An analysis of entrepreneurship development and employment generation in Nigeria: a study of national directorate of employment generation

Abstract

The issues of entrepreneurship development and employment generation continue to receive high attention because of their impact on unemployment and poverty reduction in many parts of the world. The National Directorate of Employment was introduced by government in its efforts toward employment generation. In furtherance of attempts toward tackling unemployment, addressing issues of poverty and vulnerability and promoting inclusive finance at the grass-root levels, the Directorate has a Special Micro Empowerment Scheme, which is aimed at promoting social inclusion and job creation. Micro, Small and Medium enterprises such as  water/beverage sales, shoemaking, shining, carpentry, tailoring, mechanic among other vocations account for about 99.6 percent of registered businesses in Nigeria by which about 63 percent of the labor force earn a living. The Directorate has created over 2.076 million employments since it was established. The NDEs one million job creation program remains a wonderful idea in employment generation. The survey research method was used for the study. Surveys refer to an investigation of events that exist at the time of the research and connected with some problem situations that is felt over a wide area. Data analysis was done through Pearson’s techniques. The result showed a very strong positive correlation between entrepreneurship development and employment generation. This is the aim of the study. The various employment creation programmes of the NDE are designed to provide training in critical skills required to make an unemployed person either employable or self-employed. Emphasis is placed on self-employment as against paid employment as a stimulus to engender entrepreneurial spirit and create wealth. To support this concept, the Directorate provides demonstrative soft loans to outstanding beneficiaries of her various programmes. Innovation includes the doing of new things and the doing of things that are already being done in a new way. He developed his concept which is now elevated to a school of thought. This school believes in two things – entrepreneurial role, and managerial role. The entrepreneurial role involves making strategically important and innovative decisions; managerial role involves maintaining routine operations of the enterprise.   Fortunately, this coincides with the contemporary view regarding an entrepreneur as a person who makes strategic and innovative decisions in the dayto-day management of a business. Consequently, the theory of profitability has often been used to explain entrepreneurship earnings (AKANWA; AGU, 2005, DEBELAK, 2006).