Chapter one

CHAPTER ONE

Most countries of the world have provided various forms of educational programmes for their citizens. This is evident in a number of developed nations like Japan, Thailand, China and America who have utilised entrepreneurship education for improving their human capital (Witte and Wolf, 2003). Education is recognized as the corner stone for sustainable economic development. The development of educational sector leads to development in all other sectors. Adamu (2008) asserted that development in any society is anchored primarily on education. According to Olaleye and Omotayo (2009) education is the fulcrum around which the development of any country revolves.

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In order to address issues of holistic transformation, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004 p.4) referred to education as an “instrument par excellence” for effecting national development. According to Sule (2004) education is a sure pathway to liberation of the mind and the improvement of socio- economic status of people. Education and training empower individuals to escape poverty by providing them with the skills and knowledge to raise their output, income and wealth creation (Aliu, 2007). Education in the context of this study refers to the inculcation of skills necessary for job and wealth creation. This can be achieved through entrepreneurship education. Entrepreneurship education is very crucial in empowering individuals for good living.

The primary focus of entrepreneurship education according to Uduak and Aniefiok (2011) is to develop entrepreneurship skills and attitude or qualities necessary for successful entrepreneurship. Okifo and Ayo (2010) defined entrepreneurship education as the type of education designed to change the orientation and attitude of the recipient. In the process, he acquires skills and knowledge to enable him set up and manage a business enterprise, be self-productive and alleviate poverty. Onuma (2009) asserted that it is a form of education that provides programmes which are designed to produce competent and skilled manpower for the various sectors of the economy. According to Iheonumekwu (2003) it is a specialised training given to students of vocational and technical education to acquire abilities and capabilities for self-employment rather than paid employment.

Entrepreneurship education enable learners to acquire basic knowledge, skills, attitudes and ideas which equip the individual starting a new business (Osuala, 2004). According to Uduak and Aniefiok (2011) entrepreneurship education is an area of study that includes those activities and skills essential for responding to one’s environment in the process of conceiving, starting and managing a business enterprise for economic growth and development. In the context of this study, entrepreneurship education is the formal structured learning that inculcates in students the knowledge, skills and training that will enable them engage in income yielding ventures, to become self-productive and alleviate poverty for national economic growth.

Nigeria adopted entrepreneurship education to accelerate economic growth and development. This is reflected in Nigeria`s National Policy on Education which states that education is the most important instrument for propelling change, as no fundamental change can occur in any society except through educational revolution that impacts on the intellect (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). In section one (1) of the Nigerian National Policy on education (2004) there is much emphasis on the need to create a functional and pragmatic education that would guarantee the acquisition of appropriate skills, attitude and competence necessary for the individual to live and achieve maximum capacity for self-productivity and also function and contribute meaningfully to the overall development of his society, thus the need for entrepreneurship education.

Entrepreneurship education has received attention nationally. Several attempts have been made through researches, mounting of entrepreneurial courses and programmes in both institutions of learning and entrepreneurship research agencies for the purpose of developing both entrepreneurship spirit and culture among the people. Some examples of these attempts include the establishment of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), establishment of the national committee on job creation (Ogundele, Akingbade and Akinlabi, 2012). The Federal Ministry of Education made entrepreneurship education compulsory for all students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria effective from 2007/2008 academic session (Uduak and Aniefiok, 2011).

Entrepreneurship education is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria; it has always been an age long tradition, a culture and a habit that has consistently been transferred from one generation to another within the diverse ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria. Entrepreneurial mind set is prevalent in Yoruba land in Western Nigeria, Hausa land in Northern Nigeria and among the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria (Raimi, Shokunbi and Peluola, 2010).

The three ethnic nationalities prior to colonialism, provided informal entrepreneurship education for their able bodied youths early in life through communal socialisation, village engagements and social services. Fajana (2000) described the informal entrepreneurship education in Nigeria as a mechanism for a self-reliant economy. The economy of the various states which make up modern Nigeria was basically a self-reliant economy. That had been practiced by people in the communities through informal training for job creation and employment (Fajana, 2000). According to Raimi and Towobola (2011) the age long formal education inherited from the imperialist turned out youths with job seeking mind-set as opposed to job creation, they thus lack entrepreneurial traits like self-motivation, drive and innovation needed for job creation.

Job creation is very critical to development and fundamental for reducing poverty in Nigeria. The rate of job creation is watched as one of the most important indicators of a nation’s well-being (Beegle, 2013). According to Umar (2011) job creation is the process of providing new jobs especially for people who are unemployed, the process of providing own job or the process of making jobs available for others. In the context of this study, job creation refers to the process by which the number of jobs in the economy increases the provision of new opportunities for employment especially for those who are unemployed.

