CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0    IntroductionFamily business dominated the scene of Nigeria Small and Medium Scale enterprises, which are establish by individual, groups, companies and cooperatives (Aneto, 2018). Most business start as Family business, but with proper planning and management, they expand and grow. However, it will be risky to assume that Family business enterprises are exactly like big ones, after all the difference is size. Nevertheless, it is necessary to differentiate Family businesses from non-Family enterprises and to associate those contributory characteristic and problems inherent in them.  ÂÂÂ
1.1    Background of the Study                                                                                 There are numerous kinds of business undertakings in the commercial world. These vary from private enterprises to public corporations. Family business enterprise is a business that is not large, in terms of its size, scope of operation, financial involvement and the workforce involved. Most Small Scale enterprises are owned by one entrepreneur, most often Small Scale enterprise is said to be a firm that is independently owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of operation. In general, we should recognize that a Family business must have few employees, limited capital investment and Small Scale operation (Nicholas in Obi, 2015).                                                                                        As far as the development of the rural and urban areas in Nigeria is concerned, the role of Family business is very significant. The present Government administration realizes the importance of these Family business ventures hence the various policies put in place to encourage their growth (Omotola, 2008). Due to the positive contribution of Family businesses to the industrialization of the nation, there is the increased need for the government to be seriously involved in the support and encouragement of the Family business ventures to enable them realize their full potentials to the benefit of the whole nation.                                          Family businesses have the potentiality to reduce the rate of unemployment in Nigeria and thus contribute to the industrialization and economic growth of the nation. Obi (2015) observed that one of the essential functions of Family business enterprises is that they provide employment to large number of Nigerians residing in both the rural areas and the urban centres, thereby helping to solve the nagging problem of unemployment in the country. More importantly, they are able to engage large number of applicants because they employ both unskilled and semi-skilled individuals. Because people engaged to work, earn money, they can acquire goods and services to better their lives and thus there is general rise in the standard of living. There is the common saying that “The idle mind is the Devil’s Workshopâ€ÂÂ. The presence of the Family business enterprises and the provision of jobs to unemployed people keep the idle mind busy thinking and doing the job assigned to the individual. For this reason, it reduced the spate of social ills, such as, robbery, prostitution, advance fee fraud (419) and kidnapping in the society (Aneto, 2018). The operation of numerous Family business enterprises also boosts trading activities because the employed people are earning money, which they can spend in obtaining good and services (Obi, 2015).                                                          Hence, Family business enterprises aid industrialization and critical to development. Apart from the traditional functions of industrialization, which are to increase national income, to improve stability of foreign exchange earnings, to secure fuller employment and expand the market for local raw materials, industrialization is an essential process in the drive for self-reliance and relevant for self-sustaining developments (Aganga, 2012). As one can see, it is the greatest ingredients of development, without which there can never be any meaningful development. Furthermore, Ukwu in Ayozie (2006) asserts that industrialization is the engine of technological development, which provides the structural context in which scientific technology is applied or can be applied to the full utilization of resources for the production of goods and services for the satisfaction of the needs of the people. Here the question that comes to mind is can a car run without its engine? Alternatively, can any human being breathe or live without his or her heart. No car ever moves without its engine unless there is an impact from outside like pushing. In this clarification, Ugwuoke (2012) makes it vividly clear the great importance of Small Scale enterprises in being the hub of industrialization and national growth, which in turn provides for self-sustenance and reliance. That is the dream of any developing nations of the world. A country where the standard of living is functionally high, education is provided both for the privileged and less privileged alike, healthcare is at the reach of everybody, basic infrastructures like portable water supply, constant power supply, good road network and other channels of transportation like railways, airways and waterways are available for and affordable by all.                                                                                                     In every economy, be it the developed or developing nation, Family business enterprises are seen as the instrument of industrialization and economic growth. Data from the Federal Office of Statistics in Nigeria confirmed that about 67% of the entire enterprises in the country are Family business enterprises and they employ an average of 40% of the working population as well as contributing about 40% of the country’s industrial output (Ariyo in Obi, 2015). Although Family business enterprises had existed since the period of independence in Nigeria, conscious attention on Small and Medium Scale enterprises as the instrument of economic growth and national development started in 1970-79 when Nigeria adopted the policy of indigenization through its national development plan programme (Omotola, 2008). The development plan articulated the need for the Nigerian economy to be self reliant through industrialization, entrepreneurial development, employment generation and development through increasing export trade.                                                                                                                           The Federal government singled out the Family business enterprises as the key area of intervention. This was premise on the government desire to support Family businesses in the country as a way of meeting up with its commitment to the development plan and the indigenization policy (Aneto, 2018). The intention was that it would be a reaction against the dominance of the economy by the international capitalist entrepreneur and on the account that revitalizing Family business enterprise would enhance the capacity of the indigenous capitalist class, as a potential player in economic growth and national development (Omotola, 2008). In spite of all these efforts by the government, both at Federal, State, and Local government levels, to ensure the growth of Family businesses, Abereijo in Ifeanyi and Anolue (2017) has identified key factors, which they claimed were responsible for their perceived failure of Family businesses in Nigeria. Against the backdrop of the interest and belief in the Family businesses as a catalyst towards the industrialization and economic growth of Nigeria, this study is aimed at determining the contributions of Family businesses on industrialization of Nnewi North Local Government Area.