oneolajire:
Nigeria is a country where all big investors have no inventions (tangible or intangible) to their credit. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Thomas Edison and the likes all have products to patent, but most entrepreneurs we have in Nigeria have invented nothing and have made it through dubious means. 

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of telling the youth and graduates that she (the government) lacks industrialisation and job creation strategies while the youth have been left to fate.

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of making the youth/graduates look intellectually lazy and burdensome as well as telling them that they are have been abandoned in the valley of unemployment. Unemployment rate increased simply because government owned industries and companies get strangulated by the python of corruption as well as the refusal of the government to establish new ones.

Entrepreneurship in advanced countries is about innovations, inventions, improvements, expansions, people and institutional empowerment. Modern and sophisticated skills are being utilised to manufacture goods and services which culminates into abundant job creation.

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is of the graduate job seeker told to engage in bead making, soap making, hair dressing, laundry and so on. These businesses have neither inventions nor advancement to add to the business practice and the economy, as they also have little or no impact on the international market. 

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is also of the rich that colludes with the government to defraud the masses, destroy public corporations and infrastructures in order for them to import alternative goods. The rich set up few enterprises and often pay peanuts to their employees in order to increase their wealth; culminating into increase in poverty level and underemployment in the country.  

The government of advanced countries often invest billion of dollars on education and research, so they always have intellectuals who will offer innovative products and services to the world. These products and services are initially developed into small scale businesses as they many even grow into large enterprises. While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds on Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, yet the businesses are nowhere to be found.

Only an insane person will keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. Am yet to see a nation that got developed by investing so little on the education of her youth and students but spend so much on SME propaganda. Still searching for a nation that gave nothing more than mere, non-professional, common, stark and non-sophisticated skills/training to her youth and achieved rapid industrial development.

Why should we buy a trailer engine, fix it in a car and try to make it compete with an aircraft? Why should we make people earn mere skills and expect them to compete with foreign sophisticated technologies? We have to know that the issue of local production of goods and services is a serious competetion with the developed nations.

Some questions for the proponents of entrepreneurship/vocational education.
 When will out textile, fashion and leather industry be able to make products of international standard? When will a Nigerian mechanic be able to manufacture car engines and other motor parts? When will our furniture makers be able to make furniture that will compete with ones made overseas? When will a computer repairer be able to produce motherboards, memorycards, monitors, just to mention a few?

[b]Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? [/b]I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's  mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam.

Take a look at the furniture industry in Nigeria, you'll discover it is almost dead because foreign furniture has flooded the Nigerian market. Foreign furniture makers have been able to introduce much variety of products with various designs, even at exorbitant prices, yet people still buy them. Imported furniture  attains this much because modern machines are regularly produced to make new designs of furniture, but here in Nigeria, we only buy simple tools, we don't engage in design and manufacture of  machines/tools to be used in the furniture industry, so we are perpetually making furniture that cannot compete with the foreign ones. It is only engineering that provides modern machines, stack entrepreneurship cannot.

Entrepreneurship and and vocational education has never helped Nigeria in the manufacture of modern machines for production of finished goods that can compete favourably with imported ones. The best entrepreneurship has offered us is to use social media means to engage in selling of imported products as well as setting up of few businesses with the use of foreign machines. It is appaling for government to still keep preaching the sermon that can never bring solutions to us.

Every sector of the Nigerian economy has been badly affected by the erroneous policy of entrepreneurship and vocational education. From the agricultural sector to the transportation sector, from manufacturing to education, from construction to entertainment, name it, we have rendered our nation incapacitated when it comes to production of goods and services. There can never be abundant job opportunities as long as we keep executing this lame practice. 

I wonder why we have not given so much vocational training to professional operating as doctors, nurses and pharmacist in the medical field. We give this set of people trainings that can make them compete favourably with their foreign counterpart. I believe it should appear proper to the government to substitute entrepreneurship and vocational education with the training they receive in the teaching hospitals.  The government (after emptying the laboratories and workshops of polytechniques and universities) substituted requisite training for our engineers and scientist with entrepreneurship and vocational training, so they are rendered handicapped when it comes to provision of modern goods and services as well as job creation.

It is high time we changed our job creation policy of entrepreneurship and vocational studies to provision of qualitative education at all levels, especially science and technology education so that Nigerian graduates would possess requisite modern and sophisticated skills for our nation and the world market at large. It is only qualitative education and intensive research that can initiate intellectual thinking for creation of innovative goods and services.
 
Entrepreneurship and vocational studies have been found to have contributed immensely only to economy of nations with massive investments in education and research. Singapore and South Korea are the examples of nations that have eradicated illiteracy and have invested huge funds into science and technology education, so entrepreneurship thrives there.

Let the laboratories and workshops of our secondary schools and higher institutions be adequately equipped with modern and facilities so as to provide avenues for learning practicals. We need to replicate the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who utilised the qualitative education they obtained in the tetiary institutions to create worldwide business ventures in their fields.

Real entrepreneurship is when Nigerian graduates of electrical engineers can produce transformers, power generation turbines, alternators, televisions from local technologies. Metallurgical engineers must be able to produce steel for oil and gas pipelines as well as in train and car manufacturing. Combustion engines, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic parts must be what our mechanical engineers must be able to manufacture from their companies. Businesses of agricultural science graduates should able to feed the nation cos they should empowered to do so. This is what is called real entrepreneurship.

Businesses that leads to industrialisation are offshoots of science and technological discoveries and investments. The kind of entrepreneurship Nigeria needs is one in which Nigerian chemical engineers can set up refineries and petrochemical companies with the aid local resources. I would also love to see mobile phones, computers and other information technology gadgets developed and commercialised by Nigerian graduates of computer science. 

The entrepreneurship that Nigeria needs is one in which local engineering enterprises will be able to metamorphous  into multinationals like General Electric, Ford Motors, Chevron, Microsoft Corporations,Tata Steel and the likes. This is how we can solve the problem of unemployment as well as put an end to the massive importation of good in Nigeria. However, with this, Nigeria will become industrialised and be listed among the developed nations of the world.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

While you made some points about the politicization of entrepreneurial development in Nigeria, you got some things wrong in your discussion.


