THE CHALLENGES/OBSTACLES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES IN NIGERIA

Nigeria has one of the largest economies in the African continent, yet, there is nothing to write home about Nigerian economy. There are so many challenges faced by entrepreneurs in Nigeria, too numerous to mention but we shall examine a few of them. Disinterest in the formal economy reflects the status of Nigeria’s policies and tax regime, which have long been deemed detrimental to the growth of viable enterprises. Even more disturbing is the fact that this continues to be the case despite the energetic reforms process initiated after the return of democracy. It is more than evident that piecemeal measures are unequal to meeting the challenges that Nigeria has set itself up to.

The following are the most important obstacles facing entrepreneurial studies:-

·  Absence of a pro-active regulatory environment that encourages innovative enterprise development at the grassroots level.

·  One of the worst challenges faced by entrepreneurship studies in Nigeria is the issue of poverty.

·  The challenges of technological nature and sophistication; lack of  knowledge of the new technologies constitutes a barrier to the study of entrepreneurship in Nigeria  

·  Significant infrastructural deficits (especially with regards to roads and electricity) and systemic irregularities inimical to small business.

·  The presence of administrative and trade barriers that curtail capacity building and inhibit access to technical support.

·  Absence of regulatory mechanisms for effective oversight of enterprise development initiatives, especially those in the MSME space.

·  Poor access to vocational and skills-development training for rural and urban youths involved in the informal economy.

·  Rampant political and bureaucratic corruption, together with the absence of social consensus on important macroeconomic policy issues.

More than 73% of Nigerians featuring the Gallup survey conceded access to finance was the single-most important hurdle in the way to setting up successful enterprises. More telling is the fact that about 60% of respondents claimed that current polices, despite the government’s focus on enterprise development, do not make it easy to develop entrepreneurship studies in Nigeria.

MINSET/ POLLAR OPPOSITE WAY OF THINKING

The biggest challenges by far; is the shift from the employee mindset to entrepreneur mindset.” this would not happen overnight nor will it happen automatically. You must self consciously recondition the way you think. This work contrasts two mindsets that of “employee” and that of entrepreneur” bear in mind that this discussion is on the way people think and not what they are doing.

An average Nigerian is used to thinking of value in terms of times and efforts. If an employee takes an hour to create a tool or device, he would sell his creation to the value of hour he spent making it; putting the cost of material and little extra for profit for an employee, time is more but for entrepreneur leverage is money.

In Nigeria employees tends to think of getting while entrepreneur think of giving and employees work hard and the reward are linear  while entrepreneurs work smart and effort or rewards are exponential. This employee brings to the interview the issue of how much you will pay me, what are the benefits etc. But an entrepreneur are more focused in what are the needs, how can, I help you save money. Employees’ thinks short tem while entrepreneur thinks long-term this can also be analyze by the issue of the differences between pumping water and planting seed.

In Nigeria, we prefer to pump water than plant seed.