The Strategic Importance of Entrepreneurship as a Mechanism for Sustainable Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to critically assess the strategic importance of entrepreneurship as a mechanism for sustainable economic growth in Nigeria considering the experiences of developed nations like the America, Europe, Japan, India, and China. Entrepreneurship has been instrumental in economic growth, balanced regional development, and job creation in most dynamic economies, where technology is changing at a faster rate and the product life cycle is becoming less. Research in entrepreneurship development indicates that there is a lack of a theoretical model to examine rural entrepreneurship development particularly in the developing countries like Nigeria. The methodology adopted in this paper is the narrative – textual case study (NTCS); it is a social science research method that relies on the information and data from several sources for problem-solving. It is a fact that entrepreneurship development plays a vital role in economic development of any nation including the developing countries like Nigeria. However, despite this, most entrepreneurial policies and programs seems to favour the urban centres until recently when efforts are geared towards the rural areas. Thus, this paper examines the strategic role of entrepreneurship in the development of the rural areas in a developing economy. The study reveals that the right business environment for entrepreneurship is lacking in Nigeria on account of bad and inadequate infrastructural facilities, political instability, terrorism, multiple taxes, all stand as barriers to entrepreneurship and economic growth. The paper concludes that government should focus on adequate security, improve infrastructural facilities and enabling environment that will lead to economic growth which can be sustained to a developmental level. Keywords: Nigeria, Strategic, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development, Economic Growth.