Journal of Research in International Business and Management

Entrepreneurship development as a panacea for a depressed economy

Received: 20-Jul-2020 Published: 22-Sep-2020

Introduction

The study examined entrepreneurship development as a panacea for a depressed economy with particular reference to Metro-B Nigeria Limited Onitsha. The main objective of the study is to examine the need to cushion the adverse effect of depressed economy through entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Related literatures were reviewed. The study adopted descriptive research method in which data generated through questionnaire and oral interview were analyzed. The Hypotheses formulated in the study were testing chisquare statistical method. The study revealed that entrepreneurship development plays a key role in the process of economic development through employment creation, increase in investment and consumption of a nation thereby revamping the depressed economy. The study therefore concludes that entrepreneurship development remains a panacea for a depressed economy such as Nigeria. The study recommends that government should encourage entrepreneurship development through the provision of incentives to entrepreneurs and standing as a guarantor for loans given to aspiring entrepreneurs so as to improve their contribution to Gross Domestic Product. Economic depression has affected the Nigerian Economy in many ways. The economy has been battered. In 1982, Shehu Shagari administration introduced an Economy Policy called austerity measures in order to address the problem of declining economy. Austerity measures programme aimed at cutting down public spending, reduce waste, to bring out more produce in the management of the nation resources. This programme introduced by Shehu Shagari’s administration continued by Buhari’s regime which succeeded Shagari’s administration. Nigerian Economy was still very visible when Gen. Ibrahim Babangida took over power. This prompted his regime to contemplate taking a huge amount of money as loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to bail out Nigeria from her economic crisis. Although Nigeria survived This depression, the recent depression that started in 2008 all over the world hit on the Nigerian economy badly. Nigeria depressed economy suffers increasing neglect of its own human and material resources in local production. In fact, industries close shop as the economy is taken over and bubbles with the buying and selling of dumped and imported bric- a- brac from the rest of the world, and this is presently what the SAP has done to Nigeria. It has de-industrialized, introduced galloping inflation, retrenchment, unemployment, freeze wages, low capital utilization in the manufacturing sector, negative direct foreign investment, low accumulation of savings and capital etc. The forgoing are true indicators of distressed economy and many sectors of the economy are bound to be suffering especially the banking sector. So many scholars have identified entrepreneurship as the process of increasing the supply of entrepreneurs or adding to the stock of existing small, medium and big enterprises available to a country and promoting many capable entrepreneurs, who can successfully run innovative enterprises, nurture them to growth and sustain them, with a view to achieving broad socio-economic development goals. Therefore, from the forgoing, the study seeks to investigate entrepreneurship development in a depressed economy with particular reference to Metro-B Nigeria limited, Onitsha