AN ASSIGNMENT

ON
ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS (OTM 414)

TOPIC: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

IN NIGERIA

COMPILED BY: GROUP 1 (HND-1I-BAM DPT)

NAME MATRIC NUMBER

OLASUNMIBOYE TAIWO D. HB20190200043

OLUWAPE MARY A. HB20190201414
ADEROUNMU REBECCA A. HB20190202220
OLUWOLE OLUWATOBI E. HB20190202283
ADEYEYE BOLANLE A. HB20190202383
AKINWANDE NOFISAT A. HB20190202608
ODEYEMI TAIWO O. HB20190202915
OLALEKAN IBRAHIM F. HB20190202965
IBRAHIM GAFAR A. HB20190203048
BADMOS UTHMAN O. HB20190203049
ODEYEMI KEHINDE O. HB20190203256
FASANMI JUMOKE R. HB20190203620

SUBMITTED TO:
DR. (MRS) AJEWOLE ORIMOGUNJE
(LECTURER-IN-CHARGE)
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT,
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES,
FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC EDE,
OSUN STATE.

OCTOBER 2021
 INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is an act of identifying and exploiting opportunities. A perspective viewed as a

compelling means not just of battling unemployment, poverty and under-employment in the

developing countries, but also as a technique for fast economic advancement in both developed

and developing countries (Ebong, 2017). Scholars have also defined entrepreneur using different

terms. Schumpeter characterized entrepreneurs as an individual misuse advertise opportunity

through specialized as well as hierarchical development. These illustrations present an

entrepreneur as somebody who exhibits initiative and innovative reasoning, can coordinate social

and monetary components to turn assets and situations to beneficial use and acknowledges risk

and disappointment. Entrepreneurs search for a way to create value, by creating, identifying and

exploiting innovative ideas, procedures or markets. Entrepreneurial activity is an essential

indicator and a key component in economic growth. Hence, it has a significant role to play in

employment generation, innovation, increasing sales, and diversification of the economy and

reduction of unemployment. (Ekundayo, 2014).

The word entrepreneurship was gotten from a French word called “entreprendre”, which

therefore means “to undertake” or “to run a business”. Entrepreneurship has become popular and

it is seen as the fastest and largest employer of labour in developed economies around the world,

which focuses on the growth and development of the economy, Casson (2012). One major

problem of research on entrepreneurship is how entrepreneur and entrepreneurship is defined.

Gartner (2018) commented that entrepreneurship is lacking clear definition because there are

different beliefs concerning entrepreneurship. He further noted that for someone to be called an

entrepreneur, the behavior, traits and personalities of the individual must have the characteristics

of an entrepreneur. Delmar (2016) was of the opinion that entrepreneurship can be linked to
different fields in social science with each creating a definition that is likened to it. Studies

conducted in the past have tried to explain various processes and factors that increases the

performance of a business unit.

The concept “entrepreneurship” has a wide range of definitions. Entrepreneurship involves the

capacity of an individual to develop and manage a business successfully alongside with the risks

that comes with it. Entrepreneurship can also be defined as the will and ability of an individual to

search and invest in opportunities in an environment and the ability to establish a successful

enterprise as a result of the identified opportunities, (Okpara, 2013). Cantillon (2010) sees

entrepreneurship as “self-employment of any sort”. He/she is willing to manages, organizes and

takes up the risk of a business. Entrepreneurship brings about the exploitation of opportunities

and resources that exist or are available in the market. It is made up of a wide spectrum of

activities which are;

• Self employment

• Innovative ideas applied to a business

• Establishment of organizations

• Use of different resources

• Awareness and exploitation of available opportunities in the market

• Working with all factors of production under risk

A prospective entrepreneur pursues the available resources around him not minding the resources

that are presently on ground and the ones that are not available. It is the willingness of an
entrepreneur to use all factors of production such as resources, labour and capital so as to ensure

the business becomes successful. The concept of entrepreneurship as a conceptualization

process, organizing, launching and through innovation nurturing a business opportunity into a

potential growth venture in a complex and unstable environment. Entrepreneurship entails the

willingness and inbuilt ability of a person to research and find new opportunities and investments

which can help the individual to establish an enterprise and run it successfully at a profit.

Types of Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial development today has become very significant; in view of its being a key to

economic development. The objectives of industrial development, regional growth, and

employment generation depend upon entrepreneurial development.

When there is an interaction between an entrepreneur and his environment, it would lead to the

emergence of different types of entrepreneurs. Ronstadt (2015), identified four different types of

entrepreneurs, which are; Innovation, Imitation, Fabian and Drone.