1. Entrepreneurship In Nigeria in its entirety Is NOT A Scam [b]NOR [/b]A Multiplier Of Poverty


2. In your final year in any Engineering course, you are always advised not to re-invent the wheel. I dont see why an electrical engineer should be making mother boards or transformers. You should be applying these basic technological inventions to add value. Building inverters and solar systems (not solar panels). Setting up security and access control systems for facilities and so on using electrical parts bought from other countries of cause.


3. I am sure nobody will set up an entrepreaural program to teach you how to fry akara. You are better off learning from mama Iyabo. MacDonald was frying akara and CocaCola was doing kunu, whiile Starbucks is a Mai shayi ...however, it is the entrepreneurial skill of branding, positioning and value addition that singled them out from their peers.


4. YOUWIN...If you look at some businesses proposed in YouWIN, you will know that Nigeria is filled with potentials and thinkers.


5. Food packaging and export is one big field for entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Several Nigerians leaving outside the country are waiting to get some of these local foods at all cost.


6. Innovation is not really the same as invention. Globally, invention is a very small

This is total scam&corrupted embezzlement, for e.g The Transformation agenda & fake skill acquisition of former President GEJ,Was all a total scam,through millenium development goals-MDG's-Ministry of agriculture-through their parastatàls. In fact if I probe them, they will be sorry for their ass let me just stop here.

Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most common businesses found across most of the world’s economies. Although the definition of what an SME is varies across nations, the most widely used measure is that of the European Union (EU), being an independently owned and managed business with fewer than 250 employees, and annual turnover of less than 50 million euro.

Such firms comprise around 99% of all businesses in most economies and between half and three quarters of the value added. They also make a significant contribution to employment and are of interest to governments primarily for their potential to create more jobs.
I looked at this article and I laugh. I will take Anambra as a case study. I come from Nnewi Zone, after the war we decided that whatever business you will do or industry that you will build, you must build some part of it at home, we also encouraged people to have some sort of small business SME and that is it. This small SMEs graduated and evolved to EMZOR , COSCHARIS, IBETO, EKENEDILI and other big companies like CHICASON and ERISCO FOODS. With other small SMEs growing maybe in few years time also these new SMEs will evolve.
Now somebody will come out and tell me that entrepreneurship doesn’t grow a country. I wonder what grows a country. All these big names like Cadbury, PZ, Ford etc started as a one man business. The bottom line is that average Nigerian is lazy and has refused to think out of the box, we will bring down our own local product tagging it IGBO MADE while we buy the foreign stuff. Forgetting that as you buy this foreign stuff you help these foreign workforce to retain their jobs and you sack local workforce

freshdude99:
Mr Op. I'm really sorry to say this, but I think u are lost like seriously. U don't just pick a pen and start writing opinions that aren't well thought of.
To start with, u don't know exactly what entrepreneurship is sir. For u to know this, search for Joseph Schumpeter's capitalism, socialism and democracy. Read it and u improve ignorance
Secondly there are different level of entrepreneurship, it could be necessity-driven or opportunity -driven. Sadly enough Nigeria and majority of Africa still find themselves on the former and that's a serious cause of concern
Thirdly wen rating economies, it could be factor-driven, efficiency -driven or innovation -driven. All these are dependent on competition and globalisation. Sadly enough again, majority of African countries are running a factor -driven economy because of our natural resources abundance and lack of saturation in terms of competitiveness of our local economy.
Mind you entrepreneurship cuts across every sector wether you are a government employee or a private practioner.
Truth is ur write up lacks deep and I see it as a mere complain of another Nigerian who wen given the opportunity to serve won't do anything different from what's already obtainable.
Finally I will end this submission by say that the prevailing economic condition is the only way Nigeria can make it to a developed economy by refusing to devalue the naira, encourage local consumption of local goods, make power stable and if possible give subsidies to local industries across all sectors of the economy etc.
Muoh Obinna
B.Tech Entrepreneurship and Business
muoh_4u@yahoo.com

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of growth and innovation in the APEC region. SMEs account for over 97 percent of all enterprises and employ over half of the workforce across APEC economies. SMEs contribute significantly to economic growth, with SMEs' share of GDP ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent in the majority of APEC economies. However, they only account for 35 percent or less of the direct exports. APEC’s Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG) therefore works to encourage the development of SMEs and to build their capacity to engage in international trade.

The SMEWG works towards the achievement of APEC’s Bogor Goals by fostering an enabling business environment for SMEs to grow and develop into export-ready firms. The APEC SME Ministerial Meetings, held annually since 1994, set out the direction for the Working Group. In August 2012, the SME Ministers endorsed the SMEWG Strategic Plan for 2013-2016 which provided a roadmap to address critical issues pertaining to the growth of SMEs and micro enterprises (MEs) in the APEC region:

1. Building Management Capability, Entrepreneurship and Innovation

2. Financing

3. Business Environment, Market Access and Internationalization.

Under the theme “Mainstreaming Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Global Economy”, the Ministers discussed ways to: (i) Remove trade barriers to facilitate MSMEs entry to markets; (ii) Advance modernization, and standard and conformance of MSMEs; and (iii) Promote inclusive growth through sustainable and resilient MSMEs. The two important outcome documents of the Meeting are the Statement of Ministers and the Iloilo Initiative.

oneolajire:
Nigeria is a country where all big investors have no inventions (tangible or intangible) to their credit. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Thomas Edison and the likes all have products to patent, but most entrepreneurs we have in Nigeria have invented nothing and have made it through dubious means. 

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of telling the youth and graduates that she (the government) lacks industrialisation and job creation strategies while the youth have been left to fate.

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of making the youth/graduates look intellectually lazy and burdensome as well as telling them that they are have been abandoned in the valley of unemployment. Unemployment rate increased simply because government owned industries and companies get strangulated by the python of corruption as well as the refusal of the government to establish new ones.

Entrepreneurship in advanced countries is about innovations, inventions, improvements, expansions, people and institutional empowerment. Modern and sophisticated skills are being utilised to manufacture goods and services which culminates into abundant job creation.

