1

CHAPTER ONE
1.1

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of development targets

aimed at effecting measurable improvements in the life of the worlds poorest citizens
they are basically eight (8) goals namely:
Goal-1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal-2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal-3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal-4: Reduce child mortality
Goal-5: Improve maternal health
Goal-6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other dieses
Goal-7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal-8: Develop a global partnership for development
These came about as a result of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
adopted at the Millennium Summit held 6th to 8th September 2000 in New York,
Nigeria has been committed to the realization the Millennium Development Goals by
the year 2015. In line with Nigerias commitment to the MDGs, the Federal
Government has taken concrete steps to integrate these goals into its policy planning
and implementation framework. Furthermore, in a bid to cushion the impact of

2
ongoing reforms on the poorer segments of our society, the Federal Government
decided to apply whatever savings are accruable from the Paris Club Debt Relief Deal
to specific pro-poor projects and programs that are geared towards achieving the
MDGs.
The Federal Government Budget usually contains DRG funding for selected
projects and programs in 8 Ministries and Capacity Building, Conditional Grant
Scheme (CGS), Education, Health, Housing & Urban Development, NAPEP, Quick
Wins and Women Affairs. The National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) which falls
under the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports had the projects and programs selected
in collaboration with the participating departments, within the framework of their
Medium Term Sector Strategies MTSS. The NYSC scheme was created in a bid to
reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil war. The
unfortunate antecedents in our national history gave impetus to the establishment of
the National Youth Service Corps by decree No.24 of 22nd May 1973 which stated
that the "NYSC is being established with a view to the proper encouragement and
development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of
national unity".
As a developing country, Nigeria is further plagued by the problems attendant
upon a condition of under development, namely; poverty, mass illiteracy, acute
shortage of high skilled manpower (coupled with most uneven distribution of the
skilled people that are available), woefully inadequate socioeconomic infrastructural
facilities, housing. Water and sewage facilities, road,healthcare services and effective
communication system. . Faced with these almost intractable problems, which were

3
further compounded by the burden of reconstruction after the civil war, the
government and people of Nigeria set for the country, fresh goals, and objectives
aimed at establishing Nigeria as:
(a) a united, strong and self reliant nation
(b)a
(c)

great

land

of

bright

and

and

full

dynamic

opportunities

for

economy

all

citizens;

and

(d) a free and democratic society.

It is a culture in Nigeria that once a student graduates from the University or a
polytechnic, with a degree or National Higher Diploma, (HND), he or she is sent to a
state in Nigeria to serve the Nation.
'Youths obey the clarion call, let us lift our nation high, under the sun and in the
rain, with dedication and selflessness, Nigeria ours, Nigeria, we Serve.'
The above is the National Anthem of every youth corps member in Nigeria.
And for 30 years, it has sounded sure and true. The NYSC Scheme has 3 stages, the 3
weeks of orientation camping, the Community Development Services (done once a
week), and The Place of Primary Assignments, (where each corps member is posted to
after the orientation camp and where he is to serve for one year). NYSC has not been
without its ups and downs, with tales of killings and abductions of Corp Members
every where, every state. But good things are always met with resistance. As a Youth
Corp Member myself, I believe in the NYSC, and I believe in its vision. It is the single
unifying factor in Nigeria that has survived so long.

4
Entrepreneurship is defined as the capacity and wiliness to develop, organize
and manage a business venture along with any of its risk in other to make profit. The
most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of a new business
In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labor, natural resources capital
can produce profit. Entrepreneurial spirit is characterized by innovation and risk
taking, and is an essential part of a nations ability to succeed in an ever changing and
increasingly competitive market place. Going back to the MDGs goals 1 Eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger the NYSC scheme set up an economic empowerment
program in the name of War Against Poverty (WAP) whose primary objective is to
train and empower youth corps members in their year of service to the nation in
various entrepreneurial skills in areas like farming, fishery, rabbitery e.t.c
The primary criteria was to implement projects and programs that were quick-wins,
having relatively short gestation periods but with potential for immediate impact on
the social well being of communities across the country.
1.2

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

A millennium summit of 189 world leaders in September of the year 2000

pledged to meet all of the eight goals of the MDGs by 2015 .This united nation
summit came on board as a result of the need to improve social, economic and
political standard of the worlds populace. Despite its long period of existence, the
goals are yet to be fully attained. This project looks into the problems and challenges
of delivering the MDGs goals 1 in relation to poverty reduction and eradication.

5
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
In the light of the attainment of poverty reduction through entrepreneurial
skills acquisition and funding through the MDGs office to the NYSC corps members,
this project hopes to look at the WAP scheme of the NYSC for the new corps members
fresh from the school into the labor market. The objectives of this study include and
not limited to the following:
1. To examine the economic empowerment of the youth (young graduates)

through the NYSCs War against Poverty (WAP) program.

2. To create the awareness and increase sensitization of the corps members on
wealth creation outside the conventional salaries job.
3. To examine the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development of
young graduates
4. To better understand how the War Against Poverty program contributes to the

attainment of MDGs Goal 1.

5. To know some of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in attaining self
sustenance.
6. To ma observations, suggestions and recommendations based on the findings.

1.4

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The term hypothesis can be referred to as assertion subject to verification, or as an

assumption used as a basis for action, this research assumes the following statistical
statements
HO; there is no significant relationship between the MDGs AND entrepreneurship
development in

Nigeria

6
H1; there is significant relationship between the MDGs AND entrepreneurship
development in Nigeria
1.5 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
This research will employ the use of qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis.
Time series observation using graphs which shows the trend movement of data will be
used for descriptive analysis. The inferential statistical tools will be econometric
method of analysis where an econometric multiple regression model will be adopted
to determine the impact of MDGs documents on entrepreneurship development in
Nigeria.
With the appropriate model, the following test will be conducted to test the statistical
reliability and significance of the estimated parameters. These include standard error, t
- statistic, f - statistic, coefficient of determination R 2 and coefficient correlation. For
the purpose of data analysis, a multiple linear regression model will be used to show
the relationship between the dependent variable and the explanatory variables.
1.6 SOURCE OF DATA
Materials and data that will be use in this research are derived from secondary source
alone. They are obtained from textbooks, journals academic publication, Central bank
document, World Bank document, seminar papers, magazine, newspapers, articles, the
internet and other relevant materials.
1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

7
The research will covered a period of 10years from 2000 to 2011 considering the
emergence of democratic government in Nigeria in the past 15 years, a lot of emphasis
on poverty alleviation as been on the front burner of the domestic government and the
international organization, especially through the development of entrepreneurial
activities. However, references can be made to data before the year 2000 as they are
important to the study.
This work limits itself on the evaluation of the impact MDGs documents on
entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.. However, there are other relevant economic
variables that can impact on entrepreneurial activities in the country rather than MDGs
alone. Other major limitations to this work includes insufficient and unavailability of
current data (2013), inadequate time and resource constraint.
1.8

RESEARCH OUTLINE

This research is structured into five (5) chapters. The first chapter introduced the
study, it includes the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of
the study, significance of the study, research methodology, hypothesis of the study,
sources of data, scope and limitation of the study and research outline.
The second chapter is where all available related literature on the subject matter will
be reviewed. It contains conceptual frameworks of the subject matter, MDGs
documents and entrepreneurship, theoretical framework and the importance of
entrepreneur in an economy.

8
Chapter three establishes the linkage between MDGs and entrepreneurship
development in Nigeria, the challenges and way foreword.
In chapter four, data presentation, analysis and discussion of research findings will be
carried out.
Chapter five contains the summary of findings with their implications, conclusion and
recommendation of the study.

9
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Scholars have documented enormous evidence which points to the fact that

extreme poverty is predominant in rural areas,The International fund for agricultural

development (IFAD, 2003; Helsinki, 2005, Nwafor, 2005). The definition and
conceptualization of poverty is complex and varied across fields and regions. A poor
person is considered as one without job, who cannot help himself or cater for his
family, who has no money, farm or business. Adolescent males and females are poor if
they have no parents, no education, no good food, clothes and health (Aigbokhan,
2000). These poor persons are malnourished and ageing fast, without self confidence,
look dirty and live in filthy environment. He or she cannot cater for his family, train
ssshis children in school and pay medical bills. These persons predominantly are
domiciled in the rural areas of this country.
In Nigeria, various strategies have been advocated in literature to address
poverty challenges. Prominent among these are growth strategy, basic needs strategy,
targeting approach, and employment-oriented approach. Economic growth approach,
which goes back to the 1950s and 1960s development policy in literature, emphasizes
growth as central to any policy on poverty reduction. However, because of the reliance
on the trickle down effect and on the pace of growth, which may be driven by capital
intensive production process, the traditional growth approach has been found to

10
produce less progress in poverty reduction (Aigbokhan, 2000). This has therefore, led
to a shift in emphasis from the pace of growth to the structure of growth strategy.
2.2

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The basic needs approach has as its main objective the need to satisfy the

essential requirements for minimum standard of living. The approach is concerned

with improving first, income earning opportunities for the poor, second, the flow of
goods and services to meet the needs of all members of households, and thirdly, the
participation of the poor in ways in which their needs are met (Ladgerwood, 2000).
The targeting approach requires the directing of poverty alleviation
programmes to specific groups within the country. Components of the approach
include micro-credit, school meal, medical care, safety nets, and public works
programmes. The approach requires proper identification of the target group for
effective targeting. The employment oriented target emphasizes employment
promotion as the principal means of spreading the benefits of economic development
more evenly throughout the economy. The pace growth objective was modified so as
to maximize not only output, but also the rate of labour absorption.
The inevitable conclusion from the foregoing is that in spite of the various
programmes implemented to date, the incidence of poverty is still high and
unemployment problem remains daunting. Unlike in the past, focus should not be
mainly on public work schemes and public sector agencies, the level of corruption and
institutional weaknesses in public agencies. Policy should shift to the promotion of
private sector labour intensive growth. The rural development approach should be
adopted. Rural development approach derives from the perspective that the majority
of the poor in developing countries live in rural areas. The approach, therefore,

11
emphasizes the need to focus development effort in the sector. Though, there are
variants to this approach, the most prominent is perhaps the integrated rural
development variant. This variant recognizes that poverty is multi-dimensional and
therefore, requires multi-pronged approach. The approach seeks to develop all sectors
of the rural economy and link them up effectively. The components of the approach
include infrastructure development, provision of social services and employment
generation opportunities to the rural dwellers in general and the rural poor in particular
(Aigbokhan, 2000).
Achieving sustainable poverty reduction and broad-based economic growth
depends on enabling poor men and women to transform their livelihood. The poor
need to be given a chance to build their individual and collective skills and capabilities
in order to gain access to economic opportunities and basic social services and
infrastructure. Lack of a virile entrepreneurial institution makes it difficult for the poor
to exploit opportunities within their communities and to
develop links with external partners (IFAD, 2005). The development of
entrepreneurship, as both concept and activity, has been identified as a very important
strategy for poverty reduction and attainment of MDGs. In Nigeria, the primary
barrier to achieving the MDGs is often not so much scarcity of capital, labour or land
as it is a scarcity of both the dynamic entrepreneurs that can bring these together and
the markets and the mechanisms that can facilitate them in this task.
2.2.1

