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Advancing Entrepreneurship Education PDF
Advancing Entrepreneurship Education PDF
We are in a dynamic world, and the role of the individual has become increasingly
important, with individual initiative becoming ever more necessary for economic
success. Individuals like Bill Gate, Mike Adenuga, Aliku Dangote, Michael Ibru,
Raymond Dekposi, Richard Branson, and thousands of others. These are men and
women who took their destines into their hands by engaging in the act of
entrepreneurship and today are celebrated world-wide. It was the entrepreneurial
spirit that inspired and powered these men/women of vision. The spirit is the
energy of creativity and innovation that drive entrepreneurship.
Our educational system should be adaptive and flexile to create a new generation
of Entrepreneurs. The new educational curriculum should be predicated on the
philosophy of creating new jobs by tuning the product of the system to job
creators. A new class of Nigerian Graduates who are trained to create new business
enterprises. This class symbolizes a new beginning and hope for the country’s
growing army of unemployed youth for whom salvation does not appear to be in
white collar jobs any longer. The solution to unemployment is entrepreneurship. It
has to be instilled into the youth while in school to reorient ate their individual
skills . These skills should be converted to entrepreneurial skills and also
inculcating entrepreneurial habits and culture capable of transforming the
individuals into “complete entrepreneur.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurship is the term used broadly in connection with the innovative and
creative modern industrial business leaders. It is being defined by reference to the
functions of an entrepreneur as the man who perceived business opportunities and
takes advantage of the scarce resources to use them profitably. It is he/she alone
who directs the human and material resources in his business objective. To be an
entrepreneur, one has to possess some psychological traits which are either latent
and could be aroused through training or manifest which training could be built
upon. Thus to qualify as an entrepreneur, it is not sufficient to be a businessman
just managing an enterprise. The entrepreneur has to be an originator of profitable
business ideas. The entrepreneur must possess the ability to gain command of and
combine resources in a new way that will be profitable. He must be prepared to
risk personal energy and financial resources to achieve unpredictable results.
The practice of entrepreneurship should, therefore, be well rooted in the individual,
if he/she wants to become an entrepreneur. An individual who if he/she wants to
become an entrepreneur. An individual who succeeded in selling refrigerators to
the Eskimos to prevent food from freezing would be an “innovator” quite as much
as if he or she had developed brand-new way that will be profitable. He must be
prepared to risk personal energy and financial resources to achieve unpredictable
results.
The practice of entrepreneurship should, be well rooted in the individual, if he/she
wants to become an entrepreneur. An individual who succeeded in selling
refrigerators to the Eskimos to prevent food from freezing would be an “innovator”
quite as much as if he/she had developed brand-new processes or invented a new
product. To sell to the Eskimos a refrigerator to keep food cold is finding a new
market; to sell a refrigerator to keep food from getting too cold is actually creating
a new product. Technologically, there is, of course, only the same old product, but
economically there is innovation.
Innovation goes right through all phases of business. It may be innovation in
design, in product, or in marketing techniques. It may be innovation in managing
organizations or in management methods. All these can only be achieved through
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship instills the enterprise culture into the
individuals. Enterprise here is defined as resourcefulness, initiative, drive,
imagination, enthusiasm, zest, dash, ambition, energy, vitality, boldness, daring,
audacity, courage, get up and go. Entrepreneurship, therefore, encompasses all the
productive functions that are not rewarded immediately by regular wages, interest
and rent and non-routine human labour. It is also not investing capital funds alone.
It is actually, the functions of seeking investment, production opportunity,
organizing an enterprise to undertake new production process, raising capital,
hiring labour, allocating resources, and creating new enterprises.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
The entrepreneur is often defined as one who starts his own new and small
business. Entrepreneurs are action oriented, highly motivated individual who take
risks to achieve goals. Meredith, Nelson, and Neck (1991). Entrepreneurs have
been described as people who have the ability to see and evaluate business
opportunities, gather the necessary resources to take advantage of them and initiate
appropriate action to ensure success. He/She is that man/woman who sees and
dreams things that never were and says “why not?” An entrepreneur is that person
who is able to actualize his/her innate potentials and develop a character that is not
dependent but independent. He/She is that person who undertakes the voyage of
creating value by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit an
opportunity. He/She has the capacity and capability to build something from
practically nothing initiating, daring, doing, achieving, and building an enterprise.
They genuinely believe that they have something new to offer, either a product or a
service. To them, life will remain a fantasy unless their dreams are actualized.
Entrepreneurs can instill highly contagious enthusiasms in an enterprise. They
convey a sense of purpose and determination and by so doing, convince others they
are where the action is. Whatever it is – seductiveness, competitiveness, or
charisma –entrepreneurs knew how to lead an enterprise and give it momentum.