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is of the graduate job seeker told to engage in bead making, soap making, hair dressing, laundry and so on. These businesses have neither inventions nor advancement to add to the business practice and the economy, as they also have little or no impact on the international market. 

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is also of the rich that colludes with the government to defraud the masses, destroy public corporations and infrastructures in order for them to import alternative goods. The rich set up few enterprises and often pay peanuts to their employees in order to increase their wealth; culminating into increase in poverty level and underemployment in the country.  

The government of advanced countries often invest billion of dollars on education and research, so they always have intellectuals who will offer innovative products and services to the world. These products and services are initially developed into small scale businesses as they many even grow into large enterprises. While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds on Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, yet the businesses are nowhere to be found.

Only an insane person will keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. Am yet to see a nation that got developed by investing so little on the education of her youth and students but spend so much on SME propaganda. Still searching for a nation that gave nothing more than mere, non-professional, common, stark and non-sophisticated skills/training to her youth and achieved rapid industrial development.

Why should we buy a trailer engine, fix it in a car and try to make it compete with an aircraft? Why should we make people earn mere skills and expect them to compete with foreign sophisticated technologies? We have to know that the issue of local production of goods and services is a serious competetion with the developed nations.

Some questions for the proponents of entrepreneurship/vocational education.
 When will out textile, fashion and leather industry be able to make products of international standard? When will a Nigerian mechanic be able to manufacture car engines and other motor parts? When will our furniture makers be able to make furniture that will compete with ones made overseas? When will a computer repairer be able to produce motherboards, memorycards, monitors, just to mention a few?

Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's  mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam.

Take a look at the furniture industry in Nigeria, you'll discover it is almost dead because foreign furniture has flooded the Nigerian market. Foreign furniture makers have been able to introduce much variety of products with various designs, even at exorbitant prices, yet people still buy them. Imported furniture  attains this much because modern machines are regularly produced to make new designs of furniture, but here in Nigeria, we only buy simple tools, we don't engage in design and manufacture of  machines/tools to be used in the furniture industry, so we are perpetually making furniture that cannot compete with the foreign ones. It is only engineering that provides modern machines, stack entrepreneurship cannot.

Entrepreneurship and and vocational education has never helped Nigeria in the manufacture of modern machines for production of finished goods that can compete favourably with imported ones. The best entrepreneurship has offered us is to use social media means to engage in selling of imported products as well as setting up of few businesses with the use of foreign machines. It is appaling for government to still keep preaching the sermon that can never bring solutions to us.

Every sector of the Nigerian economy has been badly affected by the erroneous policy of entrepreneurship and vocational education. From the agricultural sector to the transportation sector, from manufacturing to education, from construction to entertainment, name it, we have rendered our nation incapacitated when it comes to production of goods and services. There can never be abundant job opportunities as long as we keep executing this lame practice. 

I wonder why we have not given so much vocational training to professional operating as doctors, nurses and pharmacist in the medical field. We give this set of people trainings that can make them compete favourably with their foreign counterpart. I believe it should appear proper to the government to substitute entrepreneurship and vocational education with the training they receive in the teaching hospitals.  The government (after emptying the laboratories and workshops of polytechniques and universities) substituted requisite training for our engineers and scientist with entrepreneurship and vocational training, so they are rendered handicapped when it comes to provision of modern goods and services as well as job creation.

It is high time we changed our job creation policy of entrepreneurship and vocational studies to provision of qualitative education at all levels, especially science and technology education so that Nigerian graduates would possess requisite modern and sophisticated skills for our nation and the world market at large. It is only qualitative education and intensive research that can initiate intellectual thinking for creation of innovative goods and services.
 
Entrepreneurship and vocational studies have been found to have contributed immensely only to economy of nations with massive investments in education and research. Singapore and South Korea are the examples of nations that have eradicated illiteracy and have invested huge funds into science and technology education, so entrepreneurship thrives there.

Let the laboratories and workshops of our secondary schools and higher institutions be adequately equipped with modern and facilities so as to provide avenues for learning practicals. We need to replicate the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who utilised the qualitative education they obtained in the tetiary institutions to create worldwide business ventures in their fields.

Real entrepreneurship is when Nigerian graduates of electrical engineers can produce transformers, power generation turbines, alternators, televisions from local technologies. Metallurgical engineers must be able to produce steel for oil and gas pipelines as well as in train and car manufacturing. Combustion engines, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic parts must be what our mechanical engineers must be able to manufacture from their companies. Businesses of agricultural science graduates should able to feed the nation cos they should empowered to do so. This is what is called real entrepreneurship.

Businesses that leads to industrialisation are offshoots of science and technological discoveries and investments. The kind of entrepreneurship Nigeria needs is one in which Nigerian chemical engineers can set up refineries and petrochemical companies with the aid local resources. I would also love to see mobile phones, computers and other information technology gadgets developed and commercialised by Nigerian graduates of computer science. 

The entrepreneurship that Nigeria needs is one in which local engineering enterprises will be able to metamorphous  into multinationals like General Electric, Ford Motors, Chevron, Microsoft Corporations,Tata Steel and the likes. This is how we can solve the problem of unemployment as well as put an end to the massive importation of good in Nigeria. However, with this, Nigeria will become industrialised and be listed among the developed nations of the world.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

Sorry to burst your bubble but Entrepreneurship isn't about innovation but basically about meeting people's needs...the means might eventually be via innovation or copycat...whichever means but it's majorly and basically about meeting people's needs.

The Asians are renowned for being wonderful copycats yet they have a formidable economy today simply because they've been meeting the needs of majority of people especially Africans when you consider Techno, Infinix, Gionee, Toyota, Honda etc...

So if I'm selling pure water as long as I'm meeting people's needs I'll be a great entrepreneur... A woman sells "Akara" in front of my shop and i notice how she started from scratch...when i left the place i started noticing she and her daughters had started wearing 9ice clothes...only God knows where she'll get to from there...