CONCEPT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Throughout the theoretical history of entrepreneurship, scholars and

researchers from multiple disciplines such as anthropology Steward (1991),

psychology Shaver and Scott (1991), sociology Reynolds (1991), economics Kirchoff

12
(1991), management Stevenson (1985) and technology Roberts (1991) and Litvak and
Maule (1999) cited in Tonge (2002) have grappled with a diverse set of interpretations
and definitions to conceptualize the idea of entrepreneurship.
A further search of the literature also reveals that researchers have been
inconsistent in their definitions of entrepreneurship. There are minimum of a hundred
definitions to explain the concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. Their
meanings depend on when they were devised and on the society in which the various
researchers developed them (Di-Masi, 1999).
In the last century, many writers have identified entrepreneurship with the
function of uncertainty and risk bearing and others with the coordination of productive
resources, the introduction of innovation and the provision of technical know-how
Hoselitz (1952) cited in (Burnet, 2000). During the sixteenth century, people who
organized and managed military and exploration expeditions in France were called
entreprendre. The word entrepreneur originates

from the

French

verb,

entreprendre and the German wordunternehmen both of which means to

undertake (Afonja, 1999). In the Oxford Dictionary, an entrepreneur is defined as one
who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business enterprise.
The early 18th century French economist Richard Cantillon introduced the
term entrepreneurship. In his writings, he formally defines the entrepreneur as the
agent who buys means of production at certain prices in order to combine them into a
new product. He further defines entrepreneurship as self-employment of any sort
where the entrepreneur is the bearer of uncertainty and risk. Shortly thereafter, the
French economist Say (1824) defines the entrepreneur as someone who shifts
economic resources out of an area of lower to an area of higher productivity and

13
greater yield. He added to Cantillons definition by including the idea that an
entrepreneur is one who brings other people together in order to build a single
productive organization. But Says definition, according to Drucker (1985), does not
tell us who the entrepreneur is, and since Say coined the term almost two hundred
years ago, there has been lack of consensus over the definition of entrepreneur and
entrepreneurship.
In the 19th century, British economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo
and JohnStuart defines the concept of entrepreneurship under the broad English term
of business management (Burnett, 2000). However, Schumpeter (1947) argues that
whereas the writing of Smith and Ricardo suggests that they likely undervalued the
importance of entrepreneurship, Mill actually stresses its significance for economic
development and growth. He further claims that entrepreneurship requires no
ordinary skills and laments the fact that there is no good English language equivalent
word to encompass the specific meaning of the French term entrepreneur
The necessity of entrepreneurship for production was also recognized by
Marshall in 1890 when he asserted in his treatise of Principles of Economics that there
are four factors of production i.e. land, labour, capital and organization.
Entrepreneurship, both technical and commercial, is the driving element behind
organization. He further argued that the skills associated particularly with technical
entrepreneurship are rare and limited in supply and that the ability of entrepreneurs are
so great and so numerous that very few people can exhibit them all in a very high
degree. Another research carried out by Penrose (1959), posit that entrepreneurship,
particularly technical entrepreneurial activity, involves identifying opportunities
within the economic system, filling market deficiencies through input-completing

14
activities including the process of identifying, developing and bringing a vision to life.
This vision may be an innovative idea, an opportunity or a better way of doing
something. The end result of this process is the creation of a new venture, the
expansion of an existing one carried out under conditions of risks and considerable
uncertainty (Meyer et. al., 1976).
According to UNDP (1999), entrepreneur is the process of using private
initiative to transform a business concept into a new venture or to grow and diversify
an existing venture or enterprise with high growth potential. There is a wide-spread
opinion that national or regional economic development is associated with new firm
creation intensity (Venesaar and Loomets, 2006). New firms formation is considered
as an important indicator of entrepreneurial activity and key component in economic
growth and development. Entrepreneurs identify an innovation to seize an opportunity,
mobilize money and management skill, and take calculated risks to open markets for
new products, processes and services (Harper, 2003). While traditional theories are of
the opinion that entrepreneurs are born (innate principle which is stamped on the soul,
and the soul brings it into the world), modern development economics have argued
otherwise, and have also emphasized the need for entrepreneurship development.
Entrepreneurship development is the process of enhancing entrepreneurial skills and
knowledge through structured training and institution-building programmes (UNDP,
1999).
Entrepreneurship development aims to enlarge the base of entrepreneurs in
order to hasten the pace at which new ventures are created. There is the temptation of
confusing small and medium enterprise (SME) development and entrepreneurship
development by policy makers in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship development focuses on

15
the individual who wishes to start or expand business. Small and medium enterprise
development, on the other hand, focuses on developing the enterprise, whether or not
it employs or is led by individuals who can be considered as entrepreneurs (UNDP,
1999).
Furthermore, entrepreneurship development concentrates more on growth
potential and innovation than SME development does (Evaluation Office, 1999).
Entrepreneurship is the forerunner of the development of small and medium enterprise
(SME). Entrepreneurship development focuses on improving the culture and climate
for enterprise. It addresses the number and quality of entrepreneurs easing business
entry conditions and its objectives are broader than conventional small and medium
enterprise policy, extending beyond improving access of individual firms to resources
to increasing the future supply of knowledge entrepreneurs (Maduakoh, 2005).
Successful entrepreneurship must be tied to funding and skill development.
Inang and Ukpong (1992) argued that available evidence shows that, in spite of the
existence of many special credit schemes and the crucial role that SMEs are expected
to play in grass-root development, the enterprises are yet to enjoy reasonable access to
credit as they largely depend on personal/family and informal sources of funds. Micro
finance has taken the centre stage as the major source of credit to the economically
active poor.
Despite all this, a considerable body of literature has accumulated on the
subject of entrepreneurship to the point where, just as has happened in other fields, a
sizeable number of
entrepreneurship-related studies have been published in journals in the areas of
administration and management, while other journals that specifically specialize in

16
topics related entrepreneurship have appeared.The study and teaching of
entrepreneurship and the role played by professors and other academicians dedicated
to teaching and research on this topic are of growing importance, as reflected by the
boom in courses and chairships in entrepreneurship in Nigeria in the last few years.
Also the introduction of Entrepreneurship as a GST course to all
200 level students of University of Jos has also contributed immensely to the
development of entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
2.2.2 THE REVIEW OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
During the last decade, leading up to the 3rd millennium, a number of UN
Conferences were held with the intention of laying down international Development
Targets (IDTs), which could help countries in fighting poverty. At the Millennium
Summit held in September 2000 in New York, representatives of 191 countries
adopted the Millennium Declaration. Among the 191 representatives were 147 Heads
of State or Heads of Government including African Heads of State.
According to Sachs and Reid (2006), the Declaration focussed on concerns
arising from peace, security and development issues and covered areas including
environment, human rights and the sound management of public affairs. The
Declaration sought to integrate into one overall programme a variety of
complementary and mutually reinforcing development goals. These goals and the
development targets defined by the world conferences and summits of the 1990s are
related but in some respects different. Recently, the various categories of goals were
regrouped into the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which are:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;

17
Achieve universal primary education;
Promote gender equality and empower women;
Reduce child mortality;
Improve maternal health;
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
Ensure a sustainable environment;
Develop a global partnership for development.
These eight goals are broken down into eighteen quantitative targets, which should be
achieved within the twenty-five year period from 1990 to 2015. Monitoring of
progress towards the MDGs will be carried out at the global, continental, sub regional
and country levels.
At the international level, the United Nations Secretary General will report on
progress to the General Assembly annually and will present a more detailed report
every five years. However, at the country level, reports on the MDGs will help to
mobilise support from development partners for the achievement of the goals. The
United Nations Country Teams under the guidance of Resident Co-coordinators are
required to support the Government in monitoring progress and in providing MDG
reports.
2.3

IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON NIGERIA ECONOMIC

GROWTH
Perception of African entrepreneurship among scholars and researchers seem

to differ considerably. At one extreme is the view that, for one reason or the other,
technical entrepreneurial talent that involves the establishment and management of
manufacturing industries for productive activities in the real sector of the economy, is

18
lacking in Africa. According to a World Bank study carried out by Nils-Henrik Morch
in 1995, the poor growth performance of most sub-Saharan countries and, in
particular, the slow rate of industrialization could be taken to support such a dismal
perception. However, the study further proposed an alternative view that
entrepreneurial talent is indeed available but that the economic environment have been
such as not to allow this talent to develop.
Supporters of this view may point to the fact that the kind of economic policies
that have been followed in many African countries in the two to three decades after
political independence have not always been conducive to private enterprise. This
position is consistent with a third view by Adjebeng-Asem (1989) that the African
entrepreneur is alive and well, but that he or she, rather than undertaking
manufacturing businesses, has been diverted to non-productive, rent-seeking activities
which researchers have referred to as commercial entrepreneurship. In spite of this
critical gap in Africas development process, researchers and scholars around the
world have long identified the role of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in the
economic development of nations. For instance, Dozie (2005) argues that this vital
factor of production formed the bedrock of the classical thesis of Schumpeter (1934)
who established that no nation would break the barriers of development without a
critical mass of entrepreneurs. This assertion, which formed the basis of
Schumpeterian model of economic growth, has helped many developed and even
developing nations to accelerate their pace of development by focusing on appropriate
incentives to support entrepreneurial activity (Dozie, 2005). It is the entrepreneurs
who generate the critical momentum an economy requires for economic growth by

19
breaking new grounds in human endeavour as a result of the vital characteristics or
attributes they possess.
Unfortunately, after more than four decades of import substitution strategy,
structural adjustment programme (SAP), commercialization and privatization of ailing
state-owned enterprises and general economic decline, the manufacturing sectors
contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Nigeria is still very small. It is
plagued by low productivity and low-quality output. This is compounded by the
consequent increase in competition from imports, which has resulted in downsizing or
outright closure of many manufacturing industries. Therefore, the extent to which the
restructuring of the private sector as the engine of growth of the economy will succeed
is dependent on the fostering and development of technical entrepreneurship among
the indigenous population.
In addition, theoretical and empirical investigations have emphasized the
crucial role that technological innovation and technical entrepreneurship play in
fostering economic development. These investigations are now seen as crucial and are
also recognized as important components of technology policy and economic
planning. For instance, the present emphasis by government and stakeholders on
indigenous technical innovation and entrepreneurship stems from the failure of past
attempts through the import substitution strategy to stimulate development by
borrowing or transferring advanced and sometimes inappropriate and unsustainable
technologies from developed countries. This position was further reinforced by
Adjebeng-Asem (1989) where it was argued that governments in most developing
economies such as Nigeria were criticized for paying inadequate attention to the need

