets that helped to catch fishes. Entrepreneurship at this stage was crude and basic subsistence in nature. Entrepreneurship is best described as the art or science that involves innovation and risk-taking for profit.

In Nigeria, there are proofs and evidence of entrepreneurial development that occurred in ancient time. This entrepreneurial effort of time past has left us a lot to learn from and how to further strengthen the various segments of entrepreneurship. In elementary school, we were taught that the reward for entrepreneurship is profit. Therefore, it is safe to affirm that basically, profit has been the driving force of an entrepreneur. This has given the enablement for a man to create and distribute wealth.

The early entrepreneurs were able to identify the needs of people around them thereby strategizing efforts to serve the needs at that point. What differentiates entrepreneurship from other ventures is clear-cut. What distinguishes entrepreneurship is that it requires the application of a purely practical approach. It involves undertaking the production and delivery goods and services people need in a locality at a particular period of time. It also involves an investment of money with the expectation and hope of gathering returns which are known as profit.

However, it is important to point out that an entrepreneur is a person who engages in entrepreneurship. He is the risk bearer of the business. In other words, he takes the risk of investing his capital (money) into entrepreneurship (business). Why is he regarded as the risk bearer? He is regarded as the risk bearer because if the business fails, his capital is lost.

Over the years, Nigerians have mastered the techniques of entrepreneurship. That is the reason why business personalities like Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Wale Tinubu, Jim Ovia and the rest have excelled in their various lines of business. They have carved a niche for themselves by exhibiting the required skills as entrepreneurs.

Big names just mentioned could create fear in the minds of those planning to go into one form of entrepreneurship or the other. Those names are categorized into the group of large-scale entrepreneurship. Small-scale entrepreneurship has a huge space for growth in Nigeria. In small-scale entrepreneurship, the means of production are not driven by machines, most aspects of production are done manually and more often than not, the capital is not usually as big as the case of large-scale entrepreneurship.

The proliferation of unemployment and underemployment rate in Nigeria has aroused the desire of young school leavers who could not secure white collar jobs of their choice to delve into entrepreneurship. The cheering news here is that a small-scale entrepreneurship has the capacity if growing to become a large-scale entrepreneurship if the right parameters like finance, infrastructural development, favorable government policies, adequate planning, adequate knowledge of the business are considered favorably.

In recent times, Nigerians have engaged in entrepreneurship such as food items packaging, livestock production, poultry farming, fishery, soap making, bead making, catering services, interior decoration and so on. The few services mentioned above have helped in great measure to sharpen the entrepreneurial skills of Nigerians and accentuated the generation of wealth.

The multiplier effect of the development of entrepreneurship is that it has improved the GDP growth of Nigeria economy and thereby ameliorating over-dependence of Nigerians on imported goods and services. It is a known fact that balance sheet can only be achieved in our economy when we desist from the importation of goods and services and improve our exportation prowess. Jobs will be created for the unemployed and promotion of Nigerian economic development. It is apt to note here that entrepreneurship development can in great measure improve the economic fortunes of Nigeria.


Based in Nigeria, Inyang Victor is an expert creative/freelance writer. His strong area is Humanities (Politics, Parenting, Business Development, Arts) and writing of detailed SEO posts that ranks high on google.

inyangvictorc@gmail.com
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