ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT: CONSOLIDATING SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES (SMES) AS AN EFFECTIVE POLICY MEASURE FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC SUSTENANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The arguments and public commentaries making round in Nigeria currently in the face of increasing economic challenges is how to reactivate the ailing economy back to life using the non-oil sectors as a base. This move to reinvigorate the Nigerian chequered nation-state is underscored by the continuous depreciation of the national economy owing largely to the dramatic twist and turns in the price of crude oil at the international market. To most critics and indeed economic experts, the recent fall in prices of oil in the international market, which has been Nigeria’s economic mainstay have had devastating consequences on government and its people generally. The result of this kind of internal economic melt[1]down is so much so that it has become increasingly difficult to meet the everyday challenges such as reduction of poverty, crime control, child poverty, malnutrition payment of workers’ salaries, among others. This research submits that entrepreneurship development using the instrumentality of small and medium scale enterprises as a base will profoundly jump-start the spiraling economy back to life. The argument hinges on the fact that over 80% of the people are found in the informal sector where entrepreneurship potentials can be properly tapped and harnessed. The critical issue therefore is that the current moves by government to bail out the states of the federation from economic crunch if extended to the wider informal sector could be a veritable instrument for the consolidation and survival of the nation’s economy in no small way. The paper sums up with conclusion and policy framework to the effect that government and all stakeholders in the nation-building project should give particular attention to skills development at the horizontal and vertical levels if the nation must survive the present challenges currently being experienced.