Page 1 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 04 Issue 01
January 2018
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 26
Reducing Unemployment in Nigeria:
an Evaluation of the Entrepreneurship
Programmers in Ondo State
Oloruntoba Jamiyu Matthew & Akinfolarin Akinwale Victor
1. Department of Guidance and Counselling, University of Ibadan, Ibadan Oyo State,
Nigeria. Email: mathewtoba@gmail.com
2. Department of Educational Management and Policy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka,
Anambra State, Nigeria. Email: akinfolarinav@gmail.com
Abstract
The study evaluated the entrepreneurship
programme in Ondo State. Descriptive
survey research design was adopted for the
study and was conducted in Ondo State.
Three research questions guided the study.
The target population of the study comprised
individuals within three local governments:
Akoko North East, Akure North and
Okitipupa, in Ondo State, Nigeria. Stratified
sampling technique was used within the
three local governments which differ by their
languages. Thereafter, while using a
purposive sampling technique, a total
number of five hundred (500) respondents
were engaged in the study. Respondents were
chosen from Akoko North-East, Akure North
and Okitipupa. The number of respondents in
each of the sampled local government
include: Akoko North East (200)
respondents, Akure North (150) respondents;
and Okitipupa (150) respondents. In total,
264 men and 209 women were engaged.The
researchers' developed instruments titled
‘‘Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Programme
Questionnaire’’ (EEPQ) was used for data
collection. The face validation of the
instrument was established by three experts,
two in the Department of Guidance and
Counselling (Assessment and Testing Unit),
University of Ibadan and one in the
Department of Educational Management and
Policy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.
Test retest was used to determine the
reliability of the instrument and the overall
scale was conducted for the interval of three
weeks. The reliability coefficient of 0.78 was
obtained. The researchers with the help of
the community heads in each of the town
collected data for the study. Out of the five
hundred questionnaires administered, four
hundred and seventy three (473) were
returned in good state and were therefore
subjected to analysis. Data collected on the
study were analyzed using frequency count,
percentage, and mean. The findings of the
study revealed among others that
respondents were aware of the government
and non-governmental entrepreneurship
programs for poverty reduction. The study
concluded among others that Ondo State
people do not possess adequate
entrepreneurial skills for reducing
unemployment. Recommendations were
made.
Keywords: Unemployment, evaluation,
entrepreneurship, entrepreneur
Page 2 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 04 Issue 01
January 2018
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 27
Introduction
The challenges of fighting the rising
state of unemployment in Nigeria are the
major task of policy makers and economic
managers. The International Labour
Organisation (ILO) (2007), defined
unemployed workers as those who are
currently not working but are willing and
able to work for pay, currently available to
work and have actively searched for work. In
the view of Hornby (2010), unemployment is
“the facts of a number of people not having a
job; the number of people without a job; the
state of not having a job”. In the context of
this study, unemployment is a general
phenomenon of joblessness due to inability
of capable and willing individual(s) to get
job. Unemployment rate in most developing
nations including Nigeria is on the increase
and threatening. Functional education goes
beyond mere acquisition of knowledge in a
formal setting. In the view of Onyali and
Akinfolarin (2017), education is an
indispensable means of transmitting the
skills and knowledge that are required by
individuals to fully participate and contribute
to the development of economic, social and
political activities of any country. Functional
education is more of applied and productive
education aimed at acquiring the appropriate
knowledge and skills needed to attend to the
realities of the society. The National policy
on education (Federal Government of
Nigeria, 2004) noted that for functional
education to be relevant, practical acquisition
of appropriate skills and development of
competencies are required for the individual
to live and contribute to the development of
his society. In effect, graduates need
competencies to exercise their talents and be
able to transform their skills into wealth.
This will amount to drastic reduction in
unemployment rate trough job creation for
self reliance.
