Nigeria
has one of the largest economies in the African continent, yet, there is
nothing to write home about Nigerian economy. There are so many challenges
faced by entrepreneurs in Nigeria, too numerous to mention but we shall examine
a few of them. Disinterest in the formal economy reflects the status of
Nigeria’s policies and tax regime, which have long been deemed detrimental to
the growth of viable enterprises. Even more disturbing is the fact that this
continues to be the case despite the energetic reforms process initiated after
the return of democracy. It is more than evident that piecemeal measures are
unequal to meeting the challenges that Nigeria has set itself up to.
The following are the most important
obstacles facing entrepreneurial studies:-
·
Absence of a
pro-active regulatory environment that encourages innovative enterprise
development at the grassroots level.
·
One of the worst
challenges faced by entrepreneurship studies in Nigeria is the issue of
poverty.
·
The challenges of
technological nature and sophistication; lack of knowledge of the new technologies constitutes
a barrier to the study of entrepreneurship in Nigeria
·
Significant
infrastructural deficits (especially with regards to roads and electricity) and
systemic irregularities inimical to small business.
·
The presence of
administrative and trade barriers that curtail capacity building and inhibit
access to technical support.
·
Absence of
regulatory mechanisms for effective oversight of enterprise development
initiatives, especially those in the MSME space.
·
Poor access to
vocational and skills-development training for rural and urban youths involved
in the informal economy.
·
Rampant political
and bureaucratic corruption, together with the absence of social consensus on
important macroeconomic policy issues.
More than 73% of Nigerians featuring the Gallup survey
conceded access to finance was the single-most important hurdle in the way to
setting up successful enterprises. More telling is the fact that about 60% of
respondents claimed that current polices, despite the government’s focus on
enterprise development, do not make it easy to develop entrepreneurship studies
in Nigeria.
MINSET/ POLLAR OPPOSITE WAY OF THINKING
The
biggest challenges by far; is the shift from the employee mindset to entrepreneur
mindset.” this would not happen overnight nor will it happen automatically. You
must self consciously recondition the way you think. This work contrasts two
mindsets that of “employee” and that of entrepreneur” bear in mind that this
discussion is on the way people think and not what they are doing.
An
average Nigerian is used to thinking of value in terms of times and efforts. If
an employee takes an hour to create a tool or device, he would sell his
creation to the value of hour he spent making it; putting the cost of material
and little extra for profit for an employee, time is more but for entrepreneur
leverage is money.
In
Nigeria employees tends to think of getting while entrepreneur think of giving
and employees work hard and the reward are linear while entrepreneurs work smart and effort or rewards
are exponential. This employee brings to the interview the issue of how much you
will pay me, what are the benefits etc. But an entrepreneur are more focused in
what are the needs, how can, I help you save money. Employees’ thinks short tem
while entrepreneur thinks long-term this can also be analyze by the issue of
the differences between pumping water and planting seed.
In
Nigeria, we prefer to pump water than plant seed.