Entrepreneurship Promotion Activities

7/28/2019 Entrepreneurship Promotion Activities

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Abstract.1

In this era of shrinking economic activities, governments should

endeavour to provide the necessary infrastructures required for

skill acquisition among its citizenry. This is because without

technological skill, entrepreneurial spirit which drives economic

development through job creation will be lacking. In this opening

remarks at the 1st Abia State Technology Entrepreneurship

Fair/Zonal Investors’ Forum, Professor Ikenna Onyido espouses

that the future of developing nations depends on vigorous

promotion of small and medium scale enterprises.

Introduction.

It is a pleasure to be with you this morning. I consider this an

honour and a privilege to be invited to make opening remark at this

assemblage of Nigerian hidden capital in Abia state. I would like to

thank the organisers for inviting me to chair this session and make

opening remarks at this important Zonal Investor’s Forum. This is

an important event, in fact the key event of the year in the state for

economic change initiative. The activities will highlight the

contributions the state, the Local Government Areas (LGAs), the

cities, towns and villages are making to the modernisation of the

state’s economy, the national 7 point agenda and to the challenges

facing Abia state in particular and Nigeria in general. The event ismore relevant than ever in the context of the current global

financial and economic crisis.

The theme of this event: Promoting Entrepreneurship and

Technological Skills for Socio-Economic Development, could not

be more apt in today’s globalised knowledge economy. Our

expectations are that this forum concentrates its attention on four

basic problems namely:



1. Needs and Strategy.

2. Entrepreneurship promotion activities.

3. Technologies for skills and socio-economic development.

4. Perspectives of new policy and strategy for the promotion of entrepreneurship in the zone.

Needs and Strategies.

As globalisation creates benefits through advanced technologies

and expansion of commerce, it also creates challenges for

emerging small business enterprises to effectively compete in an

environment characterised by multivariate challenges.

Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organisations or

revitalising mature organisations, particularly new businesses

generally in response to identified opportunities. Entrepreneurship

forces creative destruction across markets and industries,

simultaneously creating new products and business models. Many

"high value" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital or anglefunding in order to raise capital to build the business. Lately more

holistic conceptualisations of entrepreneurship as a specific

mindset resulting in entrepreneurial initiatives e.g. in the form of

social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, or knowledge

entrepreneurship emerged while in 2009, a yet newer type of

entrepreneurship known as LILO (a little in, a lot out)

entrepreneurship came into sight.

EntrepreneurshipPromotion Activities.

As the brains behind this forum, the Abia state ministry of science

and technology in collaboration with the raw materials research

centre of the federal government of Nigeria, and given



entrepreneurship's potential to support economic growth, this fair

should come up with policy goal suggestions to the concerned

states to develop a culture of entrepreneurial thinking. Global

Entrepreneurship Week is a civil-society initiative to promote theentrepreneurial aspirations of young people everywhere. In

entrepreneurship, the zonal investors’ forum should work to

catalyse an entrepreneurial society in which job creation,

innovation, and the economy flourish.

Global partnership could be sought from organisations like Junior

Achievement, Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Youth Business

International. Host organisations in each of the participating

countries are responsible for recruiting partners, and coordinating

national activities.

Technologies for Skillsand Socio-economicDevelopment.

At its core, technology is knowledge made up of two dimensions:

1. Technological knowledge – knowledge about what works

and how things could be done and

2. Techniques - the application of this knowledge in processes

and tools for daily living.

From ancient forms, technology has evolved into such devices as

the computer or the mobile phone. Technology is so predominant

in many of our modern societies and so widespread that its

implementation is not limited to any particular field, or linked to any

specific sector. Technological knowledge and techniques are

moreover constantly evolving and bridging geographical distances

(for example with e-learning and e-commerce). Practical advances



often lead to broad usage, which in turn lowers the costs of

products for the end-users and makes technologies more

accessible. Innovation and certain technologies may also have

unwanted effects such as pollution and environmental degradation. All the same, in developed countries, access to technology has