The entrepreneur demonstrates a unique combination of energy, originality, and
shrewdness. He/She is the main driving force in the enterprise, a master of
motivation, and knows how to get the best out of people. Manfred (1997). Most
importantly, entrepreneurs are the driving force of any nation; they are value-
adders and represent the wealth of a nation and its potentials to generate
employment.
The Entrepreneur therefore includes any person who establishes and manages a
business enterprise. This is the man or woman who owns a restaurant, fashion
centre, boutique, bakery, tailoring outfit, beauty centre, barbering saloon,
bookshop, home catering, business centre, shoemaker, car washing centre. Others
are photographing, dry cleaning, video centre, telecentre, wholesale trade, coffee
and teashop, hotel, producers of yogurt, fruit juice, bottled and table water, nails,
cellophane papers, etc are all entrepreneurs in the contents of this paper. They are
all businesses and each has a unique contribution to make in the development of
the economy.
CHARACTER TRAITS
i. Self-confidence confidence, independent individually, optimism
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Entrepreneurship is a driver of economic, social, and cultural development around
the world. In the U.S. over half of the economy is driven by micro, small and
medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. They create over 80% of all new jobs.
Entrepreneurship is the path towards poverty reduction and financial
independence. It is about consistent pursuit of opportunity to create wealth
through innovative approach that meets the needs of consumers using scarce
resources in a way that results in enterprise growth. Entrepreneurship is a practice,
a career, and a discipline, it is not an event. Like every career, it has a process.
This process has to be instilled into the people through entrepreneurship education,
promotion, and development.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises are playing formidable and significant roles
in widening the landscape and frontier of entrepreneurship. The development of
small enterprises offers an easy and effective means of achieving broad-based
ownership of industry, the diffusion of enterprise and initiative in the industrial
field and easy induction of new entrants from middle levels of society to take up
industrial ventures and provides an extensive education. Consequently, micro, and
small business enterprises prove to be the seedbeds of entrepreneurship and
poverty reduction. Subsequently, it would not be out of place to mention that the
promotion and development of micro, small, and medium business enterprises is
inextricably related to the development of entrepreneurship. That industrial
development cannot be achieved without the development of entrepreneurship.
Depending upon the emphasis one become the by-product of the other. The role of
entrepreneurship is a product of several factors such as, personal attributes of the
entrepreneur and their socio-economic background, business environment and
government support, etc. The role of entrepreneurship thus depends upon the
abilities of the entrepreneurs and the institutional supportive system.
The promotion and development of micro, small, and medium enterprises should
be perceived in a wider perspective involving the Government, Entrepreneurs, and
Financial institutions. Development cannot take place without the linkage and
active cooperation and collaboration of these “three wise men” in entrepreneurship
development. Very often, it is seen that government stops only at the policy
formulation and implementation levels and the financial institutions assume the
responsibilities of mobilizing and canalizing financial assistance and support, but
the entrepreneur- the Change Agent is left to look after himself/herself once the
project is cleared. However, recent experiences from developing countries favour
the hypothesis that entrepreneurship cannot be developed without deliberate and
well-articulated plan of action. There has also been wide recognition that the
entrepreneurial development is essential not only to solve the problem of economic
development but also to solve the problem of unemployment, unbalanced area
development, concentration of economic power and diversion of profits from
traditional avenues of investment.
One can notice some attempts by the Government developmental agencies and
other institutions to undertake the task of entrepreneurial promotion. Most of the
promotional activities are directed around the financial and physical facilities with
strong belief that there will be automatic flow of entrepreneurs, if such facilities
are created in those areas. Nevertheless, the reality does not bear this out. Such
experiences support the view that financial and physical facilities are not the only
crucial inputs in the development of entrepreneurship. There are other inputs,
which has to be considered in developing any model for entrepreneurial
development. One has to remember here that entrepreneurship is defined by
attributes, which are associated with the personality of an entrepreneur, and
entrepreneurial functions are defined in terms of activities, technology, investment
decision, designing marketing strategies.
The secret of Japan’s economic ascendancy and the recent wonders of our time as
seen in the sudden emergence of China and India as radical forces in terms of
industrialization can be unlocked by understanding the tremendous role of
entrepreneurship and micro, small and medium enterprises development in these
countries. Other emerging countries in the South East Asia are making innovative
and remarkable achievements through the many micro, small and medium
enterprises that spring up around these centres of innovations and inventions. It is
therefore not surprising that micro and small-scale businesses have been identified
as the most creative sector of these emerging economies. Micro and Small
enterprises by the flexible nature of their operations provide more jobs than the
large enterprises. MITI says that small businesses provide 70% of jobs in Japan in
2004. In addition, as the giant enterprises continue to reduce their workforce,
small businesses continue to increase their labour force.
