Background of The Study
According to Wenneker and Thurik
(1999) Entrepreneurship is the manifest ability and willingness of individuals
to perceive new economic opportunities and seize these opportunities into the
market.
The importance of Entrepreneurship in
economic development is the subject of much interest to academic and policy
circle alike. Entrepreneurship is often credited with many positive changes In
developing countries. At the very least, it is associated with job creation,
wealth creation, innovation and its related welfare effects.
A strong small business sector and
Entrepreneurship are generally linked to a strong economy. Entrepreneurship can
be conceived as a process, which involves the efforts of an individual in
identifying viable opportunities in a business environment and obtaining and
managing the needed to exploit those opportunities (Blanch , 2000).
Entrepreneurship makes entrepreneurs to derive great satisfaction from their
entrepreneurial work. Blanch flower also further said being an entrepreneur
offers for greater security than being an employee else where.
Entrepreneurship enables
entrepreneurs to acquire wealth quickly and cushion themselves against
financial in security (Blanch Flower, 2000). The field of Entrepreneurship
involves the study of sources of opportunities, the processes of discover
evaluation and exploitation of opportunities and the set of individuals who
discover, evaluate, and exploit them ( sheme and venka tara man, 2000). Entrepreneurship is a context
dependent social process through which individuals and teams create wealth by
bringing together unique packages of resources to exploit mark place
opportunities (ireland, HiH and sermon, 2003).
Entrepreneurship is the mind set and
process to create and develop economic activity by blending risk- taking,
creativity and or innovation with sound management, within a new or an existing
organization (Commission of the E European communities, 2003) as a person gains
greater insight into business and Entrepreneurship, his chances of succeeding
in business improves.
Entrepreneurs are the determinants
of the creation of wealth and dynamism of a particular society when there is
market for almost every thing a firm’s competitive advantage comes from its
accumulated intangible assets (types of knowledge), brands, reputation,
technology and decision and problem solving system. This means that
entrepreneurs convert ideas into action products and services. Entrepreneurship
is a major catalyst that drives the economy of most nations. Besides being the
engine by which new ideas and novel approaches are introduced continually into
businesses and market place, Entrepreneurship guarantees economic returns from
diverse form of activities- including research and development. In a more
specific sense, Entrepreneurship is the vehicle on which innovation rides,
within this context, entrepreneurs are considered as “ Champions “ of some who
convert ideas into products and reduce unemployment.
There exists an increasing interest
in Entrepreneurship in many parts of the word, especially in developing
economics. This is because entrepreneurial activity is considered as a means of
revitalizing the economy and a way of coping with unemployment problems that
characterize most developing economies. Thus more people, and very recently
undergraduates, are being encouraged into owing and growing small businesses.
Gender and entrepreneurial education
were found to be positively influential among WELSH Students who reported that
they are likely to set up a business venture within three years of graduation
(Czuchiry and Yasin, 2008). Family and community background had an important
influence in the orientation to wards Entrepreneurship among the British, India
and Chinese students ( Stella, 2008). Wang and Wong (2004) found that entrepreneurial
aspirations among Singaporean students were driven largely by family business
experience, educational level and gender by hindered by in adequate business
experience. Verhewlet al (2002) suggests a strong in direct effect of gender on
self – employment decisions in Europe and U. S. A.
In Nigeria, agribusiness enterprises
span the entire agricultural production, processing, distribution and
consumption spectrum from farm in put supplies through farms them selves.
Included also are wood producers, furniture manufactures, food processors, food
packers, food transporters, and food marketing companies. If agribusiness is
stretched to the farthest limits, more than 75 of all business operations in
Nigeria may be classified as agribusiness in form or typology and it provides a
broad range of investment opportunities for both institutional and private
investors (Onyi do, 2006). Thus there are strong synergies between agriculture
for development. Dynamic and efficient agribusiness spurs agricultural growth.
A strong link between agribusiness
and small holders can reduce rural poverty. Agribusiness refers to the back
ward and for ward business linkages associated with agricultural production,
the provision of finance, machinery, fertilizer, seeds, etc at the input end
and the processing and marketing of food/ food stuff at the out put end. It is a
modern form of agricultural business ventures operated strictly for profit ( Olayide
and Heady, 1982, Downey and Erickson, 1987). The agribusiness sector is
structured into small medium and large scale enterprise. The survival and
growth of small- scale agribusiness enterprise could be highly constrained by
the physical, institutional and economic environment in Nigeria. Such
constraint include in adequate utilization of information communication technologies,
merger capital out lay (Adebayo et al 2004), in adequate credit assistance
opeolu and oluwalana, 2004) oluwalana et al 2004, Adebayo et al, 2004) in
adequate acquisition of literacy and management skills ( Abba and Mustapha
,2004) Agric business enterprise constitute a vital engine for the growth and
development of Nigeria economy. Omereson (2004) Observed that if this sector is
to survive and grow in the present volatile business environment appropriate
strategies must be developed and adopted by entrepreneurs.
Investment
is the present sacrifice for future benefit.
Individual, firms and governments are all regularly in position to
decide whether or not to invest, and how to diverse among the
options available. An individual might have to decide whether to buy a stock,
plant seeds, undertake a course of training, a firm may decide to purchase
machinery or conduct building and government may decide whether or not to build
market.
Investment
into agribusiness is widely propagated
particularly by the managers of small medium enterprises projects, and is
sometimes believed that because agribusiness returns have a low correlation to
other investment they have the potential to improve returns and reduce risk in
a diversified portfolio hawking and hastic , 1990 ).
Agribusiness is basically
agricultural related business which accounts for 12.1% of Nigeria Gross
Domestic product (G M D) 2003- 2004 and accounts for almost 25% of national
merchandise exports (126.1 billion in 2003- 2004 and it is the biggest
manufacturing sector and accounts for 46% of total retail spending (Anon,2010).
However, despite the holistic benefits of agribusiness to our nation- Nigeria
there seems to be dearth of knowledge on what drives the agribusiness investors
on their investment decision in Nigeria
Problem statement
Despite the growth in venture
capital funding, access to funding remain a problem for small enterprises in particular
.the growth and evolution of agribusiness has been researched, even as global
development and market dynamic impact on the agriculture industry as a whole.
Entrepreneurship is considered as a
key to the ever growing problem of unemployment among graduates in Nigeria. Though,
in Nigeria to day, both male and female unemployed ability increased
drastically than other countries. Consequently, some people in the society have
not agreed to determine their career by becoming entrepreneurs even when they
are unemployed.