Innovation: this entrepreneur is focused on introducing and creating new ideas that can be

pushed into the market. They invest highly on research and development in order to be aware of

new things and the latest technology within their environment.

Imitating: they are defines as “copycat” entrepreneurs. They monitor an existing system and re-

create it in a better way. They are focused on improving existing products, existing processes of

production and existing technology.

Fabian: entrepreneurs that are cautious and very careful when adapting to new changes are

called Fabians. They are quite lazy and shy away from innovating new ideas.
Drone: they are the opposite of Fabians. They are very resistant to changes. They are called “old

school” because they are not willing to learn new ways of doing things but rather prefer the

traditional or old fashioned way (Ronstadt, 2015).

Characteristics of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurs

Some of the characteristics of entrepreneurship are listed and briefly discussed below:

 Risk Bearing Ability: successful entrepreneurs must have the ability to bear risk that

comes with running a business. Risk arises as a result of the uncertain and dynamic

environment of the business. Many entrepreneurs are fund of avoiding risk and prefer to

seek other who can bear the risk

 Technical Knowledge: this is a very important tool that is used by expertise in marketing

and production process.

 Ability to Gather Financial and Motivational Resources: the establishment of a new

business would require financial and motivational resources. Some entrepreneurs may not

have these require resources but they must be able to gather these resources from those

who have it.

 Self Confidence and Multi-Skilled: successful entrepreneurs believe in him/herself and

are able to face any situation with having any inferiority complex. They possess the “jack

of all trade and master of all” attitude. They have confidence in themselves when face

with difficult situations and circumstances.

 Innovative skills: they see what others cannot see and have the ability to create a niche in

the market. They easily create new ideas that have distinctive features.
  Results-Orientated: they easily get the result they want either through others or with

others. They set goals and ensure that actual performance equals expected result.

 Total Commitment: starting and managing a new business requires a lot of hard work,

dedication, commitment and energy.

 Calm: successful entrepreneurs are always calm and cool when faced with stress and

emergency situations.

 Tolerance: entrepreneurship deals with relating with people with different personalities,

motives, attitudes and perceptions. In relating with people, successful entrepreneurs must

be tolerant.

 Team Player: to create a new business can be done by on person but to maintain and

sustain a successful business cannot be done by one person. Entrepreneurs need other

people to work with to fulfill the goals of the business. Entrepreneurs must be able to

manage a team effectively and get the right team members. “The entrepreneur’s most

important team members are the customers for without customers a business cannot

survive”.

Entrepreneurial Skills

Entrepreneurial skills are important set of skills that are needed to be an entrepreneur. To

successfully run a business and add value to work, these skills must be available and used in the

right format. Such entrepreneurial skills include; innovative skill, decision making skill,

communication skill, problem solving skills, planning and organizing skills, risk management

skills, self-management skills, technological/technical skills, teamwork skills, learning skills,

initiative skills, enterprise skills, financial skills, managerial skills, marketing/saleable skills,

interpersonal relationship skills, integrity skills, practical skills, assertiveness skills, leadership

skills, listening skills, openness to change and business identification Oliveira, (2018). Graduates

from universities need these kills so as to work in a business enterprise so as to effectively

manage their own businesses.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS EMPLOYEABILITY SKILLS

Communication skills Communication skill
Self-management skills Self-management skill
Planning and organizing Planning and organizing
Creative and innovative Problem solving skill
Problem solving Decision making skill
Decision making Technical skill
Technical skills Creative and innovative skill
Teamwork Team work
Learning skill Learning skill
Ethics Ethics
Initiative Initiative skill
Marketing Managerial skill
Interpersonal Marketing
Integrity Interpersonal
Openness to change Integrity
Enterprise skill Openness to change
Financial skill
Risk management
Practical skill
Business identification
Assertiveness
Leadership skill
 Learning skill

Source: Daniel King (2013) Edith Cowan University, London.

The table above shows the importance of entrepreneurial skills. This means that entrepreneurship

education combines both employability skill and entrepreneurial skills into students in order to

equip them with the required tool and understanding that can help them to face and overcome

any challenge in establishing their own line of business. Various authors have agreed to the fact

that entrepreneurship education can inculcate entrepreneurial skills hence the mandate given to

every university in Nigeria to offer entrepreneurship education. In recent times, most universities

in Nigerian are now offering entrepreneurship education in which their operations are guided by

the curriculum that is structured by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

The Role of Entrepreneurship on Job Creation in Nigeria

In china, education and entrepreneurship is the key to national development. This is because it

unlocks the economic potentials of the people; empowers and equip individuals in the society to

participate in, and benefit from there national economy; facilitates economic development and

provides the basis for transportation. Education is the essential tool for sustainability (Chong,

2015).