20
for accelerated economic growth and for not harnessing the abilities of their own
citizens for technological innovations and entrepreneurship.
Critics also conclude that these developing countries depend on exogenous
technologies that are inappropriate for their environment. This has been responsible
for Nigerias exports which have largely been based on raw materials and semimanufactured goods with the petroleum sector asthe most important. Less than 5% of
these exports are on the average attached to knowledge intensive goods and services
(Adjebeng-Asem, 1989 and Akeredolu-Ale, 1975). The problems became acute in the
1980s and early 1990s, when Nigeria experienced stagnating industrial output and
decreasing crude oil prices while industrialization through the production of
indigenous technological development became central topics in the industrial policy
debates. As a result of this, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2003)
and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO, 1994) argued that
if Nigeria is to join the league of industrialized economies, industrial activities have to
converge and focus more on knowledge based production particularly in the small
scale manufacturing and processing industries.
This view was partially enunciated in the various development plans, national
budgets, rolling plans and in the current reform programmes elaborated in the National
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) (Federal Government
of Nigeria, 2004). The
central theme of the policy has been that small-scale industries should spearhead the
nations drive towards economic recovery. Studies have shown that small industries in
many countries provide the mechanism for promoting indigenous entrepreneurship,

21
enhancing greater opportunities per unit of capital invested and aiding the
development of local technology (Sule, 1986, Nils-Henrik and Morch, 1995).
In Nigeria,small-scale businesses represent about 90% of the industrial sector
in terms of the number of enterprises. They also account for 70% of national industrial
employment if the threshold is set at 10 50 employees, contribute 10% of
manufacturing output and a meager 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001
(Ajayi, 2002). Similarly, they have also contributed significantly to economic
development through employment, job creation and sustainable livelihood (Nigerian
Investment Promotion Commission, 2003). In spite of their significance and
contribution of small industries to the national economy, many problems and
constraints still exist in promoting their development and growth.
Another obstacle to the modernization of small industries are the persistence of
a low level of technology, the shortage and inadequate entrepreneurial skills of
operators and the absence of an effective management techniques (UNIDO, 1994).
Their low product quality makes it difficult for them to compete in a technologically
driven, knowledge based and export oriented globalized economy. There is therefore
the need to tap the considerable R&D efforts that take place at universities,
polytechnics, monotechnics and other public and private sector research institutions
through increased commercialization or technology transfer of research results.
However, this can only be achieved through a deliberate intervention strategy of
developing a core of characteristics among the small industry operatorsto enhance
production efficiency, quality and output.
The failure of past efforts by small industry operators and the little intervention
by government necessitate the need to assess why indigenous technical innovations,

22
management practices and other key success factors in business are often not
translated into feasible business ventures despite the fact that the country has the
technological need. These issues according to researchers such as Akeredolu-Ale
(1975), Afonja (1986) and Adjebeng-Asem (1989) imply a link between technical
innovation, entrepreneurship and a much broader level of technological development.

23

CHAPTER THREE
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALs IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NIGERIA
3.1 BACKGROUND TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN
NIGERIA
Entrepreneurship started when people produced more products than they
needed, as such, they had to exchange theses surpluses. For instance, if a blacksmith
produced more hoes than he needed, he exchanges the surplus he had with what he
had not but needed; maybe he needed some yams, or goats etc., he would look for
someone who needed his products to exchange with. By this way, producers came to
realize that they can concentrate in their areas of production to produce more and then
exchange with what they needed.
So through the exchange of products, entrepreneurship started. A typical
Nigerian entrepreneur is self made man who might be said to have strong will to
succeed; he might engage the services of others like friends, mates, in-laws etc. to help
his work or production. Through this way, Nigerians in the olden days were engaged
in entrepreneurship. Early entrepreneurship is characterized with production or
manufacturing in which case, the producer most often started with a small capital,
most of it his own savings. Early entrepreneurship started with trade by barter even
before the advent of any form of money.

24
Modern entrepreneurship in Nigeria started with the coming of the colonial
masters, who brought in their wares and made Nigerians their middle men. In this
way, modern entrepreneurship was conceived. Most of the modern entrepreneurs were
engaged in retail trade or sole proprietorship.
One of the major factors that have in many ways discouraged this flow of
entrepreneurship development in Nigeria is the value system brought about by formal
education. For many decades, formal education has been the preserve of the
privileged. With formal education, people had the opportunity of being employed in
the civil service, because in those days, the economy was large enough to absorb into
the prestigious occupation all Nigerians their goods. As such the system made
Nigerians to be dependent on the colonial masters.
Again, the contrast between Nigerian and foreign entrepreneurs during the
colonial era was very detrimental and the competitive business strategy of the foreign
entrepreneurs was ruinous and against moral standards established by society. They
did not adhere to the theory of live and lets live. For instance, the United African
Company (UAC) that was responsible for a substantial percentage of the import and
export trade of Nigeria, had the policy of dealing directly with producers and refused
to make use of the services of Nigerian entrepreneurs.
The refusal of the expatriates to utilize the service of local businessmen
inhibited their expansion and acquisition of necessary skills and attitudes. Because of
this, many eventually folded up. Those who folded up built up resentment against
business which became very demoralizing to other prospective entrepreneurs. As a
result, the flow of entrepreneurship in the country was slowed down. But with some
more people being educated and the fact that government could no longer employ

25
most school leavers, economic programmes to encourage individuals into private
business were initiated.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in September
2000, offer the World a means to accelerate the pace of development and to measure
results. They put the World (particularly the developing World) on a timetable to
produce substantial improvements in the lives of the people within a 25-year period,
by looking backward to 1990 and ahead to 2015. The succeeding subsections analyze
these goals, vis--vis Nigerias progress so far.
3.2 NIGERIA AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
This goal has a double target of halving, between 1990 and 2015, the
proportion of people whose income is less than $1 per day and those who suffer from
hunger. Data on national poverty trends is as shown in Table 3.1. As can be observed,
the proportion of people living in poverty in 1980 was 28.1%, which later rose to
46.3% in 1985 but plummeted to 42.7% in 1992 before rising to 65.6% in 1996.
However, in 2004, the incidence of poverty declined to 54.4%. In spite of this drop, it
is evident that the actual population in poverty was maintaining an upward trend from
18.3 million in 1980 to over 70 million in 2004. Moreover, the results of the peoples
self-assessment of their own poverty status indicated over 75% poverty incidence
(NBS, 2010). In other words, three out of every four Nigerians believe that they are
poor, thus creating doubts on the observed poverty reduction.

26

TABLE 3.1 POVERTY PROFILE FOR NIGERIA (`SELECTED YEARS)

Year Poverty Level (%)

Estimate
d

Population in Poverty

total (million)

populatio
n
(million)

1980
1985
1992
1996
2004
2015

Nationa

Urba

Rura

Male

Female

headed

headed

househol

househol

d
29.2
47.3
43.1
66.4
58.2
21.6

d
26.9
38.6
39.9
58.5
43.5
20

28.1
46.3
42.7
65.6
54.4
21.4

17.2
37.8
37.5
58.2
43.2
18.8

28.3
51.4
46.0
69.8
63.3
23

National Urban* Rural

*

65
75
91.5
102.3
129.9**
178.6**

18.3
34.7
39.1
67.1
70.7*
38.2*

11.2
28.35
34.3
59.5
56.1
33.6

target
*
** Population estimates obtained from Annual Abstract of Statistics (2010)
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (2010). Poverty Profile for Nigeria
However, using 1992 as a reference point, for this first goal to be achieved,
poverty levels are to be reduced to 21.4%, 18.8% and 23% for the national, urban and

18.4
38.6
42.1
71.4
82.2
41.1

27
rural areas respectively. The implication is that the current rate of reduction in poverty
is rather too slow to meet the targets set for 2015. In other words, if the current rate of
poverty reduction is maintained, poverty incidence would reduce to 39.0% as opposed
to 21.4% by 2015, and about 69.7 million Nigerians would still be poor as against the
target of 38.2 million by 2015. With the current trend also, the rural poor would be
about 54% in 2015 (97 million) while the urban poor would amount to 22.6% (40.3
million) in 2015, which are all far from the desired targets.
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
This goal has a single target of ensuring that by 2015, children everywhere,
boys and girls alike should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. The
trend in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), (the best available indictor that shows the
general level of participation in a given level of education), witnessed considerable
fluctuations over the last three and a half decades (1970-2005). It shows a steady
increase from 43.7% in 1970 to 108.8% in 1980, and thereafter declined to 91.4% in
1990. It rose from there to 119% in 2002 before declining to 95.98% in 2005. (See
Table 3.2) This erratic movement in GER trend is not limited to the national enrolment
figures. In terms of sexes, it is observed that GER for males was consistently higher
than that of female by over 20% between 1970 and 2002 and by over 16% between
2004 and 2005. This is probably due to early child marriage, which forced most girls
out of school.
It must be noted that, in spite of the impressive trend and prospects of
reaching 100% in 2015, the enrolment data as shown here, may not always be
accurate owning to a multiplicity of factors. One of such is the mistaken perception of

28
some that enrolments are tied to funding and therefore should be inflated. This has
resulted in GER higher than 100% for some years.
TABLE 3.2

PRIMARY SCHOOL GROSS ENROLMENT RATIOS (GER)

(1970-2005).
Year

197

197

1980

Femal

0
32.

5
40.

e (%)
Male

2
55.

3
63.

122.

115

104

103

113

114

132

(%)
3
Nation 43.

3
50.

6
108.

103.

91.

93

103

103

119

95

1985

199

199

91.8

0
79

5
83

2000

200

200

200

92

1
86

2
107

3
96

al (%) 7
3
8
6
4
Sources: 1. African Development Bank (2009).

2004

2005

2015

86.56

87.7

Target
100%

122

103.2

2
103.9 100%

99.

