Potentials of ICT-based Business Initiatives for Enterprise Creation In Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment among school leavers and graduates of tertiary institutions have been a bane causing death of marketableskills and skills mismatch in Nigeria, besides restiveness and other social vices. Information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) have been increasingly promoted as a key solution for comprehensive development, poverty alleviationand the empowerment of historically disadvantaged groups. ICT-based business initiatives have been hailed as “potentialgoldmines; hence the need for acquisition of functional and marketable skills, especially in ICT and related modern skills,becomes indisputably imperative. The benefits have far-reaching consequences for the economic and social development ofa country, as ICT businesses can foster new avenues for education, communication and information sharing; increasedproductivity and speed of work; improved accuracy as computers tend to make fewer mistakes than humans; fastercommunication; and savings in labour costs since fewer workers may be required. This paper, motivated by the potentiallypowerful role that ICTs can play in the empowerment of the unemployed, poor and underdeveloped individuals in Nigeria, isan attempt to suggest possible ICT initiatives that can be used to create self-sustainable enterprises and entrepreneurs. It isanticipated that the insights developed in this study would be useful both for purposes of policy formulation and effectiveprogramme- and self- development.Keywords - Enterprise Creation, Training, Skill-Acquisition, Seed-Money and Empowerment.