ABSTRACT
This study investigated on the government entrepreneurial
policies that facilitate entrepreneurship and how effective these policies are
on organizations. It focused on the empirical study of creating knowledge about
entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. It studied the government efforts
towards resolving the problems of entrepreneurship: lack of finance,
managerial and technological know how, education and training, lack of
experienced expatriate and local completion, inadequate infrastructure leading
to high cost and finally high burden of taxation. The major findings
of this research include; Government entrepreneurial development policies have
immensely improved entrepreneurial organizations, these organizations in turn
have contributed a lot towards economic and national development especially in
the aspect of reducing unemployment and generating income. The most important
incentive given to entrepreneurs by government is finance. The entrepreneurs
still encounter other problems in areas of technical and managerial known how,
employee training and development, poor supply of infrastructure. Based on
these findings, the researcher strongly recommends that entrepreneurial
organizations should be included in training and development of their managers
and other staff to acquire managerial and technical know how to enable them
cope with the challenges of modern management. For the maintenance of human
variable, there is need for human resource improvement. I humbly recommend to
the Government to draft programmes like workshops, seminars, and career
development programme which should have incentives attached to them. I humbly
recommend to the Government to compel the environment to be supportive to
entrepreneurs e.g. finance houses and banks should grant them loans. I humbly
recommend to Government to equally give them grants from time to time, reduce
the burden of tax and implement already made policies for the entrepreneurs. I
equally recommend to Government to provide basic infrastructure like
electricity, pipe borne water, boreholes, access roads, suitable spaces, market
places for these products especially in the rural areas to reduce the cost
encountered by the entrepreneurs. The researcher therefore concludes, that as
the “foundation for growth and national development”, entrepreneurs are
indispensable and must be given paramount attention by the government.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study
The history of big enterprises
and industrial revolution started with persons whose imaginative ventures into
business gave rise to the present day technology. It dated back to the olden
days, when people engaged in farming, herding, crafts etc and commodities were
traded mainly on barter and later on precious metals. In the colonial era, the
tempo of business then was set and controlled by the colonial government.
Prominent European firms that were highly integrated and dominated commercial
and merchandising activities in Nigeria were John Holt, Paterson, Zochoris, Leventis,
Leverbrothers, PZ, Campaignie Francaise du L’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO,) the
Royal Niger now United African Company (UAC), Societe Commerciale de L’ Ouest
Africain (SCOA) etc. Some of these Companies grew so large that few, if any of
the economic decisions could be wisely initiated and instituted in Nigeria
without soliciting and obtaining their co-operation. Apart from trading,
colonialism also accounted for the development of quasi-technical business and
semi-skilled labour in Nigeria. About this time, many of the Nigerian
entrepreneurs were still gasping for breath. They did not benefit much from the
liberal attitude of the government because they lacked political persuasiveness
resulting from their lack of political power, low status, lack of cohesion and
also because the
coming of independence created an insatiable demand for trained and qualified
nationals. Thus, there was a limit to their ability to pressurize the
government into favourable action or to threaten non co-operation in the
attainment of national priorities. Their impact was insignificant and as a
result, in the administrative bureaucracy of the colonial government (the civil
service, public sector utilities established by them e.g Public Works Dept
[PWD], Post and Telegraph [P&T], Railway, Electricity Corporation and other
multinational Organization) Nigerian workers served as the cronies of the white
colonial masters as messengers, clerks, semi-skilled technicians and craftsmen.
Some of these workers later established micro scale business in line with their
trade.
From 1950’s, Nigeria began to
make an unprecedented effort to encourage economic growth and development.
National consciousness was at its peak. In 1952, the pioneer industries
ordinance was introduced. It gave certificates of recognition to specified
industries and exempted them from paying taxation for two years. In the same
year, the income tax ordinance was passed which allowed companies accelerated
amortization. In 1957 and 1958, the government gave import relief taxation to
foreign companies and liberalized the granting of pioneer certificate, thus
making the offer more attractive. In 1959, the Nigerian Industrial Development
Bank (NIDB) was established to assist entrepreneurs engage in business. In 1960,
political independence was granted and Nigeria witnessed an expansion in
business. The indigenization exercise started in 1972 with the introduction of
the Nigerians enterprises promotion Decree or the indigenization Act of 1972 with
the major objective of encouraging indigenous participation in ownership and
management of business. Maost of the Nigerian businessmen who were apprenticed
and agents of the “Colonial Lords” blossomed into large-scale entrepreneurs.