5
95.0

5
95.9

2. Federal Ministry of Education (2010)

3. National Bureau of Statistics (2010)
This problem of funding earlier mentioned is also complicated due to
considerable variations and inconsistencies in rates reported by different sources. For
instance, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS, 2000) cited in MDG report
(2004) indicated that the national GER for 1995 was 81%. The ratios for males and
females were 88% and 74% respectively for the same period. In 2000, the ratios were
95% for males and females combined, and 85% and 105% for females and males,
respectively.
These contradictions could not permit us to draw accurate conclusions.
However, statistics from the Federal Ministry of Education (2011) shows that about 4
million official school age (6-11 years) children are un-enrolled between 2004 and

100%

29
2005. In specific terms, 3,739,126 million children aged 6-11 years were un-enrolled
in 2004, out of which 71% were females and 29% were males. By 2007, it was
3,651,334 million with the percentage of females and males still being 71% and 29%
respectively (FME, 2006).
Table 3.3 presents a summary of some selected statistics of primary school in Nigeria
from 2003 to 2010.
Table 3.3 National Summaries of Selected Primary School Statistics (2003-2010).
Year

Total

Total

Enrolment
s**

PTR

GIR

Primary

Total

Teacher

Increas

six

Classrooms

completio

GPI

2003

160,45567

418715

38.3

87

n rate
65%

2004

17907010

432096

2
41.4

93

6.0

Na

102943

0.78

2005

19099957

446405

4
42.7

110.8 17.8

Na

116101

0.79

487303

9
39.5

111.4 0.6

83%

124229

0.78

110.6 -0.8

Na

116827

0.80

2006

19263537

456512

0.74

2007

19352792

491751

3
39.3

2008

23160744

591041

5
39.1

144.

33.5

94%

111257

0.78

2009

23409697

599212

9
39.0

1
107.

-36.3

75.18%

254319

0.82

597741

7
40.3

8
106.

-1.3

77.71%

252585

0.82

2010

24127678

30
6
5
**Figures include pre-primary enrolments.
PTR = Pupils to Teacher Ratio
GIR = Gross Intake Rate for Primary 1
GPI = Gender Parity Index; Na = not available
Sources: 1.

Federal Ministry of Education (2010)

NBS (2011). Annual Abstract of Statistics

MDG Report (2011).

Few highlights could be drawn from Table 3.3

(i)

The pupil to teacher ratio remained relatively constant for the past eight
years. When compared to the United Nations stipulated maximum of 25
pupils to a teacher, it informs that Nigeria has not performed well.

(ii)

Total number of classrooms deteriorates from 456,512 in 2003 to 252,585

in 2010 showing the poor conditions of primary schools in Nigeria.

(iii)

The GPI shows that the male and female do not have equal access to
primary education in Nigeria.

(iv)

The completion rate for primary six indicates an unimpressive trend. It

increased from 65% in 2003 to 94% in 2008 only to decline to 75.18% in
2009, from where it marginally rose to 77.71% in 2010. This trend may
probably be attributed to strikes by teachers in public schools because of
poor conditions of service. Usually, the strikes sometimes are prolonged by
governments insensitivity to teachers complaints thereby causing pupils
withdrawal from school and dampening the morale of a number of them
even when such crises were finally resolved. Secondly, high incidence of

31
poverty particularly in the rural areas is also a major reason for pupils
withdrawal from schools when their poor parents could no longer bear the
costs.
Moreover, various problems could still be identified. For instance, the nation is
still faced with challenges ranging from inability to fully implement the Universal
Basic Education (UBE) Programme, limited educational awareness especially in the
rural areas, growing incidence of child labour / street hawking in urban centers to
gross under funding of educational system in Nigeria. All these are capable of
frustrating the countrys effort of achieving this second goal by 2015.
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.
The target here is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education before 2015. The issue of
gender equality and/or women empowerment constitutes one of the most discussed
topics in recent times. Women are grossly under-represented in many aspects of
human endevour.
Table 3.4 shows enrolment figures in secondary and primary education in
Nigeria from 2006 to 2011 for males and females.
Table 3.4 Secondary and Primary School Enrolment (2006-2011)
Year
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Male
10,805727
11070610
14433764
11141614
11712479
12575689

PRIMARY
Female
8457812
8791072
11338280
8895866
9239339
10441435

F/M

Male

SECONDARY
Female

0.78
0.79
0.79
0.80
0.79
0.83

3241566
3713864
4063475
3077911
3079832
3642871

2286818
2578310
3107829
2310823
2342779
2893167

F/M
0.71
0.69
0.79
0.75
0.76
0.79

32
F/M

= Female to Male Ratio (girls per 100 boys) calculated by the Authors

Source: NBS (2011) Social Statistics in Nigeria. Pp.19-20.

Table shows that at both levels of education, primary and secondary, enrolment
has been consistently higher for boys than for girls between 2006 and 2011. In the
primary school, the ratio of female to male was not above 80% - implying that there
are about 80 females to 100 males in primary school level. Female to male ratio in the
secondary school exhibits mixed trends. It declined from 71% in 2006 to 69% in 2007,
and rose to 79% in 2007 but declined to 75% in 2008 before rising again slightly to
79% in 2011.At the tertiary level, CBN (2011) indicated that the share of women in
tertiary education declined from 45% in 2006 to 43% in 2010. All these clearly show
that Nigeria was unable to meet the 2005 preferred gender parity target in both
primary and secondary education.
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
The aim of this goal is to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the
under five-mortality rate. The progress of achieving this goal can be assessed using
three possible indicators, namely, the rate of infant mortality (per 1000 live births),
under five-mortality rate and the proportion of one-year old fully immunized.
Although there are wide variations in infant mortality and under five mortality
rates among various data sources, all the available data revealed that the problems are
highly significant in Nigeria. Table 3.5 presents Nigerias infant mortality rates for the
period 1990 - 2006. It shows the number of infants dying before reaching one year of
age per 1000 live births in a given year.

33

TABLE 3.5

INFANT MORTALITY RATE (PER 1000 LIVE BIRTHS) IN

NIGERIA (1995-2011)

Years

2002 2003

2004

2005

Infant

119.

117.

115.

114.

100) (%)
Female (%)

95.2

86.6

79.3

(Per 1000)
Male (%)

102.

92.3

3
-

1.8

Mortality
Rate

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2015

114.4 113.1

111.9

110.6

109.3

Target*
39.9

77.9

76.6

75.2

73.7

72.3

Na

31.7

83.8

82.3

80.8

79.2

77.6

76.0

Na

34.1

1.8

0.4

0.3

1.1

1.1

1.2

1.2

(per

(Per 1000)
% Reduction
over
preceding

year*
*Computed by the Authors, NA = Not available
Sources: 1. ADB (2011): Gender, Poverty and Environmental indicators on African
countries
2. ADB (2011). Africa: Progress towards Attaining the MDGs.

34
Table 3.5 shows a steady but sluggish declining trend of infant mortality rate
from 119.6% in 1990 to 109.3% in 2011. This shows a percentage reduction of 8.6%
over the period. The percentage reduction over each successive period ranges between
0.3% and 1.8% - a considerable slow rate! Among the sexes, the rate was consistently
higher for the males than for the females throughout the period of analysis. If the 2015
target is to be achieved, the country needs to reduce her infant mortality rate to 39.9%
per 1000 live birth with female and male rates reducing to 31.7% and 34.1% per 1000
live births respectively. From this trend, it seems very unlikely that the country would
achieve this goal by 2015.
Table 3.5 introduces international flavour into the analysis to provide a sense
of Nigerias performance in reducing infant mortality rate relative to some African
countries. It can be observed that while many of the African countries under analysis
are making a reduction of over 20 to 50% between 2002 and 2011, except South
Africa (11.3%), Nigeria only struggled to reduce it by 8.9% within the same period.
Nigeria had the highest infant mortality rate of 109.3% in 2011 compared to other
countries under consideration. It is obvious from the above scenario that Nigeria is
lagging behind as the millennium deadline draws near.
GOAL 5: IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH
The target here is to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters
between 1990 and 2015. Maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die
from pregnancy and childbirth related causes per 100,000 live births in a given year.
The Maternal Mortality Ratio, which stood at 1000 per 100,000 live births in 1990,
reduced to 704 in 1999 but rose to 800 per 100,000 births in 2000. This high rate

35
maintained between 2001 and 2005. The country needs to reduce the ratio to about
300 per 100,000 births by 2015
Some probable factors responsible for the high maternal mortality rate in
Nigeria include limited access to quality health care services, inadequate access to
emergency obstetric care, poverty, low literacy and uneven spread of antenatal and
postnatal health care services, especially in rural areas. Table 5.1 presents some
selected maternal health statistics. It shows that only 33% of the births were delivered
in a health facility while 37% had no antenatal care (ANC) before delivering. When
compared to 34.8% in 1990 and 29.7% in 1999, it is obvious that the proportion of
mothers that do not receive ANC is on the increase. (MDGs Report, 2005).
TABLE 3.6

SELECTED MATERNAL HEALTH STATISTICS IN NIGERIA

(2011)
Sectors/Regions

National Urban Rura North

North

North

South South

South

Central

East

West

East

South

Wes

37

15

46

25

47

59

17

t
2

ANC
% delivered in a

33

54

24

45

17

10

84

53

78

Health Facility
Assisted
by

35

59

26

49

20

12

88

56

81

% of women with
live births with No

Doctor, Nurse or
mid-wife

at

delivery
ANC = Antenatal care

36
Source:

NBS (2011). Annual Abstract of Statistics

When considering the sectorial and regional variations, the following few
highlights could be made:
(i)

The problem is worse in the rural areas than in the urban areas with 46%
without ANC compared to 15% in the urban. While 45% urban women
delivered their children in a Health facility, only 24% of rural women could
do same. The percentage of births attended to by skilled health personnel in
urban areas was 59% while 26% was the case in areas.

