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Encouraging Entrepreneurship As A Way Of Reducing Unemployment In Bayelsa State
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The discipline of entrepreneurship generally studies the why, when and how of opportunity creation, recognition and utilization for providing goods and services through the creation of new firms (start-ups) and within existing firms for both profit and non-profit purposes. Not all opportunity creation will necessarily be in society’s best interest. The reward structure of a society can also lead to a destructive allocation of entrepreneurial talent. The focus here is on productive entrepreneurial activity. This consists of the creation, recognition and utilization of positive opportunities in such a way that involves “innovation” or the provision of “new combinations” of products and/or processes. Entrepreneurship is the quality of being an entrepreneur, it puts emphasis on the risk and efforts taken by individuals who mange or own a business, and on the innovations resulting from their pursuit of economic success. An entrepreneur is an innovator - a generator of new ideas and business processes. The word entrepreneur was coined from a French word ‘entrepredre’ which means a person who voluntarily heads a military expedition. It was first used during the first military history in the seventeenth century (Emmanuel, 2008). Entrepreneurship has no universal definition it has been defined by many authors and individuals.
Every society across the globe has its peculiar problems and challenges. Nigeria is not an exception. As a developing country, she faces her own share of social, political, economic and cultural problems which has in no small measure affected the well-being of the populace. Such problems bedeviling the country include youth’s unemployment and the rising wave of crime, which have serious implications for the growth of the nation. Unemployment rate in Nigeria has continued to be on the increase despite the abundant human and natural resources available in the country. Chronic youth’s unemployment is evident in Nigeria. Every year, thousands of graduates are produced but there are no jobs for majority of them. Nigerian streets are littered with youth hawkers who ordinarily would have found gainful employment in some enterprise (Okafor, 2011). The large number of youths who are unemployed is capable of undermining democratic practice as they constitute a serious threat if engaged by the political class for underground and criminal activities (Adepegba, 2011; Ibrahim, 2011; Lartey, 2011; Olatunji and Abioye, 2011; Okafor, 2011).
There seems to be a consensus on the definition of unemployment. Simply put, unemployment describes the condition of people who are without jobs (Okafor, 2011). The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines the unemployed as the number of the economically active population who is without work but available and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work (World Bank, 1993). According to the National Bureau of Statistics (2009), the labour force of a country is a set of people or citizens who are willing and are able to make available at any given point in time their efforts for gainful employment, while the unemployed are the individuals with no work, but are looking for work at the time of any study. Various forms of unemployment have been identified by scholars. These include seasonal, frictional, cyclical, and structural unemployment (Adebayo, 1999; Damachi, 2001; Hollister and Goldstein, 1994; Todaro, 1992). Unemployment is a global trend but it occurs mostly in the developing countries of the world, with social, economic, political and psychological attendants. Thus massive youth’s unemployment in any country is an indication of far more complex problems (Okafor, 2009). The ILO (2007) report showed that the proportion of world unemployment is steadily increasing and that the number of those without jobs remained at an all time high of more than 195 million or 6.3 percent in 2007. For instance, in 2007, the Middle East and North Africa were the regions with the highest unemployment rate in the world at 12.2 percent, followed by sub-Saharan Africa at nearly 10 percent. East Asia’s unemployment rate of 3.6 percent remained the lowest. The report affirmed that population growth especially in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa was putting pressure on job creation.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study examined how encouraging entrepreneurship can serve as a way for the reduction of youth unemployment in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The main objective of the study is to evaluate how encouraging entrepreneurship can help reduce youth unemployment. The study used primary data generated from five hundred questionnaires administered to self-employed youths that manage their private businesses in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, Nigeria.The results reveal that there is a significant rel ... Continue reading---
