Abstract
This study investigated on the government entrepreneurial policies that facilitate
entrepreneurship and how effective these policies are on organizations. It focused
on the empirical study of creating knowledge about entrepreneurship development
in Nigeria. It studied the government efforts towards resolving the problems of
entrepreneurship: lack of finance, managerial and technological know how,
education and training, lack of experienced expatriate and local completion,
inadequate infrastructure leading to high cost and finally high burden of taxation.
The major findings of this research include; Government entrepreneurial
development policies have immensely improved entrepreneurial organizations,
these organizations in turn have contributed a lot towards economic and national
development especially in the aspect of reducing unemployment and generating
income. The most important incentive given to entrepreneurs by government is
finance. The entrepreneurs still encounter
1.1 Background of the Study
The history of big enterprises and industrial revolution started with persons whose
imaginative ventures into business gave rise to the present day technology. It dated
back to the olden days, when people engaged in farming, herding, crafts etc and
commodities were traded mainly on barter and later on precious metals. In the
colonial era, the tempo of business then was set and controlled by the colonial
government. Prominent European firms that were highly integrated and dominated
commercial and merchandising activities in Nigeria were John Holt, Paterson,
Zochoris, Leventis, Leverbrothers, PZ, Campaignie Francaise du L’Afrique
Occidentale (CFAO,) the Royal Niger now United African Company (UAC),
Societe Commerciale de L’ Ouest Africain (SCOA) etc. Some of these Companies
grew so large that few, if any of the economic decisions could be wisely initiated
and instituted in Nigeria without soliciting and obtaining their co-operation. Apart
from trading, colonialism also accounted for the development of quasi-technical
business and semi-skilled labour in Nigeria. About this time, many of the Nigerian
entrepreneurs were still gasping for breath. They did not benefit much from the
liberal attitude of the government because they lacked political persuasiveness
resulting from their lack of political power, low status, lack of cohesion and also
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because the coming of independence created an insatiable demand for trained and
qualified nationals. Thus, there was a limit to their ability to pressurize the
government into favourable action or to threaten non co-operation in the attainment
of national priorities. Their impact was insignificant and as a result, in the
administrative bureaucracy of the colonial government (the civil service, public
sector utilities established by them e.g Public Works Dept [PWD], Post and
Telegraph [P&T], Railway, Electricity Corporation and other multinational
Organization) Nigerian workers served as the cronies of the white colonial masters
as messengers, clerks, semi-skilled technicians and craftsmen. Some of these
workers later established micro scale business in line with their trade.
From 1950’s, Nigeria began to make an unprecedented effort to encourage
economic growth and development. National consciousness was at its peak. In
1952, the pioneer industries ordinance was introduced. It gave certificates of
recognition to specified industries and exempted them from paying taxation for two
years. In the same year, the income tax ordinance was passed which allowed
companies accelerated amortization. In 1957 and 1958, the government gave import
relief taxation to foreign companies and liberalized the granting of pioneer
certificate, thus making the offer more attractive. In 1959, the Nigerian Industrial
Development Bank (NIDB) was established to assist entrepreneurs engage in
business. In 1960, political independence was granted and Nigeria witnessed an
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expansion in business. The indigenization exercise started in 1972 with the
introduction of the Nigerians enterprises promotion Decree or the indigenization
Act of 1972 with the major objective of encouraging indigenous participation in
ownership and management of business. Maost of the Nigerian businessmen who
were apprenticed and agents of the “Colonial Lords” blossomed into large-scale
entrepreneurs. This Act also compelled some foreign organizations to share the
ownership of their business with Nigerian. The indigenization Act of 1977 known
as the Nigerian’s Enterprise Promotion’s Act specified the equity participation of
Nigerians in those companies which are broken into three categories (100% for
schedule 1, 60% for schedule II, 40% for schedule III). By virtue of this
indigenization exercise, Nigerians dramatically displaced the expatriates in
ownership, management and control of the business organization in Nigeria. On the
whole, a little over 700 alien dominated companies are expected to comply with this
decree (Bus Times, Vol. 3, No. 41 July 25, 1978 P.I). By this exercise also
Nigerians in one fell swoop, became owners of large business and started
conducting business activities at national and global levels.
What constitute a small scale business differ in terms of quantitative, qualitative,
technological or labour intensive methods. The Nigeria Bank for Commerce and
industries define small scale business as an indigenous firm or company having
assets, inclusive of working capital but excluding land or land worth, not above
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N750, 000, and a paid employment not exceeding fifty persons at a time. The
Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree defines it as one capable of having assets
more than N750,000 and a paid employment of more than 50 persons provided that
its output is small to the prevalent size of plant, technology and labour. CBN
defines it as firm or company whose annual turnover ranges between N250,000 to
N500,000 while SAP defines it as having N150,000 to N500,000 as minimum and
maximum capital level.
According to the Minister for Industry, Kola Jamodu (2001), entrepreneurship in
Nigeria accounted for over 95% of non-oil productive activities outside Agriculture.
Some of the government efforts towards their development include financial, fiscal,
export incentives and technical assistance. These government policies will lead to
the growth in entrepreneurship and also create and distribute the economic wealth
of Nigeria thereby fostering national growth and development. Also to ensure
continued stay in business, there is the need for corporate appraisals from time to
time.
1.2 Theoretical Framework
A conceptual framework for this research is drawn from Entrepreneurship
development theory. Entrepreneurship is the process of initiating and managing
business organizations to accomplish societal objectives. It is also the willingness
and ability of an individual, group of individuals or government entity to seek out
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investment opportunities, establish and run an enterprise successfully. An
entrepreneur therefore is an individual, a group of individuals or government entity
who undertake the responsibility of making innovations in the economy
(developing a new source of supply of raw material, new methods of production or
distribution, introducing new goods/ service and opening a new market) or carries
out a new organization of an industry.
