How to help enterprise development in Nigeria 

High unemployment, insecurity, high foreign exchange rate and lack of electricity are some of the banes of business development in Nigeria. In recent times, the naira redesign and cashless policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seem to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It has been reported that the cashless policy has killed many businesses and is likely to reduce our gross domestic product (GDP) by N10 trillion in the first quarter of 2023, according to Yemi Kale, a former statistician-general of the federation.

In this era of competition amongst nations on economic, social and infrastructural development, the Federal Government of Nigeria cannot pretend not to know that businesses, especially the small and medium scale businesses in Nigeria are struggling under the waters, especially as a result of the naira redesign policy. There is a strong possibility that these businesses could all drown and the owners with them. Small-scale businesses are the livewire of human communities as a lot of entrepreneurs depend on these businesses for survival.

The government must be interested in activities that engage self-employed people in the community because of the roles of the self-employed in the economic development of nations. They are the largest group of the employed in any society and generate sizable income for the government in form of taxes. Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in a community. An entrepreneur is a person who establishes and bears the risks of a business with the aim of making a profit. Entrepreneurship serves as the hub for innovation and creativity, risk taking, personal achievement, organisation and management. It is the catalyst of economic development.

Though government and private business role models, like Startup Nigeria and Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme have helped inspire an escalating entrepreneurial scheme in Nigeria, the nation still has room for business development. Youth unemployment is still very high! Youth unemployment refers to the share of the labour force ages 15–24 without work but available for and seeking employment. Nigeria youth unemployment rate for 2021 was 19.61 percent, a 0.06 percent decline from 2020. 2022 saw a more aggressive move by governments to increase the efficiency of Nigerian youths but the efforts did not change the narrative.

Entrepreneurship has taken on a different meaning, arguably, in modern times, in developed countries like the United Kingdom. Enabling business is essential to the economic policy of the government, perhaps more than ever now. David Cameron, throughout his reign as prime minister, used such expressions as declaring war on the ‘enemies of enterprise’, praising the ‘go-getting’ entrepreneurial constituency and helping facilitate business through measures ranging from the “Help to Grow” scheme, which pledges £1 billion to help companies across the funding gap, to reduction in bureaucracy of setting up business, to “Funding for Lending.”

There is now devotion to the idea of export, of spreading the produce of British industries to faraway climes, to elevate the country and its ‘March of the Makers’ to a position of envy around the world. Perhaps spurred on by the rallying cry, or maybe just to carve their own path in a post-recessionary landscape, UK entrepreneurs have started a record number of new businesses in recent years.  At the end of September 2022, there were 4,988,861 companies on the total register and 4,569,288 on the effective register, according to Companies House, equivalent to the Nigeria Corporate Affairs commission (CAC). During the second quarter of 2022 to first quarter of 2023, the total register increased by 46,407 companies (0.9%), and the effective register increased by 26,067 companies (0.6%).

Starting a business today in the UK is easier, cheaper and quicker than before. And whether it is the positive influence of the government or the belief that being self-employed is a noble career path, we are seeing some exciting patterns in entrepreneurial growth in the UK. This is evident in the soaring number of co-working spaces in East London (Elephant and Castle, Peckham, Camberwell, Lewisham etc), the explosion of street food sellers and street grocery vendors nationwide, and a startup tech culture fostering in Manchester. Whether it is a cafe owner in Glasgow or a small accountancy practice in Cardiff, there is a palpable feeling that taking the bull by the horns and starting up is a viable modern option, and not a scary thought to be discarded as quickly as it was conceived.

Over a decade before the EndSARS protest which started on Thursday, October 8, 2020, Nigeria’s Ministry of Education, in partnership with the National Universities Commission (NUC), introduced entrepreneurship skills development curriculum in Nigerian universities making it a compulsory course for university undergraduates. Acquiring entrepreneurship skills is one thing, while applying them is another. Nigerian governments can still do more to help develop enterprises and entrepreneurs in Nigeria by helping to end insecurity, setting up an agency under the Federal Ministry of Labour that will aggressively promote entrepreneurship in Nigeria. A lot of small-scale owners need re-orientation and business education to succeed.

Private companies like banks, finance houses and insurance companies can also help to accelerate entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Barclays Bank, one of Britain’s biggest banks, is helping businesses go further in the UK with its “Barclays Accelerator Programme”. This programme that includes provision of co-working space and mentorship for entrepreneurs is just doing well to promote entrepreneurship in Britain. Nigeria needs to set a target of say 6,000,000 active companies on the register of CAC and then project-manage this lofty objective to success.

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