An Evaluation of the Impact of NAPEP on Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria (A Case Study of Imo State)
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The overall objectives of the study are to asses the various strategies of policies for the development of entrepreneurship. Generally the objectives are;
To asses the relevance of NAPEP as poverty alleviation policy.
To examine the effectiveness of NAPEP on entrepreneurship development in the country.
To identify and analyze challenges of the program.
To proffer some policy recommendations based on the findings of the study.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
A review of earlier work done in the area of poverty in promoting and sustaining entrepreneurship development is made in this chapter. Quite a lot has been and is being documented on poverty, entrepreneurship development and strategies for achieving this goal. One of the fastest Means of reducing and achieving these goals is to create productive asset through gainful employment, especially in the agriculture and micro-business sector investment in human capital through capacity building and physical infrastructure are also vital for empowering entrepreneurship.
Conceptual Literatures
The concept of entrepreneurship development refers to the creation of a wide pool of personal business initiative designed to provide a variety of services of goods as the demand may be. All entrepreneurs are business personal, but all business persons are entrepreneurs. Let us think of why all business people are not entrepreneurs. Think of a woman, who sits by the road side and who has been selling the same type of food, from the same size of source pan or pot, from the same table top, and may not have been able to change her standard of living to any appreciable extent. Such a woman may be a business person but not an entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs on the other hand is the business person who is not satisfied with his/her performance and therefore always find a way to improve and grow.
Entrepreneurship forces “creative destruction” across market, and industries, simultaneously creating new product and business models. In this way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run economic growth.
The acts of entrepreneurship are often associated with the uncertainly, particularly when it involves bringing something new to the world, where market never exists. Before internet, nobody knew the market for internet related business, such as Amazon. Google, YouTube, yahoo etc. Only after the internet emerged did people begin to see opportunities and market in the technology.
The attempt made at defining poverty as captured above could be referred to a more outline of the features or characteristics of poverty. In buttressing the difficulties encountered in arriving at a common and general accepted definition of poverty, Aboyade (1997) posits that there seems to be a general agreement that poverty is a difficult concept to handle, and that is more easily recognized than defined. Even attempts made to categories some specific areas at which poverty could be viewed are fought with lack of agreement. For instance, the organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2003), Guideline on Poverty Reduction, stressed that; “an adequate concept of poverty should involve all the most important core as which people of either gender are deprived and perceived an incapacitated in different societies and local context. It should encompass the casual links between the core dimension of poverty and the central importance of gender and environmentally sustainable development.
It failed to define poverty, rather it listed. The core dimensions’ a definition of poverty should cover to include; economic, political, socio-cultural and productive capability.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In carrying out a study a lot of information has to be put together and analyzed. Hence, research method is concerned with the process used in collection and analysis of data for the research. Since data is the life wire of an empirical study, this chapter presents the structural framework, which deals with generation of data.
Research Design
The research design is the framework that guides the researcher in the process of collecting analyzing and interpreting our observations. In reality, it shows interferences concerning causal vocations and defines the domain of generalization. It’s research design that necessitates the fundamental question; how would the study subject be brought into the scope of the research?
Hence, it was the framework that stated the type of information to be collected, data collection procedure and sources of data. There are two basic approaches open to this study.
- The survey approach
- The case study approach
The case study approach entails the study of a specific growth at a time and drawing conclusion based on prevailing circumstance of the group studied. In the words of Ezejule and Ogwo (1990:72), a survey sample consist of collecting data or information about a large number or people by interviewing or contacting a representative sample of them.
Sample Size And Sample Technique
Essentially, this study sought to access the impact and effectiveness of NAPEP as well as polices adopted in poverty reduction and entrepreneurship development in Nigeria with referent to the area of study (Imo State). Although, the result of this study was to be generalized, it was not designed that all habitants or all STAFF OF NAPEP agencies would participate in the study, given the nature of the topic. The target population was there fore limited to;
- Selected beneficiates of NAPEP credit schemes for poverty reduction and entrepreneurship
- Selected management staff of NAPEP agencies simple random sampling technique was used to select samples for the
Thirty respondents were randomly sampled through the use of table and random numbers, twenty to the beneficiates and ten to the agencies which invaded the following sequence; first, the beneficiates were serially numbered from oil; secondly, since we are using the two-digit random able. Starting point was arbitrary picked and poison of eleventh raw and second column was pointed.
This approval facilitated the selection of the following;
- Beneficiaries
- Agency /co-coordinators
These are people truly capable of providing all the responses to be able to prove or disprove the researchers hypothesis and or measure the effectiveness or other wise the scheme.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of data collected during the course of the study. The response from the questionnaires is analyzed based on percentages and are subjected to a statistical tool to enable the hypothesis to be tested. There are two sectors in this chapter. The first section consists of presenting and analyzing data that relates specifically to hypothesis testing based on the response from the beneficiaries and agencies, while the second section presents and analyses the responses from the agencies.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 Summary
It is noticeable from the above data presentation and analysis that Nigeria now faces enormous development challenges that are key to both welfare improvement for the general population and to poverty reduction in particular.
This research work is an attempt to examine the effect of NAPEP on entrepreneurship development. A case study is to provide additional evidence on entrepreneurship activities in Imo State and in tackling the problem of poverty in the area.
In order to have an understanding of the issue at stake attempt was made in the first chapter to a background, the research question, problem statement and method of resolving the problem was present in the review of literature. In chapter two, it was disclosed to the explanation and definition of entrepreneur and poverty. Also, in this chapter we looked at the overview of entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and economic perspective, poverty and economic development case study review, poverty alleviation in enhancing entrepreneurship development, brief history of NAPEP and problem of NAPEP toward reducing poverty.
In Chapter three and four of this research work data collection method were discussed. Data was generated, interpreted and analyzed to confirm the validity of whether to accept or reject that hypothesis tested and the result of the interpretation shows that there is no positive relationship between NAPEP and entrepreneurship development in Imo State (1 + 0) therefore we reject the hypothesis
While chapter five, comprise summary of the project, conclusion and recommendation.
Conclusion
The traditional approach to poverty alleviation places emphasis on the promotion of economic growth. Today, however, the feasibility of the increase of free market growth for poverty reduction is a subject of considerable controversy in the economic literature.
Imperatively the government of Nigeria has to develop strategies towards reducing poverty and promoting entrepreneurship activities. NAPEP as one of the strategies comprises of Youth Empowerment SCHEME (YES), Rural Infrastructural Development Scheme (RIDS), Social Welfare Scheme (SOWESS) and National Resources Development and Conversation Scheme (NRDCS). These are to spearhead government ambitions programme of eradicating poverty and enhancing entrepreneurship development.
Due to the poverty level in Imo State, which is as a result of high level of literacy, lack of infrastructural facilities and Government consented programme, NAPEP Plan to eradicate absolute poverty is not yielding a positive result.
Recommendations
– From the findings in chapter four (4) these recommendations are needed (necessary) and they include:-
- Government Policy: Government should try and monitor all allocation when it is been allocated to a region, community or state to avoid diversion because when government allocate funds, the people in power tend to keep the funds for their self interest, making it insufficient for the
- Illiteracy: Most of the poor people that I came across were lacking basic education on family planning which resulted to them having more than the number of children their income can cater for, therefore the people should be educated on family planning, so that they could control the number of children so as to be able to take care of them.
- Laziness (Lack of Entrepreneurship): The people in a community should avoid being lazy, and go into any small scale business that could yield a little income that can be used to take care of their basic needs, instead of waiting for the government to do everything for
Government has to encourage them with some funds for capital and some educative programme to enlighten them more on entrepreneurial skills.
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