Entrepreneurship is the driver of
economic growth and development in many
developing economies. Since its inception, it
has grown greatly due to many opportunities
it presents to creative and business oriented
individuals. Shepherd and Douglas cited in
Akanwa and Akpanabia (2012) observed that
entrepreneurship development is the ability
to envision and chart a course for a new
business venture by combining information
from the functional disciplines and from the
external environment in the context of the
extraordinary uncertainty and ambiguity
which faces a new business venture. A
greater percentage of jobs are created by
entrepreneurs who started with small
businesses. Enu (2012) believed that people
in entrepreneurship have more opportunity to
exercise freedom, higher self esteem and
overall sense of control over their own lives.
It is believed that nurturing a robust
entrepreneurial culture will ignite individual,
collective and social success on a local,
national and global magnitude. Based on
this, the national standards for
entrepreneurship education were developed
to prepare youths and adults to succeed in an
entrepreneurial economy. Entrepreneurship
in the context of this study is the process of
bringing together creative and innovative
ideas and combining them with management
strategies and functions in order to meet
identified needs thereby creating wealth. It is
a sole activity that brings productive
resources together to create an output whose
value is hoped to exceed the cost of all the
productive resources. It is important to note
that entrepreneurship involves the issue of
planning, organizing and managing of
resources regarding a business stands out
clearly as functions of the entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur is an opportunist and
risk-taker who is considered to be the main
Page 3 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 04 Issue 01
January 2018
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 28
factor of production without which the other
factors cannot be effective. In the view of
Deakins and freel (2009), an entrepreneur is
an innovator, and one that introduces new
technologies into the work place or market,
increasing efficiency, productivity or
generating new products and services. He
contributes his own initiative and skills in
planning, organizing and managing the
enterprise and also incurs the loss and gain
resulting from unforeseen and uncontrollable
situations. An entrepreneur is one who
undertakes an enterprise, acting as
conciliator between capital and labour in
order to produce goods and services.
Creativity and innovation are important
techniques that help the entrepreneur to see
things in a different perspective and initiate
new approaches to the business. Hisrich and
Peters (2002) stated that creativity is the act
of thinking new things and coming up with
new ideas. It is also concerned with new
ways of looking at opportunities and
approaches to solving problems while
innovation is the execution of newly created
ideas. Indeed, innovation, the act of
introducing something new is one of the
most difficult tasks for administrators. It
takes the ability to understand all the forces
at work environment.
Entrepreneurs continue to
complement their knowledge through
reading of books, trade journals, attending
seminars or taking refresher courses in order
to strengthen their weaknesses. Generally,
skills that need to be acquired through
seminars or courses include creativity,
financing, controlling, opportunity
identification, venture evaluation and general
organizational management. As
entrepreneurship is gaining grounds all over
the world, government at all levels are taking
steps towards promoting its continuation.
Individuals are encouraged to form new
businesses and are provided incentives to aid
the process. People need to be fully aware
and educated, equipped, and well prepared to
face the challenges and opportunities in
businesses. Adamu (2005) noted that Nigeria
educational system failed to lay the
foundation of economic freedom, manual
skills and expertise necessary for successful
industrial and agricultural development.
Nigerian governments had put in place
various programmes and measures ranging
from Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) to
programmes such as Mass Mobilization for
Self Reliance and Economic Recovery
(MAMSER), Structural Adjustment
Programme (SAP), and National Directorate
of Employment (NDE), and National
Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP)
which is still in operation in the country to
address the problem of graduate
unemployment but all the programmes have
not brought about the expected outcomes.
Similarly, Ekankumo and Kemebaradikumo
(2011) concluded that all the programmes
and measures put in place by successive
governments so far have proved to be grossly
ineffective in solving the problem of
graduate employment in Nigeria. Also, the
Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship
Development (SAED) training by the
National Youth Service Corps seem not to be
effective. To support this, Akinfolarin (2015)
asserted that many youth corps members
seem to the Skill Acquisition and
Entrepreneurship Development (SAED)
program as a waste of their time while some
see it as a means of acquiring additional
certification and only a few key into it in
order get hold of the intended vocational
skills to be self-reliance. Also, the N-Power
program was introduced by President
Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 to reduce the
increasing rate of youth unemployment in
Nigeria. Many still question the effectiveness
of the N-Power program to be beneficial to