(ii)

The northern zones had the worst rates compared to the Southern zones.
The problem is more pronounced in the North-West zone with only 10%
births delivered in a health facility, while almost 60% had no ANC, and
just 12% of the births attended to by skilled health personnel. The SouthEast had and impressive record of only 10% live births without ANC and
more than 80% delivered in a health facility and assisted by trained health
personnel.
All these suggest that tremendous effort needs to be made to achieve the target,

which would involve an annual reduction of 48 deaths per 100, 000 live births from
2005.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and Other Diseases
This goal is to halt by 2015, and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other major diseases. Since the identification of the first HIV/AIDS case
in the mid 1980s, the HIV prevalent rate has continually been on the increase from
1.8% in 1991 to 5.8% in 2001. Thereafter it shows a downward trend to 5.0% in 2003
and 4.4% in 2005. Although this might suggest a decline in the percentage of Nigerian

37
population with HIV/AIDS; the rates, if interpreted with respect to the Nigerias
population over the periods, would be shocking. Of estimated population of 118.8
million, 126.2 million and 133.5 million for the years 2001, 2003 and 2005
respectively1, 6.4 million adult Nigerians lived with HIV/AIDS in 2001, 6.3 million in
2003 and 5.9 million in 2005. .World Bank (2007:109) reported an increase in the
proportion of Nigerias population (aged 15 49) infected with HIV from 3.7% in
2003 to 3.9% in 2005. Of this, female accounted for 58.3% in 2003 and 61.5% in
2005. In 2001, about 170,000 adults and children died of AIDS and by 2006,
cumulative deaths from AIDS were between 3.6 million and 4.2 million people (FMH,
2006).
One of the major challenges here is that though many Nigerians have heard about
HIV/AIDS, only a few used condoms to prevent the infection and very few had done
HIV test. For instance, by 2005, approximately 94% of the population had knowledge
about HIV/AIDS, while 56% ever used condom for prevention while only 11% was
tested for HIV/AIDS. Other constraints that contribute to rapid spread of HIV in
Nigeria include poverty, low literacy, poor health status, polygamous marriage and
denial of HIV infection risk among vulnerable groups.
Another is stigmatization of HIV patients, which explains the low percentage
of people who go for HIV test. Besides, dearth of enough trained personnel to
implement programmes like the National AIDS programme poses a great challenge to
the achievement of this goal by 2015. For example, on the average, between 2001 and

38
2005, the ratio of doctor to patients stood at 1:3173 (CBN, 2005). This affects the
implementation of the AIDS program and health care in general.
The second target is to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and
other major diseases by 2015. Table 6.2 shows that there is a noticeable reduction in
the prevalence of malaria and other

major diseases in Nigeria between 1999 and

2004. This seems to suggest that the country is making steady progress on the road to
achieving the millennium target. However, it is doubtful if the above data truly reflects
the real picture in the country. For instance, in the rural areas where there is acute
shortage of health care facilities, malaria and other diseases are likely to be endemic.
A relatively recent analysis by Lambo (2005) indicates that Nigeria ranks 4 th among
the highest TB burden counties in the world with an estimated 363,000 of all forms
and 156,000 smear positive (injections) cases of TB occurring annually culminating
in 105,000 deaths annually. This suggests that TB is a major public health problem in
Nigeria.
TABLE 3.6: PREVALENT RATES OF MALARIA AND OTHER NOTIFIABLE
DISEASES IN NIGERIA (PER 100,000). ( 2004)
2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

DISEASES/YEAR

%Change
between2004

S
Malaria

1767.9

2023.

1858.7

2202.9

1726.9

and 2011*
1157.8
-35

Measles
Tuberculosis

4
194.99
16.92

8
92.48
15.74

8
140.73
12.01

5
71.48
12.57

9
93.71
21.75

5
36.41
7.07

-81
-58

2.02

5.38

8.61

19.05

2.05

1.06

-48

(TB)
Cholera

39
Typhoid

and

51.24

66.54

20.05

84.65

61.43

30.14

paratyphoid fever
*Calculated by the Authors
Source: NPC (2011) Economic Performance Review
According to NBS (2011), at least 50% of the population is estimated to suffer
from one or more episodes of malaria per year.
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
This seventh goal aims at three important targets. These are integrating the
principles of sustainable development into countries policies and programmes and
thus reverse the loss of environmental resources; halving, by 2015, the proportion of
people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and; achieving, by 2020, a
significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
Achievements relating to environmental protection and resource management
in Nigeria have been rather limited. Sustainable development is threatened by a
plethora of environmental problems including land degradation, pollution, flood and
erosion, desertification, inefficient use of energy resources, deforestation, etc. Table
3.7 shows that only a small portion of land (10%) was covered by forest between 2005
and 2010, while annual deforestation was 400,000 ha which is over 380 times higher
than the rate of reforestation ,1043ha,(CBN,2011).

TABLE 3.7: SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS (2006 2011)

INDICATORS
2006
Total Forest area Protected 9,12229

2007
9,122291

2008
9,12229

2009
9,12229

2010
9,12229

-21

40
(Sq. km)
Protected Area as % of Total

1
10

10

1
10

1
10

1
10

Land area
Deforestation

per

year

400,000

400,000

400,000

400,000

400,000

(ha/yr)
Reforestation

per

year

1043

1043

1043

1043

1043

(ha/yr)
Source: CBN Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, December 2011.P.140.
Apart from the high rate of deforestation, other factors with considerable
environmental consequences include frequent oil spillage especially in the Niger Delta
(the most recent one occurring unabated at Ikot Ada Udo village in Akwa Ibom State)
as well as persistent gas flaring. Gas flaring level, which was above 70% of the total
gas produced from 1990 to 1997, declined to 48% in 2005, rising thereafter to 74% in
2007. In 2009, 35% of gas produced flared, while 40% flared in 2010 (See Table3.7).
This is against the 25% level set by the Federal Government an indication of
inadequate commitment towards timely termination of gas flaring in Nigeria before
2015. Though the percentage of gas flaring reduced to about 39% in 2007, the volume
of carbon-dioxide (Co2) emitted rather increased.
TABLE 3.8: GAS PRODUCTION, UTILIZATION AND FLARING IN
NIGERIA
(MILLION CUBIC METERS) (1995 2012)
Year

Production

Utilization

Flaring

(2) as % of

(3) as % of

1995
1996
1997

(1)
28163
31588
32464

(2)
6343
7000
7058

(3)
21820
24588
25406

(1)*
23
22
22

(1)*
77
78
78

41
1998
33444.6
1999
32793
2000
32980
2001
36970
2002
36754.8
2003
36036.6
2004
35856.4
2005
47537
2006
57530
2007
101976
2008
53379
2009
69748
2010
58247
2011
57,753.7
2012
57,753.7
*Calculated by the Authors

7536.2
6577
6910
10150
10207
10886.5
12664.6
21945
29639.7
26203.4
30583
45156
34818
39,374.8
39,374.8

25908.4
26216
26070
26820
26547.8
25150.1
23191.8
25592
27890.3
75772.1
22796
24592
23429
18378.9
18,378.9

23
20
21
27
28
30
35
46
52
26
57
65
60
68.2
68.2

77
80
79
73
72
70
65
54
48
74
43
35
40
31.82
31.82

Source: CBN Statistical Bulletin, 2012.

The trend in Co2 emissions increased from 22555.6 million metric tones in
2005 to 36149.02 million metric tons in 2010 and maintained the trend up to 2012
(ADB,2012).In addition, Co2 emissions resulting from domestic use of fossil fuels
remains an important source of air pollution and climatic changes in the country. It
accounts for the largest share of green house gases, which is associated with global
warming. Due to the erratic supply of electricity in Nigeria, there is widespread
operation of a wide range of power generating equipments, which exacerbate the
environmental consequences of Co2 emissions. Consequently, per capita Co2 emission
increased from 20% in 1995 to a constant rate of 28% between 2005 and 2010. This
indicates a decline in environmental protection activities and awareness over the
period.

42
The proportion of the population with access to improved water source
fluctuates between 40% and 49% between 1995 and 2000. By 2000, it rose to 57%,
and thereafter declined to 48% in 2009. Access to safe drinking water in the urban
area declined from 78% in 1995 to 63% in 1995, rising from there to 84% in 2005.
From this height, it declined to 67% in 2004. In the rural area, only 33% had access to
safe drinking water in 1995, which later decreased to 31% in 2004. These worsening
trends have made the targets of reducing the proportion of people without access to an
improved water source to about 26%, 34% and 11% in the National, rural and urban
areas respectively, to appear unattainable ( ADB, 2012; WDI, 2007; MDGR, 2011).
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
This goal aims at developing partnership between developed and developing
countries through Official Development Assistance (ODA), debt relief, market access,
information and communication technology, as well as developing strategies for youth
employment. Presently, the level of Nigerias external indebtedness has been drastically
reduced after exiting from the costly debt burden of the Paris clubs in 2006. This major
break through in Nigerias quest for debt relief involved an agreement reached with the
club, which saw it gaining US$ 18 billion in debt cancellation (about 60% of the total
amount owed the club) at the price of US $ 12.4 billion repayments. At present, Nigerias
external debt is about US $4.8 billion as against US $ 33.2 billion in 1995 (See Table 3.9).
All these, probably, can enhance the countrys prospects of meeting the MDGs. In the same
vein, External debt as a proportion of exports of goods and services declined from 65.52%
in 2009 to 53% in 2010 (MDG Report, 2010; World Bank, 2011). The proportion of
external debt to GDP dropped from 59.2% in 2009 to 34% in 2010. Debt service payment as
a proportion of GDP declined from 13% in 1995 to 2.6% in 2007 (World Bank, 2007)

43
depicting an increasing difficulty and inability to fulfill debt obligations during these
periods. However, with increased commitment thereafter, the ratio rose to 10.2% in 2007
(World Bank, 2007). External Debt service as a proportion of exports showed a decrease
from 22.6% in 1995 to 10.2% in 2011.
TABLE 3.9

NIGERIAS EXTERNAL DEBT PROFILE (US $ MILLION) (1995-

2011)
Year Total
Multilateral Paris Club London Club Promissory Notes Others
1995 33179.0 3845.1
17172.1
5936.8
4550.0
1675.0
1996 33364.5 3650.0
17792.8
5988.5
4478.9
1454.3
1997 27544.1 8518.0
16433.9
2120.0
3246.0
1226.2
1998 28718.2 3694.7
18160.5
2055.8
3159.9
1647.3
1999 29428.9 4402.3
18334.3
2057.8
3178.2
1456.3
2000 32584.8 4411.0
21669.6
2045.0
3148.0
1311.2
2001 28060.0 4665.0
19091.0
2043.0
2140.0
121.0
2002 27087.8 4372.7
18980.4
1612.5
1612.5
79.2
2003 28773.5 4237.0
20829.9
2043.0
1597.8
65.8
2004 28066.9 3933.3
20534.3
2043.2
1486.8
69.3
2005 28273.7 3460.0
21180.0
2043.2
1446.7
142.8
2006 28347.0 2797.9
22092.9
2043.2
1291.8
121.2
2007 30990.0 2959.9
24092.9
1441.8
1153.2
55.6
2008 35920.0 3040.0
27470.0
1440.0
910
50
2009 35950.0 2820.0
30850.0
1440.0
780
50
2010 37500.0 2820.0
31000.0
1440.0
780
50
2011 4847.0 2700.0
1440.0
600
100
Source: The CBN: Debt Management Office cited in Okeke (2011) Economy: unfolding
layers of Reforms.
Besides, the Net Official Development Assistant (ODA) to Nigeria has remarkably
improved from US $ 174 million to US $ 6437 between 2005 and 2010. (World Bank,
2011:349). The ratio of aid to gross capital formation (GCF) in Nigeria rose from 1.9% in