The enterprises in these emerging economies started out small, with support and
inspiration of the ministry of industry (MTI), they fashioned products and services
that provided solutions to problems and today through phenomenal growth have
become global giants. These achievements facilitated possible by the inspiration
and dynamic leadership exhibited by the ministry of trade and industry and the
small enterprises development agencies in these countries. They promoted and
encouraged entrepreneurship and small business development with the core value
that the promotion of production was the best way to challenge the economy’s
problems. They supported huge tax cuts and coordinating of efforts to industries
sector with the primary aim of creating scale economies in which their
entrepreneurs would be least cost producers.
The Nigerian economy should be private sector driven, these drivers are the
Entrepreneurs. It therefore become imperative that these drivers should be well
schooled in the business of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship of business
to enable them face and meet the challenges of business ownership and
management. One of the most important factors in any economic development of
a country is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of any economy
and it applies more to a developing economy like Nigeria. Consequently, the
importance of Entrepreneurship Education in Nigeria need not be over stressed.
Entrepreneurship accelerates economic development through the establishment of
micro and small enterprises in the development of the following areas:
-- Taking to higher rate of economic growth and development by the creation of
value.
-- Speed up the process of industrial use of the factors of production.
-- Creation of employment opportunities.
-- Dispersal of economic activities to different sectors of the economy and
identifying new avenues of growth.
-- Better social changes.
-- Improvement of the standard of living of the people.
-- Bring socio- political change in the society.
-- Develop technology know – how.
-- Improve the culture and ethics of business and expand commercial activities.
-- Act as a change agent to meet to the requirements of the changing market and
customer preferences.
--Develop a culture and habits of achievement orientation and motivation, which
stress standard of excellence.
The respect for the rule of law, providing for justice, law and order, and domestic
security, which is necessary for the achievement of individual goals, such as the
pursuit of freedom and happiness and for the attainment of an environment
conducive to economic activities. The strengthening of the legislative and judicial
institutions and guaranteeing their independence is a necessary factor toward
enhancing economic activities and the promotion and development of MSMEs.
In its continued search for a solution towards a vibrant and virile micro, small, and
medium enterprises sub-sector, and to entrench the-sector into the main stream of
the Nigerian economy, the present administration established the small and
medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in 2003. The
Agency is a “one stop shop” for nursing and nurturing micro, small, and medium
enterprises in Nigeria. The Vision of SMEDAN is to establish a structured and
efficient micro, small and medium enterprises sector that will enhance sustainable
economic development in Nigeria. Consequently, the Small and Medium
Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has since inception been in the
forefront of promoting and developing Micro, small and medium enterprises and
entrepreneurs. The enterprises and entrepreneurs have continued to manage and
grow their businesses. Through mind-blowing innovative concepts, they continue
to stretch the frontiers and landscapes of their individual’s enterprises, and
accordingly, they are capturing a bigger slice of their target markets and
establishing themselves as points of reference in this sub sector. SMEDAN is now
the voice of the MSMEs in Nigeria
The functions of the Agency as enunciated in the SMDA Act, 2003 are listed
below:
1. Initiating and articulating policy ideas for micro, small, and medium
enterprises growth and development;
2. Stimulating, Monitoring and Coordinating the development of the MSMEs
sector;
3. Promoting and facilitating development programmes, instruments and
support services to accelerate the development and modernization of
MSMEs;
4. Serving as a vanguard for rural industrialization, poverty reduction, and job
creation and thus facilitating enhanced sustainable livelihoods;
5. Linking MSMES to internal and external sources of finance, appropriate
technology, technical skills as well as to large enterprises;
6. Overseeing monitoring and coordinating the development of the MSMEs
sector;
7. Promoting and providing access to industrial infrastructure, such as layouts
incubators and industrial parks;
8. Providing assistance to MSMEs in marketing their products.
9. Mobilizing internal and external resources, including technical assistance,
for the development of MSMEs;
10.Promoting the familiarization, sub-contracting, networking, and crosscutting
strategic linkages between MSMEs and other economic sub-sectors;
11.Creating beneficial linkages between MSMEs and research
institutes/universities;
12.Providing extension services to MSMEs;
13.Monitoring implementation of government directives, incentives and
facilities for MSMEs development;
14.Recommending to government required amendments to business regulatory
frameworks for ease of enterprise development.
15.Working in concert with other institutions in both public and private sectors to
create a good enabling environment of business in general, and MSMEs
activities in particular