ENTREPRENEURSHIP, NIGERIA AND THE ROLE OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS

Mr. Walter Elias Disney (popularly known as Walt Disney), one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs of the ’90s and the pioneer of American animation, said, “all our dreams can come through if we dare to pursue them”.
Nigeria with a population of about one hundred and ninety-six million people has been defined economically as a middle-income, mixed economy and an emerging market with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors. Currently, it is ranked the 27th largest economy in the world and the 22nd largest globally in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power Party).
Nigeria’s economy is the largest in Africa and it produces a large proportion of goods and services in the West African subcontinent, with a labour force of 90.5million as of 2018. Also in 2018 employment rate was pegged at 23.1% and is currently grown to 74% as of January 2022 with her ease of doing business ranked 131 in the world as of 2019. Beautiful figures yet greatly threatened by the current realities of emigration of our employable hands to foreign countries.
Outside the energy sector which is one of the biggest sectors in Nigeria, Nigeria’s economy is highly inefficient not just because of bad governance and bad government policies but also because her human capital is underdeveloped even with a labour force of over a 74million people. With most youths waiting around for paid jobs for next-to-nothing work delivery, the country’s human resources are grossly underutilized.
This makes you stop and wonder why it is that amid so much only a few are rising or have risen to success in both financial capacities and self-actualization.
For example, with a population of over a 5.7million and strong oil production and agricultural economy, Delta State is ranked as one of the richest states in Nigeria. Despite the numerous opportunities that exist in the state, especially in the agricultural sector it seems near baffling that the rate of unemployment is incredibly high.
Although entrepreneurship would not be best built if it is only seen as an escape from poverty, it cannot be denied that it stands as one of the greatest solutions to the unemployment and underdeveloped human capital problem.
These established points take us directly to the subject of entrepreneurship and how to become a successful entrepreneur. It is a popular saying that tough times do not last, but tough people do and the easiest time to thrive is when things seem the most difficult. Nigeria has never been in dire need of entrepreneurial development like it needs now because of the demands of the world’s 21st-century economy.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a global shift from an agrarian society to greater industrialization which was a direct result of the emergence of new technology such as the steam engine which led to the growth of industries, such as coal, iron, railroads, and textiles. Then came the second industrial revolution estimated to have been from 1870 to 1914, this era witnessed the expansion of electricity, petroleum, and steel. The main causes of the second industrial revolution were due to natural resources, abundant labour supply, strong government policy, new sources of power, railroads and American inventors and inventions. The revolution brought new inventions and innovations in technology including Steel Mills, refrigerators, Electric Light, Typewriter, Telephone, Skyscrapers, Elevator, Phonograph, Motion Pictures, Washing Machine, Automobile, Diesel Engine and the Airplane.
Nearly a century later, in the second half of the 20th century, a third industrial revolution appeared with the emergence of a new type of energy whose potential surpassed its predecessors: nuclear energy. This third revolution began in 1969 and gradually the world is moving into the era of the 4th industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution used water and steam to mechanize production, the second used electric energy to create mass production and the third used electronics and information technology to automate production