Socio-Demographic Variable And Ownership Of Small-Scale Business In Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Small businesses are key to socioeconomic development, since they contribute in terms of employment generation and they enhance income generation and society’s stability.  Documented facts indicate that the small business sub – sector is shrinking, which could imply worsening socioeconomic conditions for the populace. Undoubtedly, various factors have accounted for the situation; however, the focus of this study was to examine the interconnectivity between socio-demographic factors and small - scale business ownership. The study focused on the relationship between marital status; educational exposure and business ownership. Survey – inferential research design was adopted, whereby a sample size of 386 persons was investigated. Multi-stage sampling technique was applied, beginning with cluster sampling, random sampling and systematic sampling, in ascertaining how socio-demographic variables influence ownership of small - scale business. Two hypotheses were tested and the results indicated, first, that there is a statistically significant relationship between marital status and business ownership. And second, that that there is a statistically significant relationship between educational exposure and ownership of small - scale business. The implications of the research findings include the fact that, while not ignoring the need to continually enhance the literacy levels of the populace, people should also be made to gain as much vocational skills exposure as possible in order for society to further benefit from the relatively higher propensity for enterprise development that the combination of formal education and vocational skills training exposure offers.

Keywords: Small-scale business; entrepreneurship; socio-demographic variables.