Unemployment is one of the macro- economic problems which every responsible government is expected to monitor and regulate. Every economy is characterized by both active and inactive populations. The economically active ones are referred to as the population willing and able to work, and include those actively engaged in the production of goods and services and those who are unemployed. The International Labour Organization (ILO) (2011) define the unemployed as numbers of the economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking for work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work. According to Fajana (2000) unemployment refers to a situation where people who are willing and capable of working are unable to find suitable paid employment. The higher the unemployment rate in an economy, the higher would be the poverty level and associated welfare challenges (Fajana, 2000).

The concern of government now is on how to curb the ever rising tide of unemployment and achieve appreciable success in job creation through the introduction of formal entrepreneurship education in universities. The age long formal education inherited from the imperialist turned out youth with job seeking mind-set as opposed to job creation (Raimi and Towobola, 2011). Aladekomo (2004) asserted that the colonial educational policy centred on the production of literate nationals who were required to man positions which would strengthen the colonial administration. Thus educational institutions, few as they were, remained factories for producing clerks, interpreters, forest guards and sanitary inspectors who had no entrepreneurial or professional skill to stand on their own or even establish and manage their own ventures. It became obvious that the nation’s formal education is generating unemployment, crime and a cycle of poverty.

This situation brought the realization that there is the need for government to redress the socio economic implications of unemployment and poverty. Poverty is the state of being very poor. Nweze and Ojowu (2002) asserted that poverty can be categorized into absolute poverty, relative poverty and subjective poverty. These three concepts form the basis of poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria. Poverty alleviation is any process which seeks to reduce the level of poverty in a community or among a group of people or countries.

Absolute poverty is a situation where an individual or household is faced with limited financial resources and as a result, unable to meet his or her or its basic necessities of life such as food, portable water, clothes, shelter, education and health services which is the focus of this study. Relative poverty is a situation where an individual’s or household’s income is less than the average income of the population in the society being considered. Subjective poverty on the other hand is the perception of people about their standard of living. Some people undertake subjective poverty due to their religious, cultural or philosophical beliefs. For example Christian monks and nuns take a vow of poverty by which they renounce luxury. Poverty alleviation measures have no role with regard to subjective poverty.

The alleviation of poverty through job creation no doubt calls for sustainable life style which can be maintained when one is equipped with the necessary entrepreneurship skills (Chike-Obi, 2012). According to Akanbi (2002) a comprehensive entrepreneurship education in Nigeria will eliminate poverty, sustainable growth of the economy will be assured and the development of many people cannot be contested. This is supported by Osakwe (2011) who stated that the rationale for establishing entrepreneurship education in higher institution stems from the fact that most university graduates are not self-employed. This could be due to the fact that, while many are risk aversive, some do not possess the knowledge, skill and experiences to become entrepreneurs. Others lack creativity, innovation, ideas and are negative thinkers. Osakwe (2011) asserted that the provision of entrepreneurship education and training becomes very significant and relevant to ensure that undergraduate students develop personal skills and qualities which will make them gain knowledge and understanding of the way in which the economy works and also react to market forces.

It is expected that our educational institutions will become centres for inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship rather than the spirit of passing examinations to get white collar jobs. The best way to do this is to create a curriculum that is all encompassing in developing entrepreneurship culture in youths (Akpomi, 2008). According to The European Union (2002) entrepreneurship education raises students’ awareness of self-employment as a career option. The message being that undergraduate students can in future become not only employees but also employers. The Union further asserted that entrepreneurship education promotes the development of personal qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship. Such qualities as creativity, risk taking and responsibility. It also provides the technical and business skills that are needed in order to start a new venture. According to Nkang (2013) entrepreneurship education raises students’ choice and intention to become an entrepreneur. From the foregoing, it can be deduced that exposure of undergraduate students to entrepreneurship education will stimulate entrepreneurial drive in students which is a significant factor in job creation for self-productivity and poverty alleviation. According to Marlino (2007) entrepreneurship education increases students’ interest in entrepreneurship as a career, creates a positive image for the entrepreneurs and contributes to the choice of entrepreneurship as a professional alternative by students after graduation.

