Empirical Analysis of Entrepreneurial Development and Implication for Nigerian Economic Growth

Abstract

The study seeks to identify the contributions of entrepreneurial development to economic growth; identify the challenges to entrepreneurial development in Nigeria and to determine the extent of entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. The study was carried out in 6 small and medium scale enterprises in Asaba, Delta state. The study had population size of 90 out which a sample size of 73 was realised using Taro Yamane’s formula at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. Instrument used for data collection was primarily questionnaire and interview. The total number of 78 copies of the questionnaire were distributed while 65 copies were returned. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The three hypotheses were tested using chi square statistical tools. The findings indicate that Job creation and increase in national income are the contributions of Entrepreneurial development to economic growth and that  lack of strong patent law and lack of knowledge of entrepreneurship in the basic science and technology constitute  the challenges to entrepreneurial development .the extent of entrepreneurial development in Nigeria is high. The study however, recommends that there is need to change the mind set of young people to embrace self-employed job rather than waiting for non-existing government job and there is need for government to set up workshops where young and old entrepreneurs will  can come  and  acquire new skills needed for their businesses

Keywords: key words, Entrepreneurial development, Job creation, SMEs Economic growth