This Act also compelled some foreign organizations to share the ownership of
their business with Nigerian. The indigenization Act of 1977 known as the
Nigerian’s Enterprise Promotion’s Act specified the equity participation of
Nigerians in those companies which are broken into three categories (100% for
schedule 1, 60% for schedule II, 40% for schedule III). By virtue of this
indigenization exercise, Nigerians dramatically displaced the expatriates in
ownership, management and control of the business organization in Nigeria. On
the whole, a little over 700 alien dominated companies are expected to comply
with this decree (Bus Times, Vol. 3, No. 41 July 25, 1978 P.I). By this
exercise also Nigerians in one fell swoop, became owners of large business and
started conducting business activities at national and global levels.
What constitute a small scale
business differ in terms of quantitative, qualitative, technological or labour
intensive methods. The Nigeria Bank for Commerce and industries define small
scale business as an indigenous firm or company having assets, inclusive of
working capital but excluding land or land worth, not above N750, 000,
and a paid employment not exceeding fifty persons at a time. The Nigerian
Enterprises Promotion Decree defines it as one capable of having assets more
than N750,000 and a paid employment of more than 50 persons provided that its
output is small to the prevalent size of plant, technology and labour. CBN
defines it as firm or company whose annual turnover ranges between N250,000 to
N500,000 while SAP defines it as having N150,000 to N500,000 as minimum and
maximum capital level.
According to the Minister for
Industry, Kola Jamodu (2001), entrepreneurship in Nigeria accounted for over
95% of non-oil productive activities outside Agriculture. Some of the
government efforts towards their development include financial, fiscal, export
incentives and technical assistance. These government policies will lead to the
growth in entrepreneurship and also create and distribute the economic wealth
of Nigeria thereby fostering national growth and development. Also to ensure
continued stay in business, there is the need for corporate appraisals from
time to time.
1.2 Theoretical
Framework
A conceptual framework for this
research is drawn from Entrepreneurship development theory. Entrepreneurship is
the process of initiating and managing business organizations to accomplish
societal objectives. It is also the willingness and ability of an individual,
group of individuals or government entity to seek out investment
opportunities, establish and run an enterprise successfully. An entrepreneur
therefore is an individual, a group of individuals or government entity who
undertake the responsibility of making innovations in the economy (developing a
new source of supply of raw material, new methods of production or
distribution, introducing new goods/ service and opening a new market) or
carries out a new organization of an industry.
The purpose of entrepreneurship
is to diversify economic activities and also to create opportunities within the
economy. Government entrepreneurial development policies include those policies
which have been put in place by the government to enhance the productivity of
entrepreneurs. Empirical studies in the performance of organizations as a
result of these government interventions are rare. This study would make
significant contributions to the existing stock of knowledge in the study of
entrepreneurship.
1.3 STATEMENT OF
THE PROBLEM:
The poor performance of
entrepreneurial organizations are due to lack of finance, managerial and
technological know how, education and training, experienced expatriate and
local completion, inadequate infrastructure leading to high costs and huge
burden of taxation.
The
statement of the problem in this study is therefore to investigate the ways in
which government policies have improved the performance of entrepreneurial
organizations. It studies the government efforts towards resolving the problems
of entrepreneurs and thus developing them to take up the challenges thrown to
them as the ENGINES OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE “LAST RESORT” in the
privatization exercise.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF
THE STUDY
The objective of
this study is to investigate:
1.
Those government positive
interventions that can develop the entrepreneurs to attain their peak in
corporate performance.
2.
The major problems facing
entrepreneurship development and the diverse ways in which government aims at
resolving these problems.
3.
The various ways of assessing
co-operate performance either by the entrepreneur himself or by external bodies
to ascertain the extent to which the objectives of the entrepreneur has been
met.
1.5 RESEARCH
HYPOTHESES.
Hypothesis
1: There is no significant
relationship between government entrepreneurial development strategies and the
performance of entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis
2: there is no
significant relationship between managerial problems and entrepreneurial
performance.