Currently, Nigerian universities have initiated entrepreneurship education programme in the hope that it will equip undergraduate students with skills necessary to start their own businesses. Skills that will make them job creators rather than job seekers. This is sequel to the directives by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2007 to all tertiary institutions to include entrepreneurship education as a compulsory course to be offered by all undergraduate students irrespective of their areas of specialisation (Gabadeen and Raimi, 2012). This will enhance skills acquisition by undergraduate students for job creation leading to self-productivity and poverty alleviation. Onuoha (2011) asserted that the Nigerian education especially university system produces graduates that do not meet the needs of the labour market. A graduate is a person who has completed a course of study in the university and has obtained a university degree. Onuoha (2011) further stressed that there is obvious disconnection between the expectation of industries and products of the nation’s higher institutions. This structural imbalance renders many graduates of Nigerian higher institutions unemployed. Consequently, the Federal Ministry of Education directed that entrepreneurship education be included as part of the undergraduate curricular of universities through the National Universities Commission (NUC) effective from 2007/2008 academic session (Gabadeen and Raimi, 2012). The government intends to do this through the roles assigned to universities.

The role assigned to universities through their highest supervisory agency is essentially the task of transmitting and implementing government’s policy on entrepreneurship education in Nigeria. The expected outcome from the assigned role include: establishing entrepreneurship study in all universities, establishing the curriculum for entrepreneurship education courses, the development of teachers guide, instructional manual and students’ handbook for sale as well as capacity building for at least ten lecturers in each university, establishment of entrepreneurship resource and knowledge centres in the NUC, and development of masters and Ph.D. programmes in some selected universities (Yahya, 2011).

Despite the effort of universities in transmitting and implementing governments policy on entrepreneurship education, the effort however has not being successful. There are some challenges such as lack of entrepreneurship education lecturers in universities in terms of quality and quantity (Ifedili and Ofoegbu, 2011). Students need to cultivate practical entrepreneurship skills that will help them create jobs and be self-reliant. This is why Familoni (2012) posited that entrepreneurship education is not just only about teaching people how to run a business, it also involves inculcating in the individuals creative thinking and promoting strong sense of self-worth and accountability to be able to sustain the created job.

Society’s poor attitude towards entrepreneurship education is another challenge. There is the general believe that education which exposes people to white collar job is superior to education that leads to entrepreneurship skills for self-employment. This invariably has affected the perception of undergraduate students themselves who according to Osakwe (2011) have some entrepreneurship background but lack entrepreneurial zeal even before graduation. Osakwe (2011) further stated that students always focus their mind on job search without thinking of how to use the knowledge they have acquired from school to create a job.

Another challenge facing entrepreneurship education in meeting its policy goals is traceable to lateness in starting entrepreneurship education in Nigeria. This is premised on the argument that introduction of anything new in human society takes time to develop. Available facts in literature indicate that the United States of America introduced entrepreneurship education into their university curriculum in 1947 (Kuratko 2003). It is therefore normal for a novel initiative like entrepreneurship education to have some operational challenges. Besides, the unpleasant experiences of self-employed graduates send wrong signals to the undergraduate students taking the compulsory courses in entrepreneurship education. These experiences have not being palatable as they live and cope with the problem of multiple taxes, poor government patronage, difficulty in getting registered or incorporated, difficulty in accessing funds in banks, harsh government regulations, extortion by government officials, exorbitant cost of raw materials etc. (Ariyo 2005). These challenges are sources of discouragement to undergraduate students who intend to engage in self-employment after graduation. These challenges also hinder the realisation of the overall objective of entrepreneurship education.

The overall objective of entrepreneurship education in the university system is to continuously foster entrepreneurship culture among students and faculty with a view of not only educating them but also supporting students of the system towards establishing and also maintaining sustainable business ventures (Yahya, 2011). Complementing the view above, Oyelola (2010) asserted that the policy thrust of entrepreneurship education is the acquisition of entrepreneurship skills and ideas by students so as to be self-employed and self-reliant after graduation. According to Kolawole and Omolayo (2006) many individuals have difficulties in translating their business ideas to realities and creating new business ventures because of lack of necessary information, skills and ideas needed to achieve their targets, thereby causing them to remain unemployed.

Benue state as one of the 36 states in Nigeria is not insulated from the various efforts at bringing the objectives of entrepreneurship education to bear. Though successive governments in the state have tried to address the issues above, the effects of the policies and programmes on creating jobs and reducing unemployment and poverty among the youths has being that of mixed feelings as there still exist a very high rate of youth unemployment in all parts of the state. Given this scenario, it becomes pertinent to examine how entrepreneurship education is associated with the entrepreneurial orientation of undergraduate students towards job creation.