As a result of the economic, political and social influences of the global economic meltdown, nations have decided to look inward of their
domestic economies in other to build a virile and viable domestic economy that will be relatively immune from the financial and economic strangulation that may occur in the eastern world again. The recent global economic meltdown has brought to limelight, as well as the reality, that the world is a global market.
Aham (2009) posits that the economy works like a web and what affects one country affects the other for example, banks would have extended loans which are being serviced monthly by companies and government. Their inability to pay off the loan when due would automatically affect the banking industry’s liquidity.
This will result to situations where the banks can no longer honour cash or credit obligations to their customers and cyclical effect continues to the detriment of the economy.
It is to this extent that developing area like Ogbe-Ijaw, in Warri South-West have empowers the youth in career development through some business training like hair-dressing, Tailoring, Catering Services through strategic entrepreneurship education. It is no gain saying that the Nigerian economy is solely sponsored by the revenue of the oil sector derived from the Niger Delta. It is said that a once thrilling economy with multiple agricultural exports such as cocoa, groundnut and skin etc, is now solely dependent on the price of oil in the international market.
A fall (whether drastic or slow) in the price of oil will result to a fall in the domestic Nigerian economy. It was therefore no surprise that the federal government of Nigerian through the National Universities Commission (NUC) introduced entrepreneurship education (EE) which is aimed at equipping tertiary education students with entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and competencies in order to be job creators and not just job hunters. This is to improve the economic, technological and industrial development of the business education student as well as to reduce poverty to its minimum.
Oduwaiye (2005) ascribed the need for entrepreneurship education in business education to the smallest ratio of the availability of white collar jobs (Popularly called office work”). The availability of white collar jobs compared to the massive turnout of graduates from Universities as well as the Nigeria Youth Service Corp (NYSC), show a negative ratio. The available jobs cannot meet the needs of over one hundred tertiary schools in Nigeria (Federal States, Private Universities, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education etc).
In 1985, the General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida administration introduced programmers like Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) and National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to address the problem of graduate unemployment but succeeded minimally. In more recent time, the Obasanjo Civilian administration introduced the National Poverty eradication Programmes (NAPEO) which is still in operation in the country till date.
Oduwaiye (2005) conclude3d that all theses programmes and measures so far have proved to be grossly ineffective in solving the problem of graduate employment which have assumed critical dimension, especially due to the proliferation for both public and private tertiary institutions.
It is to this end that the majority of academic and entrepreneurs in the Nigeria society welcome this development of teaching and developing entrepreneurial studies in the minds of the undergraduates to prepare them for the wider world of opportunities to create jobs and ultimately become employers of labour.
No comments:
Post a Comment