The purpose of entrepreneurship is to diversify economic activities and also to
create opportunities within the economy. Government entrepreneurial development
policies include those policies which have been put in place by the government to
enhance the productivity of entrepreneurs. Empirical studies in the performance of
organizations as a result of these government interventions are rare. This study
would make significant contributions to the existing stock of knowledge in the
study of entrepreneurship.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
The poor performance of entrepreneurial organizations are due to lack of finance,
managerial and technological know how, education and training, experienced
expatriate and local completion, inadequate infrastructure leading to high costs and
huge burden of taxation.
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The statement of the problem in this study is therefore to investigate the ways in
which government policies have improved the performance of entrepreneurial
organizations. It studies the government efforts towards resolving the problems of
entrepreneurs and thus developing them to take up the challenges thrown to them as
the ENGINES OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE “LAST RESORT” in
the privatization exercise.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of this study is to investigate:
1. Those government positive interventions that can develop the entrepreneurs
to attain their peak in corporate performance.
2. The major problems facing entrepreneurship development and the diverse
ways in which government aims at resolving these problems.
3. The various ways of assessing co-operate performance either by the
entrepreneur himself or by external bodies to ascertain the extent to which the
objectives of the entrepreneur has been met.
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES.
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between government
entrepreneurial development strategies and the performance of
entrepreneurs.
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Hypothesis 2: there is no significant relationship between managerial problems
and entrepreneurial performance.
Hypothesis 3: There is significant relationship between entrepreneurial
financial problems and entrepreneurial performance.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
The overall returns of this study shall be beneficial to the economy as a whole. It is
therefore hoped that the perusal of findings would be of great help to individuals,
institutions, entrepreneurial organizations, government and researchers who will
make use of this work. This study has the potentials of making important
contributions for instance;
Firstly, to graduates and school leavers, who if they find themselves unemployed
could gain for themselves employment.
Secondly, businessmen will find this study interesting, as it will show why many
entrepreneurs did not succeed and recommend possible criteria for success.
Thirdly, government will find out the reasons for the low level of entrepreneurial
development and then provide a better and enabling environment for potential and
prospective entrepreneurs. This will also go ahead to increase employment and
income.
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Furthermore, this study will show how rapid and sustained entrepreneurship
development will promote industrial development in Nigerian and finally, it will be
found useful for academic purposes.
1.7 MOTIVATION AND FORMAT FOR THE STUDY
The author who incidentally is an entrepreneur, was motivated to carry out this
study as a result of increased interest in area of entrepreneurship. What motivated
me to carry out this research was to find out if there was any “prospect” at all in
entrepreneurship. She wishes to find out to what extent the government has gone in
ensuring that rapidly springing up school leavers, graduates and prospective
entrepreneurs find entrepreneurship appealing. She wishes to encourage the
unemployed to prayerfully and carefully venture into a business.
Furthermore, I want to find out if entrepreneurial organizations are effective,
whether credit facilities are available to them, if there are provisions for basic
infrastructure, if the business climate is stable and if the markets can accommodate
their product as well.
This research work is divided into five chapters, chapter one focuses on the
background and general introduction to the topic, chapter two focuses on the review
of relevant concept to the topic. Chapter three treats the general methodology of the
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study and chapter four deals with data presentation, analysis and interpretation.
Chapter five deals on summary of findings and recommendations.
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
There were some impediments that limited this study. Time and finance were major
setbacks. Transportation demanded so much money and updates from the internet
as well. The researcher could not reach all the entrepreneurs in all the industries.
Random samples of the entrepreneurs were taken from selected firms in Anambra
state. The researcher was unable to collect the entire questionnaire issued out. The
time to move from one library to the other, type and distribute questionnaire posed a
constraint because of engagement at my workplace. Despite all these, the researcher
was able to carry out the study.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. ORGANIZATION: According to Onwuchekwa (2000), Organization is the
association of two or more individuals working cooperatively together for a
common purpose under authority and leadership.
2. MANAGEMENT: According to Stoner (1982), management is the process
of planning, organizing, leading and controlling efforts of organizational members
and of using all other organizational resources to achieve stated organizational
objectives.
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3. ENTREPRENEUR: An entrepreneur is an individual, or a group of
individuals, who undertake the responsibility of making innovations in the economy
or carries out a new organization.
4. GOVERNMENT: Government is part of the environment of business and
within a focal country which exercises legal and regulatory control over all business
organization, as well as initiates the major strategies for the attainment of national
development objectives. It could also be seen as a person or group of persons into
whose hands the state has placed for the time being, functions of political control.
5. POLICIES: Policies are guides and directives that are formulated to shape
the thinking, actions and decisions of a people in a given area.
6. BUSINESS: Business is the planned activities of individuals or groups of
people aimed at producing and selling, for a profit, the goods and services that
satisfy the need of consumers.
7. ENVIRONMENT: The environment of an organization include those
individuals, organizations, government agencies, suppliers, distributors, press, etc.
who in one way or the other help an organization to carry out its productive
activities but are not subject to the control of that organization.
8. TECHNOLOGY: Technology is the state of the art of doing things in a
society in order to achieve goals.
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9. PRIVATIZATION: Privatization is the process of change of ownership,
either in whole or in part from the government or state to the private sector.
10. CORPORATE EFFECTIVENESS: Corporate effectiveness is the same as
organizational worth, which is the extent to which an organization as a social
system, given certain resources and means, fulfils its objectives and without placing
undue strain upon its members.