44
2005 to 31.2% in 2010 while a total of US $ 5966.3 million was also received from 10
major Development Assistant Committee donors in 2011.
In spite of these developments, the problem of market access for products of
developing countries, including Nigeria, persists. Evidence from World Bank (2011)
showed that the share of African regional trade bloc in total World export, including
ECOWAS where Nigeria belongs is not up to 1%. An increasing share of Nigerias export
goes to sub-Saharan African countries due to the unfavourable external markets in the
industrialized countries.
However, there is a considerable cooperation with private sector in the provision of
information and communication technology (ICT) in Nigeria. Teledensity (telephone lines
per 1000 persons) rose steadily from 0.45% in 2003 to 15.72% in 2010 (Table 3.9).
Similarly, total number of telephone lines as well as number of mobile phone lines also
witnessed an impressive trend over the period. This significant increase is due to the
deregulation of the telecommunication sector and the subsequent introduction of the Global
System of Mobil Communication (GSM) in 2006. Following the deregulation of the sector,
the GSM private operators increased their lines from 508316 in 1999 to 19810258 in 2010.
The sector had 1223258 fixed lines and 18587000 mobile lines in 2010, giving combined
subscriber strength of 19,810,258 lines, with a teledensity of 15.72 per 1000 inhabitants.
This compares favorably with figures for previous years. However, in spite of this
phenomenal growth, the quality of services provided by the operator has remained
unimpressive over the years due to poor interconnectivity between different networks. This
range from constant call droppings, message and call failures to overloaded billings charged
by the operators.

45
3.3

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

DEVELOPMENT

DEVELOPMENT

AND

MILLENNIUM

GOALS IN NIGERIA

Scholars have documented enormous evidence which points to the fact that
extreme poverty is predominant in rural areas (IFAD, 2003; Helsinki, 2005, Nwafor,
2005). The definition and conceptualization of poverty is complex and varied across
fields and regions. A poor person is considered as one without job, who cannot help
himself or cater for his family, who has no money, farm or business. Adolescent males
and females are poor if they have no parents, no education, no good food, clothes and
health (Aigbokhan, 2000). These poor persons are malnourished and ageing fast,
without self confidence, look dirty and live in filthy environment. He or she cannot
cater for his family, train his children in school and pay medical bills. These persons
predominantly are domiciled in the rural areas of this country.
In Nigeria, various strategies have been advocated in literature to address
poverty challenges. Prominent among these are growth strategy, basic needs strategy,
targeting approach, and employment-oriented approach. Economic growth approach,
which goes back to the 1950s and 1960s development policy in literature, emphasizes
growth as central to any policy on poverty reduction. However, because of the reliance
on the trickle down effect and on the pace of growth, which may be driven by capital
intensive production process, the traditional growth approach has been found to
produce less progress in poverty reduction (Aigbokhan, 2000).
This has therefore, led to a shift in emphasis from the pace of growth to the
structure of growth strategy. The basic needs approach has as its main objective the
need to satisfy the essential requirements for minimum standard of living. The
approach is concerned with improving first, income earning opportunities for the poor,

46
second, the public service that reach the poor, third, the flow of goods and services to
meet the needs of all members of households, and fourth, the participation of the poor
in ways in which their needs are met (Ladgerwood, 2000).
The targeting approach requires the directing of poverty alleviation
programmes to specific groups within the country. Components of the approach
include micro-credit, school meal, medical care, safety nets, and public works
programmes. The approach requires proper identification of the target group for
effective targeting. The employment oriented target emphasizes employment
promotion as the principal means of spreading the benefits of economic development
more evenly throughout the economy. The pace growth objective was modified so as
to maximize not only output, but also the rate of labour absorption.
Achieving sustainable poverty reduction and broad-based economic growth
depends on enabling poor men and women to transform their livelihood. The poor
need to be given a chance to build their individual and collective skills and capabilities
in order to gain access to economic opportunities and basic social services and
infrastructure. Lack of a virile entrepreneurial institution makes it difficult for the poor
to exploit opportunities within their communities and to develop links with external
partners (IFAD, 2005).
The development of entrepreneurship, as both concept and activity, has been
identified as a very important strategy for poverty reduction and attainment of MDGs.
In Nigeria, the primary barrier to achieving the MDGs is often not so much scarcity of
capital, labour or land as it is a scarcity of both the dynamic entrepreneurs that can
bring these together and the markets and the mechanisms that can facilitate them in
this task.

47
According to UNDP (1999), entrepreneur is the process of using private
initiative to transform a business concept into a new venture or to grow and diversify
an existing venture or enterprise with high growth potential. There is a wide-spread
opinion that national or regional economic development is associated with new firm
creation intensity (Venesaar and Loomets, 2006). New firms formation is considered
as an important indicator of entrepreneurial activity and key component in economic
growth and development. Entrepreneurs identify an innovation to seize an opportunity,
mobilize money and management skill, and take calculated risks to open markets for
new products, processes and services (Harper, 2003).
3.4 PROBLEMS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
The key roles of entrepreneurship include mobilization of domestic savings for
investment, significant contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross
National Income (GNI), harnessing of local raw materials, employment creation,
poverty reduction and alleviation, enhancement in standard of living, increase in per
capital income, skills acquisition, advancement in technology, expert growth and
diversification. Irrespective of the benefits associated with entrepreneurship, there are
lots of barriers that have prevented youths from fully realizing their potentials and
assuming responsibilities in the society.
3.4.1

Absence of Infrastructural Facilities

It is a universal belief that certain basic infrastructural facilities aid the

development of the mind and body and assist productivity in any environment. These
facilities have been identified as good roads, good water supply, constant power,
access to information and communication technology and other tools of trade. A case
where these are lacking in a country, the growth of the economy will be adversely

48
affected. In Nigeria, these basic work tools as well as the enabling environment is
lacking. This state of affairs has frustrated a lot of young people with bright ideas and
the corresponding spirit to effect a change in some areas of our national life. For
instance, the power sector has proven the greatest challenge to any aspiring
entrepreneur in Nigeria (Onwubiko, 2011).
Power supply is epileptic and most times businesses have to be run on
generators. The cost of this alternative source of power most often erodes whatever
profit or capital an entrepreneur has put aside for his enterprise. The worst hit is the
barbers, dry cleaners and cyber caf operators. In times of energy crisis when there is
shortage of fuel supply, businesses are almost grounded due to unavailability of petrol
or gas to power generators. This avoidable factor adds immensely to overhead costs
and unnecessarily makes the cost of production very high. Due to this, investment in
manufacturing and entrepreneurial activities is made uninteresting (Onwubiko, 2011).
Another factor dissuading young people from going into entrepreneurship is
the bad state of the roads in Nigeria and the lack of adequate and alternative means of
transportation. Air transport in Nigeria is expensive and rail is almost non-existent.
Since road is the most affordable means, most people prefer to travel by road which is
often a harrowing experience for many. The transportation system is unorganized and
the dilapidated roads connecting the states and intractable traffic snarls in the
commercial cities are often a nightmare for businessmen; trying to survive as profit is
his prime motive and not loss.
3.4.2

Inadequate Working Capital

Even though many scholars such as Onugu (2005) have argued against nonavailability of capital as the prime problem of entrepreneurship development, the

49
availability of capital, says Onwubiko (2011) is central to the establishment and
continued existence of any enterprise irrespective of the size, focus and objective. It
has been observed that for an entrepreneur in Nigeria to start a business, he must have
adequate funds. In a situation where the working capital is inadequate or unavailable,
it becomes a problem. This is one of the major, if not the major problem that young
people encounter when opening a business. Banks are before now reluctant to give out
loans to intending entrepreneurs especially when they are young people. The
procedures for accessing such credits are often rigorous and dependent on the
provision of collaterals which the potential entrepreneur Nkechi et al. (1997) may not
possess.
Furthermore, the financial institutions charge outrageous interest rates
sometimes as high as 21% depending on the bargaining power of the applicant. With
this situation, one would have thought that the government would put in place
practical programmes and policies for assisting such people in need of start-up funds
SSbut the reverse is often the case. Where such funds are provided, they are
distributed to relatives of those in government who misapply them and eventually fail
to pay up at the maturity time thereby further creating the notion that young people are
lazy and bereft of managerial abilities and forgetting that his ideas requires huge
capital.
3.4.3 Low Standard of Education
There is no gainsaying the fact that education is the key to knowledge and that
it plays a strong role in forming the burgeoning entrepreneur. The world today is a
global village and since an intending entrepreneur must be conversant and in tune with

50
events around and about him, education becomes a critical factor in preparing and
empowering the entrepreneur with the qualities required of him.
Unfortunately, the role of education in forming young people to become
change agents it seems, have been ignored. Year after year, the quality of education in
the Nigerian institutions has gradually been on the decline, due to mass exodus over
the years by qualified teachers. Those stuck in the system are there due to
unavailability of alternative jobs. Government policy or lack of one has been a major
bane of education in Nigeria. The schools are not adequately funded, equipped,
regulated and managed to bring out their optimum potentials. Most times students are
home due to strikes. Most people in government send their ward abroad for their
education thereby preventing the will to address the urgent need for the sector. The
result is a half-baked workforce who are lacking in personal confidence and desire to
look within and make a mark in an area of human endeavour.
3.4.4

Lack of Adequate Training

A regrettable consequence of the immediate foregoing is the absence of

adequate training for students such as will 1998, enable them meet the challenges of
the future as leaders of business and change agents. It has been observed that the
educational curriculum in Nigeria focuses more on the theoretical without a
corresponding practical approach. Most employers are always compelled to retrain
their employees due to lack of knowledge of basic work ideas or familiarity with the
area of study of the employee.
Technology has been used to improve the quality of life through the use of the
computers and other technological discoveries such as the internet. Where the youth
does not have the knowledge or skill of the latest technology, it affects their outlook to

51
life. It is surprising that in this age and time when the computer and the internet are
taken for granted in so many parts of the world, the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
Except for the cities, the internet and other ICT are not available in the rural areas
where majority of the Nigerian youth are located. This situation denies these people an
alternative means of skill acquisition, information gathering and other advantages
associated with the World Wide Web. This has resulted in a situation where employers
prefer to take people with on-the- job experience and required skills thereby making it
impossible for the young persons to gather the much needed experience, skill,
familiarity with
a work environment and basic contacts and network to pioneer a successful enterprise
of a business or non business nature. Where some of these basic trainings are offered,
they are usually directed at the employees of big businesses considering the exorbitant
fees charged by the institutions or bodies providing same. With little or no money to
spare, young people often miss these opportunities to equip themselves mentally and
otherwise for the assumption of entrepreneurial roles. This also results in low morale,
inefficiency and lack of confidence.
3.4.5

Other Economic, Social and Political Factor

Aside from the factors listed above, there are other major dynamics which play a
role in stifling the dreams and aspirations of the youth towards assuming
entrepreneurship positions. Economic factors such as policy reversals, high and
double taxations, difficulty in procuring business approvals, high inflation and
unstable exchange rates are some of the areas of concern for the potential entrepreneur
who is in most cases a greenhorn. The cost and procedure for establishing a company
is rather prohibitive as the intending entrepreneur must engage a solicitor and

52
accountant to take care of the legal and financial aspects. Politically, some of
governments policies it seems are made to favour friends and associates. Even when
it comes to award of contracts and other government patronages, cronyism is the
word. This creates a situation of uneven advantage to certain people while others are
meant to look like mediocre irrespective of pedigree, ability and expertise.
One cannot complete this without mentioning the social malaise of systemic
corruption which dissuades most people from venturing into enterprises. It seems most
times that whatever one needs to do must be coupled with some kind of favour to the
person or authority granting the approval. This situation is almost frustrating and has
kept many away from entrepreneurship with many youth preferring to be engaged in
paid employments where they will be certain of picking their pay packages at the end
of every month without the worries associated with running a business (Onwubiko,
2011).

