Promoting Graduates’ Interest in Small Business Entrepreneurship in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The failure of government policies and programmes to provide job opportunities for graduates and school leavers has made unemployment a very serious issue in the country.  Some graduates have resulted to acquiring skills in order to provide jobs for themselves.  This paper attempts to determine the promotion of graduates’ interest in small business entrepreneurship in Gboko local government area of Benue State.  The study used both primary and secondary data in addressing the objective, stratified random sampling technique was used to select 30 respondents in Gboko local government.  The regression, descriptive tools were used to analyse the data. The findings were that establishment of small businesses are a function of entrepreneurship; business owners operated because they were taught entrepreneurship and became interested; some became  small business entrepreneurs because it was operated through centres of entrepreneurship and others were because start up capital was obtained through the entrepreneurship centres. It was recommended that, the government should encourage graduates and school leavers to start their own businesses by creating an enabling environment for small businesses to thrive.

Key words: Entrepreneur, promoting, small business, income