Is Entrepreneurship the cure to Nigeria’s Unemployment?
by Joan James
ENTREPRENEURSHIP has a role to play in unemployment eradication, but can entrepreneurship alone solve unemployment?
Just this August, statistics showed that the unemployment rate is about 33%; this means that one in every group of four Nigerians is unemployed. Entrepreneurship is an activity designed to solve problems in the market space; but is it the solution to Nigeria’s high unemployment rate?
In a news report released earlier this year, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro, an Economist, depicts entrepreneurs as the remedy for unemployment in Nigeria. A study on unemployment in Nigeria showed that entrepreneurship has the potential of eradicating unemployment. However, with all these facts, should everyone become an entrepreneur?
Ugwokaegbe Onyinyechi, a Covenant University student, opined in a recent interview that entrepreneurship could be a solution to Nigeria’s unemployment and at the same time be of no help to the situation. She said it can be a solution since “people can be self-employed and fend for themselves but Nigeria is not a place where people can start a business and see it thrive.” She concluded that getting a professional job is better.
Another student suggested that entrepreneurship is good because it can create jobs for people. Nevertheless, she also aired that “not everyone can be in business; some people will still have to do the white-collared job.” Furthermore, she reveals that some government workers hide their real ages so that they can keep their jobs; this prevents others from being employed.
Unemployment is a growing case in Nigeria. Especially in this time and age where the economy is unstable, many businesses have closed up. It can be deduced from the reports in this article, entrepreneurship has a role to play in unemployment eradication, but entrepreneurship alone can’t solve unemployment.
What are your thoughts on these findings? Let me know in the comment section what you think the solution to Nigeria’s unemployment is.
REFERENCES
1 Vanguard. (2022, April 19). ‘Entrepreneurship best solution to Nigeria’s unemployment problem’. Vanguard.
2 Amawu, J., & Ehijiele, E. (2019). Unemployment in Nigeria: The Role of Entrepreneurship Education. 2nd International Conference on Management, Economics and Finance, (pp. 1–8).
