An expert in public sector accounting Professor Stephen Ocheni says Nigeria has a potential of becoming one of the major players of global economy if it pays proper attention to entrepreneurship.
Prof Ocheni who is a former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said the country could not attain the desired economic height before now due to the neglect of entrepreneurship, a core segment of the economy; and over-dependence on oil.
Ocheni made these assertions while presenting the Lead Paper titled: “Entrepreneurship Education for Sustainable National Development ’’, at the 2019 Annual National Conference and Home-Coming of the Institute of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
He lamented that the economy had been import-dependent and undiversified, saying that the conference was meant to address the next step toward economic recovery with entrepreneurship education as one of the strategies for achieving sustainable economic development.
He said: “Economists have maintained that the major obstacle to economic growth of poor nations is lack of educated entrepreneurs who are able to mobilise and coordinate production inputs.
“For financial institutions that are able to give loan to uneducated entrepreneurs who lack managerial experience, is to throw money away,’’
Ocheni pointed out that notable among challenges of entrepreneurs in Nigeria are: limited or inadequate financial resources for expansion, lack of managerial expertise, irregular power supply, lack of unity and mutual trust among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and poor quality of products.
He also mentioned complete absence of books of accounts, engagement of unskilled and cheap labour and inadequate infrastructure leading to very high production/operational costs.
Ocheni also noted lack of patronage of their (entrepreneurs) products by government agencies, use of obsolete technology for processing, lack of succession plan, inaccessibility to international markets and competition with cheaper imported products.
According to him, it has been established that despite the critical importance of entrepreneurs in the economic development of a nation, African countries have not fully developed strategies to tap the economic resource.
He advised that the Federal Government should consider the establishment of an Entrepreneurship University that would focus mainly on research and development as well as literacy training of entrepreneurs.
He added that the introduction of a Bachelor Degree programme in Entrepreneurship Development should be made mandatory for all universities.
“Equally, the curricula of existing polytechnics should be restructured to promote entrepreneurship education and the production of skilled manpower in line with their traditional roles.
“Potential entrepreneurs among students can be found in all disciplines and not limited to the economics or business students alone. Since these talents can be found in all disciplines, it becomes imperative that appropriate curricula should be developed to accommodate all,’’ Ocheni said.
He explained that the National Universities Commission (NUC) should as a matter of policy enforce the teaching of basic entrepreneurial courses in all universities as a compulsory course.
He said in the areas of instructional facilities and qualified lecturers/technicians/instructors, universities were advised to collaborate with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) which had sufficient manpower in vocational training.
“The National Universities Commission should specifically develop appropriate benchmarks for assessing the standard of entrepreneurial education programmes offered in Nigerian universities.
“The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) should do same for polytechnics and technical colleges with equipped technical laboratories,’’ he said.
Ocheni noted that to improve the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari decided to introduce the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) to address three major areas-`to accelerate growth, investment in human development and building a globally competitive economy.
He recalled that the ERGP was developed under the coordination of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 5, 2017 to address the country’s economic challenges and lay the foundation for economic diversification, inclusiveness and sustainable growth.
He also talked about the National Social Investment programme of Buhari’s administration which he described as the largest and most ambitious sound investment programme in the country.
Ocheni noted that the components of the programme are: Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni.
He recalled that according to the 2018 scorecard of President Buhari, over 500,000 young Nigerian graduates were beneficiaries (employed) under the N-Power scheme which he described as the largest of all graduate employment schemes in Africa.
The former minister commended President Buhari, having demonstrated the political will and determination to reduce unemployment rate among the youth through job creation and skills acquisition training of the National Directorate of Employment, Social Investment programme and other government policies.
To promote entrepreneurship, Ocheni recommended that friendly bank interest rates should be applied on loans to entrepreneurs.
He also suggested that entrepreneurs should be encouraged to open business bank accounts distinct from personal/family accounts, a simple condition for advancing loan to an applicant which many could not satisfy.
“Government should invest more in the provision of infrastructure facilities which is the base of any thriving entrepreneur as easy access to a reliable and quality infrastructure increases productivity and efficiency, lowers the market costs, increases access to available markets and sustainable growth.
“Government should avoid tougher business regulations which discourage business take-off but rather a simplified business regulation required to unleash the entrepreneurship potential of a nation.
`Government should keep tax rate at a reasonable level for small and medium sized enterprises which contribute more significantly to job creation and economic growth than they do to tax revenue.
“Entrepreneurship course should be made compulsory for all programmes in tertiary institutions and in our secondary schools,’’ Ocheni said.
In an opening speech, the Director of the Institute of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Professor Kay Onyechi, said the conference was a fulfilment of the statutory vision of the founding fathers and mandate of the institute to provide world-class education.
Ocheni received an Award of Excellence on Academic and Human Development as a Distinguished Alumnus of the university, having graduated with a PhD Financial Management from the No 1 University in Nigeria.
Credit: Daily Trust
