Analysis of Entrepreneurial Intentions among Students of Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

doi:10.7176/ejbm/14-1-01

Abstract

The study analysed students’ entrepreneurial intentions based on the theory of planned behaviour. A multistage sampling procedure was deployed to select 3600 students across selected universities in Nigeria, and a well-structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents to retrieve the relevant data to achieve the objectives of the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics as well as a Conjoint Analysis Technique to analyse the multi-level factors influencing students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The study found that more females (27.5%) than males (13.1%) have entrepreneurial intentions. 85% of the 1372 respondents, who have entrepreneurship intentions, have no specialized skills for self-employment. A significant proportion of the respondents wanted training in Fashion/laundry (29%) and agribusiness techniques (26%). According to findings, students rated certificate prestige, social status, personal interest, and expected income, in the descending order of importance, as factors influencing their entrepreneurial intentions. On the basis of these findings, recommendations were made. Keywords: Entrepreneurial intentions, theory of planned behaviour, conjoint analysis, certificate prestige, social status, personal interest DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-1-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2022

Highlights

The socio-economic dimension to the rising rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria and other countries in the subSaharan Africa calls for concern
24 years of age who are expected to be in the labour market are still in tertiary institutions trying to acquire either the certificates or the required skills and competence to get employed in the industry or be self-employed
According to the relative importance values, the respondents rated both certificate prestige and social status&integration as the most significant attributes that influenced their entrepreneurial intention. These are closely followed by personal interest to discover new product with a view to offering a new line of service (25.328%) and expected/future income (20.128%)

Summary

Introduction

The socio-economic dimension to the rising rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria and other countries in the subSaharan Africa calls for concern. It could be more traumatizing if the unemployed individual does not have entrepreneurial skills to be self-employed, or he is not willing to get involved in the business of agriculture. It is a well-established fact that a well-developed agricultural value chain has enormous potentials to provide jobs for millions of youth in the sub-region (African Development Bank [AfDB], 2018; and Wuni et al, 2017). Many youths are pessimistic of starting up a business due to inconsistent government policies on ease of doing business (Akolgo, 2021; Nyambo et al, 2019; and Wuni et al, 2017)

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Conclusion