Assessing Women Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects
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ASSESSING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS
Ibrahim Abba Sheriff
Department: Business Education
Federal College of Education, Okene
Abstract
Women form the backbone of Nigerian economies, accounting for a majority of small and medium-sized businesses, dominating the agriculture sector as primary producers and food processors, as well as in many service sectors. Their full economic empowerment is therefore crucial to increase productivity levels, enhance economic efficiency, and improve overall development outcomes to achieve inclusive growth. However, there was gender imbalance for a long time in the control of wealth in Nigeria particularly in the north because entrepreneurship used to be male-dominated; only men used to own businesses and controlled factors of production. This infamous trend has however dwindled especially in the last two decades but not at a satisfactory level. This project will examine the multiple obstacles that continue to impede female entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Data that would be used are mainly from secondary sources-Federal Office of Statistics (FOS) (2018), NBS (2017) and Annabel &Mairo (2017) on the variables affecting the growth of female entrepreneurship in Nigeria, particularly in the northern region. Sources of fuel wood, child marriage and educational exposure of Nigerian women are the three (3) main variables to be used in presenting the available data and how these combines to retard the growth of women entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Also, in-depth interviews would be carried out to complement the secondary data. Sixteen (16) female entrepreneurs shall be purposively selected from sixteen (16) systematically chosen households at Okengwe in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State and interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire that centre on various aspects of female entrepreneurship in the State and in Nigeria as a whole. Deductions made from the data and interviews would be presented descriptively from here we make submissions on female entrepreneurship in Nigeria. The research will recommend among others delaying age at marriage and completing at least secondary education by all girls in order to increase women entrepreneurship and reduce poverty among Nigerian women.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, women, Nigeria