53

CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
In the previous chapters, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and
entrepreneurship development was discussed theoretically. This was to elucidate the
need for the diversification of the Nigerian economy into the diverse sector and subsectors of entrepreneurship, to achieve growth and development in 2015. This chapter
will examine the impact of MDGs on entrepreneurship development empirically, to
achieve this; the study employed multiple regressions analysis to explain the changes
in the dependent variable resulted from the change in the independent variables. The
dependent variable for this study is Entrepreneurship Index (EI) while the independent
variables are Poverty Rate (PVR), Primary School enrolment (PSE) and External
Debt (EXD) used as a proxy for MDGs documentation policy considering Goal 1
(Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger), Goal 2 (Achieve Universal Primary
Education) and Goal 8 (Develop Global Partnership for Development) respectively.

54
4.1 DATA PRESENTATION
The data used for the empirical analysis covers the study period of (1991 - 2011)
which were collected from secondary sources. The table below shows the data used
for the analysis of the study.

55
Table 4.1: Showing Entrepreneurship Index, Poverty Rate, Primary School
Enrolment Rate and External Debt from 1991 to 2011 in Nigeria
Year

Entrepreneurship

Poverty Rate (%)

Primary School

External Debt

Index (%)

(PVR) =X1

Enrolment (%)

(%)

(EI) =Y
(PSE) =X2
EXD = X3
1991
9.21
54.4
40.3
42.1
1992
9.9
35.2
42
38.1
1993
10.6
39.4
38.1
37.2
1994
10.3
42.0
37.2
30.4
1995
11.44
54.3
30.4
29.29
1996
12.7
60.4
29.29
32.46
1997
12.82
72.1
32.46
30.4
1998
13.5
76.8
30.4
32.4
1999
14.67
67.6
32.4
34.6
2000
15.32
61.6
34.6
36.1
2001
19.5
63.8
36.1
42.0
2002
21.91
65.7
42.7
54.9
2003
28.64
63.4
54.9
56.5
2004
27.82
66.9
56.5
55.7
2005
23.14
60.2
55.7
54.8
2006
23.57
67.1
54.8
53.30
2007
29.78
58.5
53.3
53.38
2008
29.77
54.4
53.38
53.84
2009
31.6
54.4
53.84
58.92
2010
28.1
52.6
55.14
56.38
2011
32.74
50.0
58.92
55.82
Source: 1. Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin Vol. 18, 2011
2. National Bureau of Statistics (2011)
4.2 MODEL SPECIFICATION

56
The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method is used for the estimation of the
parameters in the model to show the relationship between the independent variables
and the dependent variable. The model is given as;
EI = f(PVR, PSE, EXD) given as
Yt= O + 1PVR1t + 2PSE2t + 3EXD3t + t
Yt= O+ 1X1t+ 2 X2t + 3X3t + t
The parameters to be estimated are O, 1, 2 and 3.
Where
Yt= EI = Entrepreneurship Index
X1t= PVR = Poverty Rate (Goal 1)
X2t= PSE = Primary School Enrolment (Goal 2)
X3t= EXD = External Debt (Goal 8)
t =error term
4.3 MODEL ESTIMATION
For the estimation of the parameters in the model and computation of o, 1, 2
and 3 will assumed that the assumptions of ordinary least square (OLS) holds. These
assumptions help in explaining the extent to which the independent variables explain
the dependent variable (Koutsoyiannis, 1997). In the multiple regression model,

Yt=

57
O+ 1X1t+ 2X2t+ 3X3t + t, the parameters to be estimated are O, 1, 2 and 3. We
compute this using a statistical software program known as E-views.
Yt = -42 0.5602X1t + 0.1757X2t + 0.786X3t
S.E. (64)

(0.5216)

t* (-0.66) (-1.076)
R= 0.83

R2= 0.91

(0.021)

(0.143)

(8.37)

(5.56)

N=21

F*= 56.24

4.4 MODEL EVALUATION

Having obtained the parameter estimates, we then test for the significance of
the estimates. This enables us to know the statistical reliability of the estimates.
Correlation coefficient (R)
The correlation coefficient helps to measure the degree of association between
explanatory variables poverty rate, primary school enrolment and external debt
and the dependent variable entrepreneurship index (Koutoyiannis, 1997). The
value of R in our analysis is 0.83. This implies that there is a positive correlation
between the explanatory variables and the dependent variable. That is, if the
contribution of poverty rate, primary school enrolment and external debt changes
in a strong positive direction with entrepreneurship growth in Nigeria.
Coefficient of determination (R2)
The coefficient of determination enables us to determine precisely the extent to
which the total variation in EI is explained by the independent variables. It is herein

58
used in determining the explanatory power of PVR, PSE and EXD on EI using the
Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method (Kujarati, 2005). From the multiple regression
analysis of our model, we obtain the value 0.91. This implies that 91% variation in
Entrepreneurship is due to the variation in poverty rate, primary school enrolment rate
and external debt, while remaining 9% of the variation is due to the disturbance term
(i.e. unexplained term).
Standard Error Test
The standard error estimate test is applied to enable us to decide whether the
parameter estimate of O,
standard error from

1,

and

3 are statistically significant or not. The

the regression equation are given as follows

S (o) = -42
S (1) = 0.5216
S (2) = 0.021
S (3) =0.143
Decision rule
Generally, if ()>s(), accept H1 and reject Ho, otherwise reject H1 and accept Ho,
That is when ( )<s().
Where:
(s) =the parameters of the regression equation
s(s) = standard error of the parameters.

59
Hypothesis
Ho: parameters = 0 (0, 1, 2 and 3)
H1: parameters 0 (0, 1, 2 and 3)
From the calculations below i.e
(0) = - 21.2471
(1) = 28.01
(2) = 0.0873
(3) = 0.3930
It shows that the parameters 2 and 3 are statistically significant since they are greater
than their standard error values.

T-statistic test
The T-statistic test indicates whether the degree of variation in the dependent
variable is associated with the regression on the independent variable (Koutsoyiannis,
1997). We use the T-statistic to test the hypothesis at 5% level of significance with NK degree of freedom.
Hypothesis
Ho: parameters = 0 (0, 1, 2 and 3)

60
H1: parameters 0 (0, 1, 2 and 3)
The relationship for computing T-test is given by
T*= o/s(o) = -0.66
T*= 1/s(1) = -1.076
T*= 2/s(2) = 8.37
T*= 2/s( 2) = 5.56
t/2 (t0.05/2) with the degree of freedom We compare our calculated t(t*) with the
theoretical t (t0.05) at 5% level of significance for two tailed.
From statistical table, (t0.05) = 1.746
With d.f = (n-k) = 21-4= 8
Since value of t-cal for 2 and 3 are greater than the t-tab, and then we accept the H 1 and
reject the H0 and conclude that 2 and 3 are statistically significant at 5% level.
F-statistic test
By F test, we test the hypothesis whether the dependent variable is linearly
related to the independent variables jointly. That is, testing the overall significance of
the observed or estimated regression line from analysis of variance (ANOVA).
From our result, F* = 56.24 and F 0.05 i.e. F at 5% level of significance with degree of
freedom (3 and 17), where V1 = k- 1 and V2 = N- k.

61
V1 =4-1=3, and V2 = 21-4 = 17, therefore, from our statistical table (3 and 17) = 4.49
H0: 0 = 1= 2 = 3 =0
H1: 0 1 2 3 0
Decision criteria
If F* > F0.05, we reject the null hypothesis and accept that the overall regression line is
significant.
If F* < F0.05, we accept the null hypothesis and conclude that the overall regression is
not

significant.

Hypothesis
Ho;

there is no significant relationship between MDGs policy document

and entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.

H1;

there is a significant relationship between MDGs policy document and

entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.

Decision rule
F*> F0.05,
Since 56.24 > 4.49, we reject the null hypothesis that the overall regression is
significant and therefore, concluded that there is a significant
relationship between MDGs policy document and entrepreneurial
development in Nigeria.
4.5 INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

62
From our regression result, the measures of our analysis are shown below:
EI= O + 1PVR + 2PSE + 3EXD + t
Yt = -42 0.5602X1t + 0.1757X2t + 0.786X3t
S.E.E (64)

(0.5216)

t* (-0.66) (-1.076)
R= 0.83

R2= 0.91

(0.021)

(0.143)

(8.37)

(5.56)

N=21

F*= 56.24

From the estimate in the above result, the intercept value is negative. This
means that if all the other variables are assigned zero values, the Dependent variable
which is Entrepreneurship growth index will be negative.
The coefficient of X1 which is poverty rate index is negative. This implies an
inverse relationship between Poverty rate and entrepreneurship development in
Nigeria. The less the level of poverty the more the growth in entrepreneurship, in this
case, when the goal one of MDGs is achieved or when poverty rate reduces with one
unit, all things been equal; entrepreneurship will grow with about 56%.
The coefficient of X2 is positive (0.1757); this shows a direct relationship
between the entrepreneurship and the primary school enrolment rate. Therefore, a unit
increase in the number of primary school enrolment rate in Nigeria will increase the
growth in the entrepreneurship development with about 17%. Thus, the second goal of
the MDGs constitutes about 17% impact into the growth of entrepreneurship in
Nigeria.