greatly helped improve productivity. In less developed countries,

even low-tech innovations have spawned high-impact reductions in

work burdens. For example, in Kenya during the 1960s Mabati

movement turned simple tin roofs into rain water collectors, saving

countless hours of water hauling and providing a commodity that

could help raise livestock, improve garden yields or be sold toothers

Today women and men need broad based skills, which can be

adapted to rapidly changing economic requirements as well as

appropriate basic skills which enable them to benefit from

information technology, increasing their ability to overcome

barriers of distance and budgetary limitations. Supporting women

entrepreneurs to introduce new technologies in their enterprises

enhances the potential to increase productivity, create

employment, reduce poverty, and promote local

development. Women entrepreneurs are increasingly becoming

the driving forces of many economies particularly in Africa. Studies

show that they account for 50 per cent of small businesses. These

businesses are often micro- and small- scale enterprises in the

informal economy, and may not offer the same job security, social

protection, access to training and career development as the

formal economy. But, formal employment, with all its inherent

advantages in terms of job quality and quantity, remains an elusive

goal for many women.

Skills development paves the way by enabling women to create

and sustain productive employment. Other key factors include thecreation of an enabling environment for sustainable enterprise



development, social dialogue and fundamental investments in

basic education, health and physical infrastructure.

The improvement of human capital will translate in greater

managerial capacity on emerging small and medium enterprises

(SMES). SMEs that take advantage of advanced technologies will

surely be more competitive. Small businesses should be

encouraged to adopt information technologies such as electronic

and wireless commerce to enhance their competitiveness

On-goingEntrepreneurshipPromotion for Skills andSocio-economic

Development.

The World Bank and other multilateral development agencies have

long recognised the importance of targeted assistance to Small

and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in accelerating growth, promoting

economic development and reducing poverty in their interventions

in developing countries. Some of the major strategies to facilitate

the promotion and the needed technological skills and socio-

economic development include the following:

Establishment of banks, channelisation of financial assistance,

development and encouragement of a new class of professional

and technical entrepreneurs, establishment of promotional

agencies, banks and cooperatives should discover innovative

schemes to catalyse the rural and cottage entrepreneurship,

setting up of rural entrepreneurship development centre, upgradinginformal apprenticeships.



It is hoped that appropriate banks would be established to

demonstrate their entrepreneurial behaviour, innovative skills and

developmental outlook in future so that Abia could survive in 21st

century with great enthusiasm and development programmes inthe committee of entrepreneurially advanced states of the world.

This forum should orchestrate the development and

encouragement of a new class of professional and technical

entrepreneurs in small and medium scale sector and campaign for

the promotion of small and medium entrepreneurship to be the

major thrust of government policies and the vision 20-2020 plans

with a view to translating these ideals into reality through effective

schemes and programmes.

Creation of an entrepreneurial society through finance,

entrepreneurship development and infrastructure development

should be its primary motive. It should set up at least one

entrepreneurship development centre in each state of this zone.

Perspectives of New Policyand Strategy for thePromotion of Entrepreneurship in theZone.

This forum is in a position to recommend relevant perspectives of

new policy and strategy for the promotion of entrepreneurship in

the zone particularly in the backward local government areas. It

can classify the latter into categories for the purpose of distribution

of fiscal and financial incentives among viable entrepreneurs whohave already set up their industrial, commercial and service



ventures in the state and the zone.

The forum should come up with suggestions on effective skills

development systems including connecting education to technical

training, technical training to labour market entry and labour

market entry to workplace and lifelong learning; can help women

and men benefit from existing and emerging opportunities. In doing

this it would be necessary to recognise that contemporary policy

targets small firms as a means of achieving and sustaining growth

as well as economic and social stability, and what could be the

impact of public policies on the localisation of economic activities.

Conclusion.

As a result of finance being a major constraint of small business in

fulfilling its developmental roles, any initiatives by the government

and other stakeholders must be geared at improving SMEs’

access to finance and lowering the cost of finance. Ability to

acquire and possess latest technology is determined by SMEs’

financial capabilities which call for government to improve small

businesses’ access to finance to enhance their competitiveness in

a global economic environment which is characterised by intensive

competition. Conducive environment for women and youth to

venture into small business must be created and supporting

policies must be crafted.

1.

Documents

Entrepreneurship Promotion Activities