The most important thing isn't Innovation but Attitude as dats what will determine your Altitude in life...

oneolajire:
Nigeria is a country where all big investors have no inventions (tangible or intangible) to their credit. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Thomas Edison and the likes all have products to patent, but most entrepreneurs we have in Nigeria have invented nothing and have made it through dubious means. 

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of telling the youth and graduates that she (the government) lacks industrialisation and job creation strategies while the youth have been left to fate.

Entrepreneurship/vocational education is government's way of making the youth/graduates look intellectually lazy and burdensome as well as telling them that they are have been abandoned in the valley of unemployment. Unemployment rate increased simply because government owned industries and companies get strangulated by the python of corruption as well as the refusal of the government to establish new ones.

Entrepreneurship in advanced countries is about innovations, inventions, improvements, expansions, people and institutional empowerment. Modern and sophisticated skills are being utilised to manufacture goods and services which culminates into abundant job creation.

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is of the graduate job seeker told to engage in bead making, soap making, hair dressing, laundry and so on. These businesses have neither inventions nor advancement to add to the business practice and the economy, as they also have little or no impact on the international market. 

Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is also of the rich that colludes with the government to defraud the masses, destroy public corporations and infrastructures in order for them to import alternative goods. The rich set up few enterprises and often pay peanuts to their employees in order to increase their wealth; culminating into increase in poverty level and underemployment in the country.  

The government of advanced countries often invest billion of dollars on education and research, so they always have intellectuals who will offer innovative products and services to the world. These products and services are initially developed into small scale businesses as they many even grow into large enterprises. While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds on Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, yet the businesses are nowhere to be found.

Only an insane person will keep doing the same thing the same way and expect a different result. Am yet to see a nation that got developed by investing so little on the education of her youth and students but spend so much on SME propaganda. Still searching for a nation that gave nothing more than mere, non-professional, common, stark and non-sophisticated skills/training to her youth and achieved rapid industrial development.

Why should we buy a trailer engine, fix it in a car and try to make it compete with an aircraft? Why should we make people earn mere skills and expect them to compete with foreign sophisticated technologies? We have to know that the issue of local production of goods and services is a serious competetion with the developed nations.

Some questions for the proponents of entrepreneurship/vocational education.
 When will out textile, fashion and leather industry be able to make products of international standard? When will a Nigerian mechanic be able to manufacture car engines and other motor parts? When will our furniture makers be able to make furniture that will compete with ones made overseas? When will a computer repairer be able to produce motherboards, memorycards, monitors, just to mention a few?

Did America achieved greatness by emphasising on vocational trainings on how to make shoe polish, bake cake, produce detergents, event decorations , frying akara and establishment of football viewing centres? Did Britain get it right by teaching her youth how to start a beer palour and salon businesses or by ensuring technological dynamism? I wondered if it is mere phone repair training was what brought China among world's  mobile phone producers. Over and over again, I see entrepreneurship and vocational education as a scam.

Take a look at the furniture industry in Nigeria, you'll discover it is almost dead because foreign furniture has flooded the Nigerian market. Foreign furniture makers have been able to introduce much variety of products with various designs, even at exorbitant prices, yet people still buy them. Imported furniture  attains this much because modern machines are regularly produced to make new designs of furniture, but here in Nigeria, we only buy simple tools, we don't engage in design and manufacture of  machines/tools to be used in the furniture industry, so we are perpetually making furniture that cannot compete with the foreign ones. It is only engineering that provides modern machines, stack entrepreneurship cannot.

Entrepreneurship and and vocational education has never helped Nigeria in the manufacture of modern machines for production of finished goods that can compete favourably with imported ones. The best entrepreneurship has offered us is to use social media means to engage in selling of imported products as well as setting up of few businesses with the use of foreign machines. It is appaling for government to still keep preaching the sermon that can never bring solutions to us.

Every sector of the Nigerian economy has been badly affected by the erroneous policy of entrepreneurship and vocational education. From the agricultural sector to the transportation sector, from manufacturing to education, from construction to entertainment, name it, we have rendered our nation incapacitated when it comes to production of goods and services. There can never be abundant job opportunities as long as we keep executing this lame practice. 

I wonder why we have not given so much vocational training to professional operating as doctors, nurses and pharmacist in the medical field. We give this set of people trainings that can make them compete favourably with their foreign counterpart. I believe it should appear proper to the government to substitute entrepreneurship and vocational education with the training they receive in the teaching hospitals.  The government (after emptying the laboratories and workshops of polytechniques and universities) substituted requisite training for our engineers and scientist with entrepreneurship and vocational training, so they are rendered handicapped when it comes to provision of modern goods and services as well as job creation.

It is high time we changed our job creation policy of entrepreneurship and vocational studies to provision of qualitative education at all levels, especially science and technology education so that Nigerian graduates would possess requisite modern and sophisticated skills for our nation and the world market at large. It is only qualitative education and intensive research that can initiate intellectual thinking for creation of innovative goods and services.
 
Entrepreneurship and vocational studies have been found to have contributed immensely only to economy of nations with massive investments in education and research. Singapore and South Korea are the examples of nations that have eradicated illiteracy and have invested huge funds into science and technology education, so entrepreneurship thrives there.

Let the laboratories and workshops of our secondary schools and higher institutions be adequately equipped with modern and facilities so as to provide avenues for learning practicals. We need to replicate the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who utilised the qualitative education they obtained in the tetiary institutions to create worldwide business ventures in their fields.

Real entrepreneurship is when Nigerian graduates of electrical engineers can produce transformers, power generation turbines, alternators, televisions from local technologies. Metallurgical engineers must be able to produce steel for oil and gas pipelines as well as in train and car manufacturing. Combustion engines, pumps, hydraulic and pneumatic parts must be what our mechanical engineers must be able to manufacture from their companies. Businesses of agricultural science graduates should able to feed the nation cos they should empowered to do so. This is what is called real entrepreneurship.

Businesses that leads to industrialisation are offshoots of science and technological discoveries and investments. The kind of entrepreneurship Nigeria needs is one in which Nigerian chemical engineers can set up refineries and petrochemical companies with the aid local resources. I would also love to see mobile phones, computers and other information technology gadgets developed and commercialised by Nigerian graduates of computer science. 