In south Africa, quality education plays a vital role in the social, political and economic

development of any nation. This is possible when jobs are created for the citizenry by

establishing a lot of businesses that will accommodate the unemployed youth in south Africa

(kouma, 2016).

A qualified graduate of entrepreneurship education would have acquired enough skills relevant

to management of small business centre. Through entrepreneurship education, a pool of potential

entrepreneurs who are well equipped with skills and technical know how to manage

small/medium scale industries are produced. This will equally help in job creation. Through

quality entrepreneurship education, Nigeria will provide a lot of entrepreneurs who could

establish and manage business on their own. This will help in reducing poverty in Nigeria

(Olusoji, 2014).

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while

simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and

ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend on. The concept of sustainable

development requires balancing of environmental, societal and economic considerations in the

pursuit of development and an improved quality of life. Sustainability includes intergenerational

equity, gender equity, just and peaceful societies, social tolerance, environmental preservation

and restoration, poverty alleviation and natural resource conservation. The major essential tools

for achieving sustainable development include the following:

1. Improve the quality of basic education.

2. Reorient existing education programmed to address sustainable development.

3. Develop public awareness and understanding.

4. Provide training for all sectors of private and civil society.

 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

The Nigerian government seems to have woken up to the reality that the country needs to break

away from the vicious cycle of poverty, infrastructural neglect, corruption and other social

problems. Even after 52 years of achieving colonial independence, it can’t be argued whether

Nigeria has attained her optimum level of development. According to Kolawole and Omolayo

(20060, many individuals have difficulties in translating their business ideas to realities and

creating new business ventures because of lack of necessary information and skills needed to

achieve their targets. To him, the university curriculum was in the past was oriented towards

making graduates suitable only for white collar jobs. This underscores why millions of our

youths and a lot of university graduates roam the streets of our major cities and towns in search

of white collar jobs.

In many countries, including US, high schools offer entrepreneurship education for life-long

trade. And many of them offer courses that enable students to meet their general academic

requirement while learning a trade. However, because of the recent challenges in world economy

many schools have shifted emphasis to training in computers, information technology, and

related fields. Public schools work closely with willing industries to establish curriculum and

programmes to meet their skill demand. Where is Nigeria in this history of entrepreneurship

education? While career education has continued to thrive in many societies, it is unfortunately

an area that is neglected in Nigeria (Vanguard, Dec. 23, 2004). No wonder why things are not

working as they should in Nigeria. The neglect of entrepreneurship education is rubbing the

nation of the contribution our graduate would make on the economy; and what the graduates that

roam the streets could establish. It is, therefore socially injurious to neglect this important area or

look down on its graduates. The community and society in general, needs competent auto

mechanics and truck drivers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, electronics and computers,

database, web and network technicians, book-keepers, and clerks, medical technicians and

nursing assistants, (and other personnel in this category) to function well. These are some of the

skills in short supply in Nigeria. The half-baked roadside mechanics in the society often cause

more dangers to vehicles when they are contracted to service them. And because of poor training

some of the commercial drivers on the road and nurses assistants in the hospitals have sent many

people to their early death. Given these facts, it is a disservice to the society to neglect

entrepreneurship education.

Unfortunately, those who influence education policy in the society (legislators, educators, the

media, and e.t.c) disappear to feel that graduates of technical vocational institutions are not equal
to university graduates; hence there is need for effective strategies for entrepreneurship education

in Nigeria.

The Government of Nigeria, like its counterparts, the world over, has realized the importance of

small and medium scale enterprises and has, over the years formulated various public policies to

encourage, support and fund the establishment and development of SMEs.

CONCLUSION

Nigerian tertiary institution should include entrepreneurship courses in their curricula and must

ensure that all students regardless of their academic specialization study entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship education should be grouped according to skills and abilities of students and

should also be linked to the academic specialization of each students in a way that they can use

their knowledge to identify and exploit existing opportunities around them.

Entrepreneurship education should have the practical aspect whereby students are asked to take

up a business project. This therefore will helps to build the entrepreneurship behavior of students

in which student’s exhibit entrepreneurial traits such as risk taking, innovating new ideas having

a clear vision for the business. Entrepreneurship education should also focus on other areas such

as identification of business opportunities, how to generate ideas, entrepreneurial financing,

entrepreneurial marketing, venture management and also social entrepreneurship.

Graduates should be encouraged to write out a business plan, start a business and network with

other people that are also in that line of business. Funds or loans should also be provided for

graduates who want to expand or diversify into other lines of business. This therefore helps in

boosting the economic growth of the country and also reducing the level of unemployment.
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