A Contextual Understanding of Youth of Entrepreneurship Education Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Prompted by growing emphasis, particularly in Africa where poverty and conflict have been associated with high youth unemployment, to use entrepreneurship education to influence young people’s post-study intentions, this paper articulates the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention amongst students and graduates from two higher education institutions affected by the on-going conflict in northern Nigeria. By relying on systematic analysis following semi-structured interviews, the findings showed that newly acquired knowledge and skills in use of market intelligence, business plan writing and record-keeping were not only linked with entrepreneurial intentions, but it also emerged that the volatile context of the business environment influenced strategic decisions related to new business growth and survival. Future research and policy implications were considered based on the findings.