Determinants of Entrepreneurship Among Agribusiness Investors In South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

The determinants of entrepreneurial choice have been widely researched, but the determinants of such in South-east, Nigeria especially in agro-related business has not been fully explored. The study analysed the determinants of entrepreneurship among agribusiness investors in Southeast, Nigeria. A combination of multistage and purposive sampling techniques was adopted in the collection of data from three hundred and sixty (360) agribusiness investors using structured questionnaires.  Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to realise the objectives of the study.  The result shows that majority of agribusiness investors in Southeast Nigeria were mostly males (75.6%) who were within the mean active age of forty-three (43) years and with a mean household size of 7 persons, and earned an average annual income of five hundred and seventy three thousand, seven hundred and seventy nine naira (N573,779.00). The result equally revealed that 50% of farm input supply agribusiness ventures were located within the urban while production component of agribusiness were located within the rural (39%) and peri-urban (38%) respectively. The study identified unemployment, profit motive, quest to be financial independent, population of the investment area, experience in self employment, and proximity to market as the major factors that influence individual’s decision to be an entrepreneur.  The result equally shows that age, educational status, experience, annual income, household size, household entrepreneurial history, and source of investment capital have positive effect on determinants of entrepreneurship.  With the ?2 values of 1152.480 and the Pseudo R² value of 0.055, the included variables in the model, gave a good impression, regarding the model’s goodness of fit at 0.05 (P=0.05) level of significance.  Based on the findings of the study, the pursuance of a prudent macroeconomic policy such as the imposition of free duties to local agribusiness producers/processors to ensure that entrepreneurs will produce at incentive level was recommended.

Key words: Determinants, entrepreneurship, agribusiness, investors, enterprises