63
The coefficient of X3 is also positive (0.786); this shows a direct relationship
between the entrepreneurship index and the external debt, which is also the 8 th goal of
the MDGs, Therefore, a unit increase in external debt owned, will increase the growth
in entrepreneurship development.
The coefficient of multiple determinations R2 is used to test the explanatory
power of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The R 2 obtained from
the regression result is 0.91 or 91%. This implies that 91% of the total variation in the
explained (dependent variable) is determined by the explanatory (independent
variables). While the remaining 9% is due to error term, i.e. other factors outside the
model. Hence we can conclude that there exists a very strong positive relationship
between the dependent variable entrepreneurship growth index and the independent
variables.
The standard error estimates enable us to decide whether or not the estimates
of o, 1 2 and 3 are significantly different from zero. From the result obtained, the
parameters 2 and 3 are statistically significant. This is because they are significantly
different from zero.
The T-statistic test value from the regression as obtained is given as:
o: = -0.94
1: = - 1.65
2: = 2.94
3: = 5.56

64
Since the T* > T0.05, for 2 and 3, Therefore 2 and 3 are statistically
insignificant.
The F-test is used in investigating the statistical stability and reliability of the
whole model; this is done at 5% level of significance. The calculated
F*=56.24 while the tabulated value at V1=K-1 and V2=N-K F0.05, is
56.24 therefore (F*>F0.05). Since 56.24 > 4.49, we reject the null
hypothesis that the overall regression is significant and therefore,
concluded that there is a significant relationship between MDGs policy
document and entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The critical challenges facing Nigeria in achieving the MDGs are poverty and

hunger, joblessness, diseases, lack of shelter, environmental deterioration and gender

inequality. Nigeria is one of the poorest nations in the world. According to the
National Bureau of Statistics (2005), the national incidence of poverty in Nigeria in
2004 was 75.5 per cent, which disaggregated into 70.7 per cent for urban areas, and
79.2 per cent for rural areas. The report also showed that 54.7 per cent of the total
population of Nigeria was living on less than one dollar per day in2004. The urban

65
poverty incidence was 40.1 per cent compared with rural poverty incidence of 60.6 per
cent.
Nigeria was one of the richest fifty countries in the early 1970s. She has
retrogressed to become one of the poorest countries at the threshold of the twenty first
century (Igbuzor, 2007). Despite the abundant natural resources in the country,
statistics show that the incidence of poverty using the rate of US $1 per day increased
from 28.1 per cent in 1980 to 46.3 per cent in 1985 and declined to 42.7 per cent in
1992, but increased again to 65.6 per cent in 1996 and stood at57.4 per cent in 2004
(National Bureau of Statistics 2005). The rural dwellers constitute 60.6 percent of the
Nigerian population. The country fares poorly in all development indices. The average
annual percentage of growth of GDP from 1990-2000 was 2.4. This is very poor when
compared to Ghana (4.3) and Egypt (4.6). Nigeria is also one of the twenty countries
in the World with the widest gap between the rich and the poor (Igbuzor, 2007). A Gini
index of zero represents the perfect equality and Nigeria has the highest Gini index in
the world. The Gini index for Nigeria is (50.6), as against India (37.8), Jamaica (37.9),
Mauritania (37.3) and Rwanda (28.9) in 2004 (Human Development Report, 2007).
However, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are set of
developmental target aimed at effecting measurable improvement in the life of the
worlds poorest countries like Nigeria. There are basically (8) goals namely:
Goal-1:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal-2:

Achieve universal primary education

Goal-3:

Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal-4:

Reduce child mortality

Goal-5:

Improve maternal health

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Goal-6:

Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal-7:

Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal-8:

Develop a global partnership for development

In line with Nigeria commitment to the MDGs, the federal government has
taken concrete steps to integrate these goals into its policy planning and
implementation framework. Furthermore, in a bid to cushion the impact of ongoing
reform on the poorer sector of our economy, the federal government decided to apply
whatever savings are accruable from the Paris
Club Debt Relief Deal (PCDRD) to specific pro-poor project and programs that are
geared towards achieving the MDGs (MDGs 2008 Monitoring and Evaluation
Report).
The paper attempted to assess the progress made in Nigeria so far towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and to examine the likely effects the
current global economic crisis may have on achieving the MDGs by 2015 and hence
on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Nine years from inception of the MDGs,
in none of the goals has Nigeria recorded up to 20% achievement toward the target.
Probable factors responsible for this sticky response were identified to include
deficiencies in infrastructural facilities, illiteracy, corruption, feeble political will in
programme implementation, etc. With the fallouts of the current global economic
crisis, which have spiraled into the Nigerian economy, and have manifested in a sharp
fall in the price of oil, high food prices, increased unemployment, drastic drop in
aggregate demand, etc, achieving the Millennium Development goals in Nigeria by
2015 is infeasible.

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This research so far has examined MDGs documents policy and
entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. It took a close look on the role MDGs
documents in empowering entrepreneurship and as well as it contribution social
economic development and growth of the country. The study revealed that
entrepreneurship has a great potential in alleviating poverty in Nigeria and it has been
the major source of advancement to many advanced nations and has contributed
significantly to the Gross Domestic Product of these countries, the need for MDGs
documents becomes necessary. In Nigeria, it is regarded as a priority aspect owing to
it potentials to provide sustainable development, and increase economic growth rate.
Furthermore, the study used data obtained from Central bank statistical bulletin
to tests the impact of MDGs documents on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria
with the use of an econometric regression model. Results revealed that there is a
positive correlation between entrepreneurship and MDGs documents represented as
poverty rate, Primary School enrolment and external debt (PVR , PSE and EXD
respectively). This suggests that as. Major findings from the empirical analysis from
the model which led to generalization, it revealed that the f- calculated is greater than
the f- critical at 5% level of significance where H1: 0 1 1 0 resulting in rejecting
the null hypothesis and accepting the alternative that MDGs documents has a
significant impact entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
5.2

RECOMMENDATIONS
In other to achieve the MDGs for an adequate empowerment of the

entrepreneurship growth, there is a need for the following recommendations:

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Adequate Funding and Greater Private Sector Involvement

One of the causes for the present poor condition of Nigerias infrastructure is lack
of investment in new capacity, new technologies, and maintenance. It is important that
the Government commits to a long-term and consistent funding of the costs of
improving and maintaining the various infrastructures. Providing new sources of
funding for power, transport, water and sanitation from other sources will reduce the
demands on the budget. The Government and Central Bank should also take steps to
increase the depth and liquidity of Nigerias capital markets in order to facilitate the
ability of the private sector to raise finance for investment in infrastructure. The failure
of existing public enterprises to manage public facilities and services is well
appreciated. Government should deregulate more in the power, road infrastructure,
and oil and gas industry and intervene more where the private sectors are dominant
but not doing well such as in the public transport sector. Greater involvement by the
private sector in managing operating the power sector through Public Private
Partnership (PPP) will help to address some of the evident failings of current
provision. The public sector will retain a planning and supervisory role of the new
forms of contract, and new bodies such as the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission will assist with effective implementation of the Governments PPP
policy. The Bureau of Public Enterprises is doing well in managing the privatization
agenda of the government at the federal level. This should be replicated at the state
and local government levels for efficiency and productivity in critical sectors.

Greater Transparency and Good Governance

The country needs to be more transparent in her way of doing business. There
should be regular monitoring and audit of governments progress in implementing the

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vision in all sectors and investing more on infrastructure in the critical sector of the
economy in order to ensure that public money is being well spent and that the public
are paying a fair price for the services that are being provided. Ministries and other
public bodies should be held accountable for their performance against the objectives
of the 20:20:20 Vision. At the moment, many ministries, departments and agencies
(MDAs) in the country have not audited their accounts for years and this is not good
enough for a nation that aspires to be among the top 20 nations in the next nine years.
Good governance and proper devolution of power to the grassroots must be enshrined
in the day to day business of the government. The people should also have a voice in
the way they are governed especially in the area of infrastructural development. The
recently passed freedom of information bill is a welcome development. According to
most accounts the government of Nigeria is inefficient and corrupt.

Population Control
Rapid growth of population in a developing nation like Nigeria is inevitable.
However, the growth can be planned and sustained to achieve economic growth. For
instance, between 1960 and 2000, the share of the population living in urban areas
rose from 20% to 36% in both Asia and Africa, the per capital income increased to
340% in Asia; and only 50% in Africa (Bloom, Canning and Fink, 2008). Africa in
general and Nigeria in particular has not taken full advantage of the process of
urbanization to promote economic growth while Asia cities have capitalized on it by
providing industries and the required infrastructure to sustain the growth (Yinusa,
2011).
To reduce governments financial burden on infrastructural development, there
must be deliberate control of the countrys population as done in China. In Europe,

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North America and parts of South America, where family planning has been adopted
for population control, the healthy balance between populations and resource stock is
a major factor in their enviable standards of living and impressive economic
performances. China, for its part, with a population growth rate of 0.493, has moved
rapidly into healthier development trends than countries such as India and Nigeria,
where little is done on population control.
It is either Nigeria deliberately controls her population or nature does it. Already,
about 55 per cent of the Nigerian population lives on less than $1 per day, this is one
of the highest poverty rates in sub-Saharan Africa. At the level of government, its
responsibilities centre on the provision of quality education to enhance quality human
capital, quality health care and basic infrastructure.
5.3

CONCLUSION
The major finding of the research work shows the impact of MDGs on

entrepreneurship development. The results of the paper are consistent with similar
results in both the developing and developed nations. The study has established that
investments in infrastructure both directly and indirectly significantly affect economic
growth in Nigeria. The research also shows a bi-directional relationship between the
variables. The output of the MDGs document policy is also considered as an important
determinant of output of other sectors with forward and backward linkages in the
economy. The research paper further reports on the inter-sectoral linkage effects of
MDGs and entrepreneurship in the economy.
The results of the study further shows that the current global economic
meltdown poses real threats to the Nigerian economy, and places tremendous pressure

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on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The sharp fall in the price
of oil, and other fallouts of the global economic crisis, have adversely affected, and
would continue to affect, all sectors of the economy, at least in the medium run. Poor
policy option (such as resorting to the IMF/Word Bank loan) amidst this crisis may
throw the economy deeper into the avalanche of the crisis. The millennium
Development Goals, which surfaced in 2000, are not new to Nigerias development
agenda. Before 2000, all the eight goals now referred to as the MDG S, have been part
of the countrys development goals. Nigeria should first think of providing the
necessary infrastructure- good roads, steady power supply, good learning
environment(from primary to university level), well equipped hospitals, and a
transparent and committed leadership, etc. and reducing corruption, then the MDG S
will be the upshot, for without which achievement of the MDG S, even after 2015 will
remain a mirage.