The entrepreneurship that Nigeria needs is one in which local engineering enterprises will be able to metamorphous  into multinationals like General Electric, Ford Motors, Chevron, Microsoft Corporations,Tata Steel and the likes. This is how we can solve the problem of unemployment as well as put an end to the massive importation of good in Nigeria. However, with this, Nigeria will become industrialised and be listed among the developed nations of the world.

oneolajire2000@yahoo.co.uk

a million likes. for this write up..

Nice write up. I concur.

datigbogirl:


Sorry to burst your bubble but Entrepreneurship isn't about innovation but basically about meeting people's needs...the means might eventually be via innovation or copycat...whichever means but it's majorly and basically about meeting people's needs.

The Asians are renowned for being wonderful copycats yet they have a formidable economy today simply because they've been meeting the needs of majority of people especially Africans when you consider Techno, Infinix, Gionee, Toyota, Honda etc...

So if I'm selling pure water as long as I'm meeting people's needs I'll be a great entrepreneur... A woman sells "Akara" in front of my shop and i notice how she started from scratch...when i left the place i started noticing she and her daughters had started wearing 9ice clothes...only God knows where she'll get to from there...

The most important thing isn't Innovation but Attitude as dats what will determine your Altitude in life...

The OP is really funny. When you ask them how many business they have ran, they can't speak. Too much Analysis Paralysis

2sexycom:
The OP is really funny. When you ask them how many business they have ran, they can't speak. Too much Analysis Paralysis

Lols @ Analysis Paralysis..

You actually got it wrong OP. Reverse is actually the case, in most economically strong nations, America,sweden,Australia,etc, they believe in what we call the underground economy (SME) that actually go under the radar of taxation because they are small. They account for close to 70% of employment opportunities abroad. The problem with Nigeria and Nigerians is that everybody wants to work in a firm or wear suits and leave to office even when you earn "meagre stipends", we are so dependent on working for somebody, not creating your own opportunities. Its like this because Tertiary Education has been made cheap and easy to secure, its choking the labour market. Entrepreneurship is not about being big like dangote but making yourself a living out of your creativity, in doesnt have to be big. I am a Nigerian and i can tell you that Nigerian youths are easily the most unserious and lackadaisical you can find around. A lot of them change expensive phones between 50-240k frequently but still complain of unemployment. Why not invest in a little business. My brother don't blame the country. Sort yourself out. I started my business with 186k which was part of my savings during my NYSC mixed with other little savings, i started at the final 2 months of my service year.I export farm produce to some pig farms in china. The business wasn't easy at all at first, i wasn't making much for some time, close to a year, until recently. An ex-friend of mine got a job at KPMG and started acting funny and told me he was not in my level anymore, he was earning close to 250k, to God's glory, that's actually chicken feed to me now. If someone were to tell me to come work for shell right now, i'll be seriously offended because they cant pay me what i earn in my business. I didn't wait on Nigeria to help my case, i believe being educated gives you the platform to express your inate creativity and prowess at something not being a zombie behind a desk dependent on a stipend every month end. Enterpreneurship is the way forward . Only average joes depend on a salary, you can never be rich and experience freedom earning a salary.maybe comfortable but not rich. Nigeria doest have the framework to support Entrepreneurs, yes, create a framework for yourself. Lot of entrepreneurs are making silly money in Nigeria, take a look at computer village , lagos, i know a few young guys below 28 years that make millions every month , between 8-10 million, do they have ten heads?

ypeace:


hello op, you have some nice points there, kudos, Have you read Francis Ogbimi's book, solution to mass unemployment in Nigeria?

yap, I have read it since 2009, on our great campus. I even have the book.

Interesting read. the diverse views from nairalanders even make it more interesting.

The government of advanced countries often
invest billion of dollars on education and
research, so they always have intellectuals who
will offer innovative products and services to
the world. These products and services are
initially developed into small scale businesses
as they many even grow into large enterprises.
While Nigeria keeps wasting hard earned funds
on Small and Medium Scale (SME)
development, yet the businesses are nowhere
to be found.

Do we have same luxury here in Nigeria? By the way Nigeria is rated a "third world" country, so how can we boast of such?..... Why won't nigerians keep wasting hard earned funds on SME when the government and fellow citizens have declared themselves as "Dream killers"..... Take for instance someone who has an effective formula for cough, and has done all necessary research ,test ,experiment,registration (first of all ,going through this process without support is hell in this country. Who cares? Even your dear loved ones will beg you to quit, talk less of to drop a dime)...a research done in LUTH is not enough for UBTH they will ask you to bring money for them to run their own test(ask me if they are really running any test), every teaching hospital and general hospital will ask for their own.. or is it government that will not run the buiz down with high tariff from different angle? They'll collect for electricity upon the fact that you burn fuel everyday, they will ask for refuse bill as if they carry your refuse for you, even after paying to private waste mgt, they will ask for sewage bill as if they know where suck-away is situated the premises..... Or is it fellow citizens that would prefer made in india/china products than made inn Nigeria?
Talk about financial institutions ..let's not even go there,to get a loan of 2million you must have up to 70% of that 2M and more in your account....if I can raise 70% myself what difference would the 30% make? and the frustration goes on and on

ourchoice:
Yeah, but then every problem creates an opportunity for great minds.

I remember one Indian guy who graduated from MIIT where he went to study mechanical engineering; automotive major.

This guy didn't stay back in United States after his graduation like many Nigerian youths would do, what did he do?

He left US back to his remote community in Southern India to do what you may ask?

In his village, they didn't have government electricity but they farm.

He used the waste materials produced by his local village farmers to design a steam engine plant that converts the waste to hot steam, and he used to steam to drive/propel a locally manufactured electricity generator with very large coil that ended up producing over 300kva electricity.

This guy designed 3 of this local steam plant in his community and started giving them constant electricity, and charged the villagers some money as electricity bill.

You need to see his local office, lol

He then hired more village boys as his staff, who helped him to maintain the plants, and also hired two ladies as bill collectors.

He didn't wait for his government, he gave his people rare solution to their problem and charged them.

This happened in 2002/03.

