ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS IMPACT IN OUR ECONOMY
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The worldwide economic depression of the early 80’s caused a rapid deterioration
of the Nigeria economy. The output shrank to an all time local and commercial
activities, which were consequently reduced, leading to the loss of employment opportunities in the country.Therefore, by the end of 1985, the unemployment situation in Nigeria had increased its proportions and as such most Nigeria graduates were faced with hardship due to unemployment in the country. This situation therefore calls for entrepreneurship in Nigeria economy which also leads to entrepreneurial development in the higher institution.
However, at this juncture a brief history of entrepreneurship in Nigeria will give more insight on the study. Statistics
have it that Africa is the poorest and less developed continent in world. Many state-owned enterprise in Africa were
created when it was believed that the fastest route to development occurred when the state took on the role of
entrepreneur.
Although Nigeria was at one time characterized by such inefficiency, but has recently pursued entrepreneurship
encouragement policies. And the initial indications suggest that the policies have been successful. InNigeria, the
state-owned enterprises traditionally clogged business opportunities and restructure private entrepreneurs from
entering the market. However, in the mid 1980’s Nigeria abolished it’s marketing board, which prevented entry into
certain industries and it’s market to competition from domestic entrepreneurs.
Although Nigeria is still ploughed by many development problems preliminary evidence suggest a favourable
response by the private sector to the new entrepreneurial opportunities. Although there is only limited consensus
about the characteristics of entrepreneurship, the concept is almost as old as the formal discipline of economics itself.
Early 18th century French economist named Richard Canadian first introduced the term entrepreneur. In his writings
he formally described the entrepreneur as the agent who buys the means of production at certain prices in order to
combine them into new product. (Schumpeter,1951) short after that the French economist J. B. added to the Castilian
definition by including the idea that entrepreneurs has to be leaders. That an entrepreneur is one who build a single
product organism. (Schumpeter, 1951)
The necessity of entrepreneurship for productivity was formally recognized by Alfred Marshall in 1990. In his famous
practice principle of economics,Marshall ascertains that there are four factors of production; Land, Labour Capital and
organization. These factors are properly utilized by an entrepreneur. Thus entrepreneur creates new commodities or
improve the plan of producing an old commodity. (Marshall1994).
Hence early entrepreneurs were characterized with production and manufacturing. In this case, the producers most
often started with small capital. Early entrepreneurship started with trade by barter even before the advent of money.
However, modern entrepreneurship in Nigeria started with the coming of the colonial masters, who brought in their
wears and made Nigerians their Middlemen. In this way modern entrepreneurs was conceived. Most of the modern entrepreneurs were engaged in retail trade or sole proprietorship.
ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS IMPACT IN OUR ECONOMY