Hypothesis
3: There is
significant relationship between entrepreneurial financial problems and
entrepreneurial performance.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
The overall returns of this
study shall be beneficial to the economy as a whole. It is therefore hoped that
the perusal of findings would be of great help to individuals, institutions,
entrepreneurial organizations, government and researchers who will make use of
this work. This study has the potentials of making important contributions for
instance;
Firstly, to graduates and
school leavers, who if they find themselves unemployed could gain for
themselves employment.
Secondly,
businessmen will find this study interesting, as it will show why many
entrepreneurs did not succeed and recommend possible criteria for success.
Thirdly, government will find out the reasons for the low level of
entrepreneurial development and then provide a better and enabling environment
for potential and prospective entrepreneurs. This will also go ahead to
increase employment and income.
Furthermore, this study will
show how rapid and sustained entrepreneurship development will promote
industrial development in Nigerian and finally, it will be found useful for
academic purposes.
1.7 MOTIVATION
AND FORMAT FOR THE STUDY
The author who incidentally is
an entrepreneur, was motivated to carry out this study as a result of increased
interest in area of entrepreneurship. What motivated me to carry out this
research was to find out if there was any “prospect” at all in
entrepreneurship. She wishes to find out to what extent the government has gone
in ensuring that rapidly springing up school leavers, graduates and prospective
entrepreneurs find entrepreneurship appealing. She wishes to encourage the
unemployed to prayerfully and carefully venture into a business.
Furthermore, I want to find out
if entrepreneurial organizations are effective, whether credit facilities are
available to them, if there are provisions for basic infrastructure, if the
business climate is stable and if the markets can accommodate their product as
well.
This research work is divided
into five chapters, chapter one focuses on the background and general
introduction to the topic, chapter two focuses on the review of relevant
concept to the topic. Chapter three treats the general methodology of the study
and chapter four deals with data presentation, analysis and interpretation.
Chapter five deals
on summary of findings and recommendations.
1.8 LIMITATIONS
OF THE STUDY
There were some impediments
that limited this study. Time and finance were major setbacks. Transportation
demanded so much money and updates from the internet as well. The researcher
could not reach all the entrepreneurs in all the industries. Random samples of
the entrepreneurs were taken from selected firms in Anambra state. The
researcher was unable to collect the entire questionnaire issued out. The time
to move from one library to the other, type and distribute questionnaire posed
a constraint because of engagement at my workplace. Despite all these, the
researcher was able to carry out the study.
1.9 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
1.
ORGANIZATION:
According to Onwuchekwa (2000), Organization is the association of two
or more individuals working cooperatively together for a common purpose under
authority and leadership.
2.
MANAGEMENT: According
to Stoner (1982), management is the process of planning, organizing,
leading and controlling efforts of organizational members and of using all
other organizational resources to achieve stated organizational objectives.
3.
ENTREPRENEUR:
An entrepreneur is an individual, or a group of individuals, who
undertake the responsibility of making innovations in the economy or carries
out a new organization.
4.
GOVERNMENT:
Government is part of the environment of business and within a focal
country which exercises legal and regulatory control over all business
organization, as well as initiates the major strategies for the attainment of
national development objectives. It could also be seen as a person or group of
persons into whose hands the state has placed for the time being, functions of
political control.
5.
POLICIES: Policies
are guides and directives that are formulated to shape the thinking,
actions and decisions of a people in a given area.
6.
BUSINESS: Business
is the planned activities of individuals or groups of people aimed at
producing and selling, for a profit, the goods and services that satisfy the
need of consumers.
7.
ENVIRONMENT: The
environment of an organization include those individuals, organizations,
government agencies, suppliers, distributors, press, etc. who in one way or the
other help an organization to carry out its productive activities but are not
subject to the control of that organization.
8.
TECHNOLOGY: Technology
is the state of the art of doing things in a society in order to achieve
goals.
9.
PRIVATIZATION: Privatization
is the process of change of ownership, either in whole or in part from
the government or state to the private sector.
10.
CORPORATE EFFECTIVENESS: Corporate
effectiveness is the same as organizational worth, which is the extent
to which an organization as a social system, given certain resources and means,
fulfils its objectives and without placing undue strain upon its members.
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