Later, when government wanted to electrify the community, they had no option than to partner with his existing electricity power company, and now he owns a big power generation company, expanding into other communities.

But if it were a Nigerian youth, he will never do that! It's degrading to his title: A GRADUATE!!! He will rather spend his entire life planning how to get job at Chevron, Mobil, Agip, Schlumberger, etc

I am sorry to say that we Nigerian youths aren't inventive enough...if we are, we won't need government in most things, but government will be forced to work and partner with us

How I wish our nigerian youths E.G our musians,engineers could cme and replicate dis in Nigeria,, instead na to dey buy latest house, car dem sabi..God help us all

oneolajire:



yap, I have read it since 2009, on our great campus. I even have the book.

cool. I have his exa, tommorow, TPD 502. There is need for us to inform people with the correct perception and solution to Nigeria's problem because the rate at which wrong perception and wrong drug ois being admistered is alarming. An industrialized (well structured) version of informing people (about the right perception of the problem) is need to match and surpass the rate of misinformation. The industrialised version as observed by adam smith and recorded in page 79 of Ogbimi's book, solution to mass unemployment in Nigeria will be more efficient. Don't you think?

Unclerukus:
You actually got it wrong OP. Reverse is actually the case, in most economically strong nations, America,sweden,Australia,etc, they believe in what we call the underground economy (SME) that actually go under the radar of taxation because they are small. They account for close to 70% of employment opportunities abroad. The problem with Nigeria and Nigerians is that everybody wants to work in a firm or wear suits and leave to office even when you earn "meagre stipends", we are so dependent on working for somebody, not creating your own opportunities. Its like this because Tertiary Education has been made cheap and easy to secure, its choking the labour market. Entrepreneurship is not about being big like dangote but making yourself a living out of your creativity, in doesnt have to be big. I am a Nigerian and i can tell you that Nigerian youths are easily the most unserious and lackadaisical you can find around. A lot of them change expensive phones between 50-240k frequently but still complain of unemployment. Why not invest in a little business. My brother don't blame the country. Sort yourself out. I started my business with 186k which was part of my savings during my NYSC mixed with other little savings, i started at the final 2 months of my service year.I export farm produce to some pig farms in china. The business wasn't easy at all at first, i wasn't making much for some time, close to a year, until recently. An ex-friend of mine got a job at KPMG and started acting funny and told me he was not in my level anymore, he was earning close to 250k, to God's glory, that's actually chicken feed to me now. If someone were to tell me to come work for shell right now, i'll be seriously offended because they cant pay me what i earn in my business. I didn't wait on Nigeria to help my case, i believe being educated gives you the platform to express your inate creativity and prowess at something not being a zombie behind a desk dependent on a stipend every month end. Enterpreneurship is the way forward . Only average joes depend on a salary, you can never be rich and experience freedom earning a salary.maybe comfortable but not rich. Nigeria doest have the framework to support Entrepreneurs, yes, create a framework for yourself. Lot of entrepreneurs are making silly money in Nigeria, take a look at computer village , lagos, i know a few young guys below 28 years that make millions every month , between 8-10 million, do they have ten heads?

the point the op is trying to make which you, christopher123 and others who think sme is the way, is not getting is;

developed nations did not develop as a result of their sme. If you check the article posted by christopher123, APEC nations ( which I called adults) are develeped not because they built their SME's. But, they are capable of DEVELOPING NOT GROWING their smes because the are now developed. Nigeria and third world countries (babies) should not try to eat adult's food by developing their SMEs. What a baby needs is breast-milk......... Someone up there said something about China doing copy cat.


Now have it in mine that China is not yet a developed country. But China is growing to be one because, before you copy cat, you learn what the other person first do before reapeating it.............. Let me illustrate better.......


3 students are in a class. Developed nation, DN is a student who knows engineering and can draw with autocad. After drawing with autocad, he sells his drawings. Fast developing nations like china are copying every clicks and strokes DN makes, the repeat the clicks and strokes drawn on the system and makes autocad drawing to sell. Underdeveloped nations, UDN, like Nigeria copy the autocad drawings of DN to sell. The difference is, DN knows, they do and they sell. Developing nations are trying to do, by them trying to copy cat, they ask questions and when their questions are answered, they learn. UDN are doing something too but that something is the wrong thing. Instead of learning, they want the end product.


Activities of underdeveloped countries is characterized by bringing in finished products like How dangote brings in chemical, machines, mixes it together using either unskilled or underdeveloped labour.

The day UN stops dealing with autocad drawings is the day UDN stopes earning from it. The day europeans stops making the machine and chemical Dangote uses in a particular sector, is the day that sector of dangote's investment starts to dwingle just like NITEL died.

Compare Dangote to Bill gate....... If you see the difference in development and growth, then you understand what point the op is trying to make.

ypeace:


the point the op is trying to make which you, christopher123 and others who think sme is the way, is not getting is;

developed nations did not develop as a result of their sme. If you check the article posted by christopher123, APEC nations ( which I called adults) are develeped not because they built their SME's. But, they are capable of DEVELOPING NOT GROWING their smes because the are now developed. Nigeria and third world countries (babies) should not try to eat adult's food by developing their SMEs. What a baby needs is breast-milk......... Someone up there said something about China doing copy cat.


Now have it in mine that China is not yet a developed country. But China is growing to be one because, before you copy cat, you learn what the other person first do before reapeating it.............. Let me illustrate better.......


3 students are in a class. Developed nation, DN is a student who knows engineering and can draw with autocad. After drawing with autocad, he sells his drawings. Fast developing nations like china are copying every clicks and strokes DN makes, the repeat the clicks and strokes drawn on the system and makes autocad drawing to sell. Underdeveloped nations, UDN, like Nigeria copy the autocad drawings of DN to sell. The difference is, DN knows, they do and they sell. Developing nations are trying to do, by them trying to copy cat, they ask questions and when their questions are answered, they learn. UDN are doing something too but that something is the wrong thing. Instead of learning, they want the end product.


Activities of underdeveloped countries is characterized by bringing in finished products like How dangote brings in chemical, machines, mixes it together using either unskilled or underdeveloped labour.

