Poverty Issue and the Entrepreneurial Engagement of Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This study focuses on poverty issue and the entrepreneurial engagement of small scale enterprises in Nigeria. The study also attempts to empirically investigate the entrepreneurial engagement of small scale enterprises in relation to poverty in Nigeria, and the relationship between unemployment and poverty.  The research sample comprised of 326 determined using Taro Yamane method based on the study’s universe of 1754. Data for this study were collected from selected 100 SMEs that have existed for at least five years in manufacturing, service, food processing, textile and agricultural industries in Nigeria before the period of this survey. In data collection, this study used cluster sampling techniques, and used simple random sampling techniques to select its required sample for the universe. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis (SPSS version 17.0). The findings indicate a strong positive correlation (r = 0.746) between entrepreneurship through SMEs and poverty level, and a significant positive correlation (r = 0.640) between unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. The study concludes that the increasing entrepreneurial activities and the concomitant increase in the level of the variables (poverty and unemployment) in Nigeria are indicators of abnormalities in entrepreneurial practices which demand a very urgent attention of economic experts. The study therefore recommends that the entrepreneurial practices of SME owner-managers should be diagnosed and addressed because, many of them are driven by the necessity of entrepreneurship rather than the passion in it; and that the government should support SMEs adequately for jobs creation.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Practices, Poverty, Unemployment, Economic Growth, Jobs Creation