The day UN stops dealing with autocad drawings is the day UDN stopes earning from it. The day europeans stops making the machine and chemical Dangote uses in a particular sector, is the day that sector of dangote's investment starts to dwingle just like NITEL died.

Compare Dangote to Bill gate....... If you see the difference in development and growth, then you understand what point the op is trying to make.

I used anambra and nnewi as also a case study

Nnewi has the highest concentration of business owners and anambra as a whole ...it's the work of SME


Will you refute this also

christopher123:
Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most common businesses found across most of the world’s economies. Although the definition of what an SME is varies across nations, the most widely used measure is that of the European Union (EU), being an independently owned and managed business with fewer than 250 employees, and annual turnover of less than 50 million euro.

Such firms comprise around 99% of all businesses in most economies and between half and three quarters of the value added. They also make a significant contribution to employment and are of interest to governments primarily for their potential to create more jobs.
I looked at this article and I laugh. I will take Anambra as a case study. I come from Nnewi Zone, after the war we decided that whatever business you will do or industry that you will build, you must build some part of it at home, we also encouraged people to have some sort of small business SME and that is it. This small SMEs graduated and evolved to EMZOR , COSCHARIS, IBETO, EKENEDILI and other big companies like CHICASON and ERISCO FOODS. With other small SMEs growing maybe in few years time also these new SMEs will evolve.
Now somebody will come out and tell me that entrepreneurship doesn’t grow a country. I wonder what grows a country. All these big names like Cadbury, PZ, Ford etc started as a one man business. The bottom line is that average Nigerian is lazy and has refused to think out of the box, we will bring down our own local product tagging it IGBO MADE while we buy the foreign stuff. Forgetting that as you buy this foreign stuff you help these foreign workforce to retain their jobs and you sack local workforce

sorry, am not sure you read through my write up, if you did, you wouldn't have written this dissapointing comment.

christopher123:
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of growth and innovation in the APEC region. SMEs account for over 97 percent of all enterprises and employ over half of the workforce across APEC economies. SMEs contribute significantly to economic growth, with SMEs' share of GDP ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent in the majority of APEC economies. However, they only account for 35 percent or less of the direct exports. APEC’s Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG) therefore works to encourage the development of SMEs and to build their capacity to engage in international trade.

The SMEWG works towards the achievement of APEC’s Bogor Goals by fostering an enabling business environment for SMEs to grow and develop into export-ready firms. The APEC SME Ministerial Meetings, held annually since 1994, set out the direction for the Working Group. In August 2012, the SME Ministers endorsed the SMEWG Strategic Plan for 2013-2016 which provided a roadmap to address critical issues pertaining to the growth of SMEs and micro enterprises (MEs) in the APEC region:

1. Building Management Capability, Entrepreneurship and Innovation

2. Financing

3. Business Environment, Market Access and Internationalization.

Under the theme “Mainstreaming Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Global Economy”, the Ministers discussed ways to: (i) Remove trade barriers to facilitate MSMEs entry to markets; (ii) Advance modernization, and standard and conformance of MSMEs; and (iii) Promote inclusive growth through sustainable and resilient MSMEs. The two important outcome documents of the Meeting are the Statement of Ministers and the Iloilo Initiative.

am not sure you really read my write up. You wrote from a ready-made up mind without going through the points ealier. Pls try read through once again

datigbogirl:


Sorry to burst your bubble but Entrepreneurship isn't about innovation but basically about meeting people's needs...the means might eventually be via innovation or copycat...whichever means but it's majorly and basically about meeting people's needs.

The Asians are renowned for being wonderful copycats yet they have a formidable economy today simply because they've been meeting the needs of majority of people especially Africans when you consider Techno, Infinix, Gionee, Toyota, Honda etc...

So if I'm selling pure water as long as I'm meeting people's needs I'll be a great entrepreneur... A woman sells "Akara" in front of my shop and i notice how she started from scratch...when i left the place i started noticing she and her daughters had started wearing 9ice clothes...only God knows where she'll get to from there...

The most important thing isn't Innovation but Attitude as dats what will determine your Altitude in life...

hum, so much difference in reasoning, some people think of how to make hi-tech products while some are satisfied with selling akara and pure water. Lets see where the two distincts reasonings will lead her people

bassette:
a million likes. for this write up..

thanks

2sexycom:
The OP is really funny. When you ask them how many business they have ran, they can't speak. Too much Analysis Paralysis

what a pitable comment

oneolajire:


what a pitable comment

Dude, yours is more pitiable. There is nothing I detest as people who are kill joy and your epistle is one. By the way, what was the reason for your email in the OP?

christopher123:


I used anambra and nnewi as also a case study

Nnewi has the highest concentration of business owners and anambra as a whole ...it's the work of SME


Will you refute this also

I do not know whether your claim is true or false but what is the definition of Cocentration of business owners? Is this claim based on any objective data or just sentiments. What kinds of business exactly is it that is done in Nnewi and how do you define business owner? A lawyer running a Chambers is a business owner as is an Aboki selling Suya or cigarettes. So please tell us how you come about this Nnewi claim?

christopher123:


I used anambra and nnewi as also a case study

Nnewi has the highest concentration of business owners and anambra as a whole ...it's the work of SME


Will you refute this also

I do not know whether your claim is true or false but what is the definition of Concentration of business owners
WHAT IS A BUSINESS?>
Is this claim based on any objective data or just sentiments. What kinds of business exactly is it that is done in Nnewi and how do you define business owner? before talking of "concentration" ? That assertion seems like fantasy to me ? Do you know the concentration of Businesses in Malumfashi or Gamboru Ngala?
A lawyer running a Chambers is a business owner as is an Aboki selling Suya or cigarettes. So please tell us how you come about this Nnewi claim?

Well av been following the conversations and appreciate everyone dat has express him or herself on ds........Well I'm also an entrepreneur....To attain a very large state or becoming producer or manufacturer in a large quantity especially the ones that will meet up with the international standard u av to start somewhere......and also be reminded that u can only function in ds standard only if the Nigeria environment is conducive(with good and favorable. Policies from the government).We av leaders in ds country but good and innovative leaders are scars.......The only polices they can support is d one dat can cater for themselves and their loved one....... Some Nigerian Youth are really Ready To Contribute But ......Unavailability of good Facilities and Poor Orientations From Some Lectures also added to d injury...........Financial Institutions are not ready to give out loans without greedy huge profit on it.....

Honestly, I'm thrilled by the writeup and equally agree with so many views. My take..what is the cost of invention? Our problems as a nation must be tacled whollystically and not in isolation. Many questions to ask...do we as a people encourage idealist...I bet to say NO! do we believe in what we can invent, do we support ideas that can lead to invention..let us leave the government out....the great inventors we know of, how many got their funding from their respective government...how many were actually educated in formal education.....not to say no education....they got the necessary support from friends, families, those who believed in them....we need healing in this country...like the saying "few people makes things happen, many watch things happen"...I wish to go on and on but honestly we need to come together and make things work.
Thanks

aribisala0:
People do not have to invent anything to be good businessmen or entrepreneurs. The process of monetizing inventions is very different from the process of invention.
There are enough inventions already to secure our prosperity. Do we need inventions to secure electricity or good roads or hospitals or fire service etc. Do we need inventions to have a national carrier or world class airports. Inventions are not OUR PROBLEM right now. All the inventions needed to improve our lives exist already so net us not get things mixed up. The World Chocolate industry is about $100 billion , a few years ago KRAFT foods BOUGHT CADBURY .Kraft is America whilst Cadbury was British neither country grows a single cocoa tree. What are the innovations in that industry. Nigeria's problem is not innovation. Though people may choose all kinds of elastic definitions. The truth is we are VERY IGNORANT OF THE EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES and this is evident in our workmen and labourers and the training they receive. We see this in our buildings ,roads etc. What does innovation have to do with asking 1000s of people to sit an exam in a stadium?

Meister, teach me how to walk in your ways . I want to read the type of books you read and watch the teachings you watch. Your common sense/wisdom is unrivalled. A follow back would not be bad sir. Enjoy the rest of the day.

obiaguna:


Meister, teach me how to walk in your ways . I want to read the type of books you read and watch the teachings you watch. Your common sense/wisdom is unrivalled. A follow back would not be bad sir. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Thanks for the kind words.I pray to be wise one day

christopher123:


I used anambra and nnewi as also a case study

Nnewi has the highest concentration of business owners and anambra as a whole ...it's the work of SME


Will you refute this also

I don't know Anambra or Nnewi. One could be considered richer than the other. But which is qualified to be developed? The true fact remains acquisition of capital (growth) is not same as development. And infact it does not lead to development. Nigeria over the years have acquired capital in form of loans, infrastructure but that has led to an increase in foreign dept and depreciated assets we lack the knowledge and capability to upgrade. Further acquisition of loan, machines instead of acquisition of knowledge, skill and capability to make them ourselves is like the foolish man in chinese proverb who didnt learn how to fish but wants to eat fish.


We had NITEL as a business in Nigeria, equivalent to growth in communication, we lack the development i.e the ability to build and run NITEL independently. The day those who built NITEl for us switch to another form (mobile network), NITEl falls. Now we have mtn, glo, etisalat which Nigeria had no capacity to build. They are business growth, not business dev. Nanotechnology is fast developing, when the west stops furnishing us with what the so called business men deal with, their business will run a natural death like NITEL.


But instead of acquiring capital a mere depreciating asset (finished product, infrastructure), let us acquire the knowledge, skill and capacity to do it ourselves just like Europeans learnt from india, china, islamic and african civilization in the medieval periods; just like how England learnt from the Europeans, America learnt from England, and the Asians are fast learning from Americans.


I am not writing this as a result of what I think is right, I am this as a result of learning from pple like Professor Ogbimi, Wale Babalakin etc, and a careful study of history myself. I have done an un-published report comparative study of history between Nigeria and India automobile industry submitted to a dept in OAU........


The result as learnt from history shows that developed country did not develop because they had money, infrastructure, smes. They developed because they acquire the KNOWLEDGE, SKILL AND CAPACITY to do what they were unable to do prior to their advancement.

Talking about quality education in Nigeria, I always wonder why power continues to be a problem in a country of more than 50 universities with faculties of engineering. With all their PhD holders, one wonders what they do there. Shior!

ypeace:


the point the op is trying to make which you, christopher123 and others who think sme is the way, is not getting is;

developed nations did not develop as a result of their sme. If you check the article posted by christopher123, APEC nations ( which I called adults) are develeped not because they built their SME's. But, they are capable of DEVELOPING NOT GROWING their smes because the are now developed. Nigeria and third world countries (babies) should not try to eat adult's food by developing their SMEs. What a baby needs is breast-milk......... Someone up there said something about China doing copy cat.


Now have it in mine that China is not yet a developed country. But China is growing to be one because, before you copy cat, you learn what the other person first do before reapeating it.............. Let me illustrate better.......


3 students are in a class. Developed nation, DN is a student who knows engineering and can draw with autocad. After drawing with autocad, he sells his drawings. Fast developing nations like china are copying every clicks and strokes DN makes, the repeat the clicks and strokes drawn on the system and makes autocad drawing to sell. Underdeveloped nations, UDN, like Nigeria copy the autocad drawings of DN to sell. The difference is, DN knows, they do and they sell. Developing nations are trying to do, by them trying to copy cat, they ask questions and when their questions are answered, they learn. UDN are doing something too but that something is the wrong thing. Instead of learning, they want the end product.


Activities of underdeveloped countries is characterized by bringing in finished products like How dangote brings in chemical, machines, mixes it together using either unskilled or underdeveloped labour.

The day UN stops dealing with autocad drawings is the day UDN stopes earning from it. The day europeans stops making the machine and chemical Dangote uses in a particular sector, is the day that sector of dangote's investment starts to dwingle just like NITEL died.

Compare Dangote to Bill gate....... If you see the difference in development and growth, then you understand what point the op is trying to make.

Kodos to you. You wrote from my point of view, you have a big heart. Nice job