The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria has given credence to the need for entrepreneurial development in this present day. In the words of Osinbajo for sub-Saharan Africa to stand among the nations of the world, it must be able to take entrepreneurship development and employment important. Most importantly, the youth are the machine that will propel development and transformation. They are an important facet of industrial growth and development of a nation. Since the 1980s, unemployment has continued to remain one of the most cancerous socio-economic problems inhibiting the progress of Nigeria, as a nation and sub-Saharan Africa. Unemployment is apparently one of the major causes of social vices such as fraud, kidnapping, armed robbery, destitution, prostitution, terrorism, political thuggery and so on. With the labour force of approximately 3 million people annually moving into the labour market, unemployment of persons of 15 years and above was put at 3.8% and youth unemployment estimated at 5.0%, as at 2006. Therefore it is quiet certain that a good Entrepreneur can create a strong economy.

However experiences of developed economies in relation to the roles played by entrepreneurship buttresses the fact that the importance of entrepreneurship cannot be overemphasized especially among the Developing Countries. In order to highlight its significance in relation to the growth and development of a given economy, entrepreneurship has been variously referred to as a “source of employment generation”. This is because Entrepreneurial activities have been found to be capable of making positive impacts on the economy of a nation and the quality of life of the people [1]. According to Onyenebo and Ezeano entrepreneurship performs numerous roles in business, in the society and overall development. In fact all factors of production (labour, land and capital) would be rendered ineffective and unproductive without entrepreneurship development. They are the result of entrepreneurial choices and are open to entrepreneurial initiative. Individual entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams bring to light the resources, technologies and trading opportunities that make economic development possible. Indeed, whenever entrepreneurs are the first to discover the availability and potential economic value of new resources, they are in effect bringing those resources into existence in economic terms and also enlarging the job spaces available for exploration by the young people [2].

Vocational and Technical Training as entrenched in the Nigeria National Policy on Education, refers to those aspects of the educational process involving (in addition to general education), the study of technologies and related sciences and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, etc. Likewise, the National Universities Commission in response to the high rate of unemployment and the inability of most graduates to secure viable jobs improved on their curriculum design to include entrepreneurial education and training aimed at ensuring that graduates of the Nigerian ivory towers leave the school with skills sufficient to make self-employed and self-reliant. The concern of this paper is to what extent is this desire met by the universities in Nigeria. It was however observed that a very good number of the Nigerian Universities have deviated from the original intention for introducing entrepreneurial training to mere teaching without practical and technical skills involvement. Majority of these universities do not have workshop and facilities in place to give the required technical knowledge to the students. Hence, this study that titled: Entrepreneurial Education in Nigerian Universities: a departure from reality. It is aimed at bringing to the fore some basic requirements that are missing in the teaching of entrepreneurial education in Nigerian universities.

Literature Review

Conceptual Framework

The Concept of Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship according to Anyadike, Emeh and Ukah [3] is more than simply “starting a business.” They opined that it is a process through which individuals identify opportunities, allocate resources, and create value. This creation of value according to them is often through the identification of unmet needs or through the identification of opportunities for change. It is the act of being an entrepreneur which is seen as "one who undertakes innovations with finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods hence Entrepreneurs see “problems” as “opportunities,” and then take action to identify the solutions to those problems and the customers who will pay to have those problems solved. Entrepreneurial success is simply a function of the ability of an entrepreneur to see opportunities in the marketplace, initiate change (or take advantage of change) and creates value through solutions. Entrepreneurship is known as the capacity and attitude of a person or group of persons to undertake ventures with the probability of success or failures. It demands that the individual should be prepared to assume a reasonable degree of risks, be a good leader in addition to being highly innovative. In business management, Entrepreneurship is regarded as the “prime mover” of a successful enterprise just as a leader in any organization must be the environmental change agents [3].

Entrepreneurship according to Walter can be defined in terms of the following three essentials and linked attributes: 

• Ability to perceive profitable business opportunities. 

• Willingness to act on what is perceived and 

• The necessary organizing skills associated with the project

Therefore, entrepreneurship refers to the act or process of identifying business opportunities and organizing to initiate a successful business activity. Entrepreneurship is different from management and entrepreneurship, using the words of Stoner, Freeman and Gilbreth entrepreneurship involves initiating changes in production, whereas management involves the ongoing coordination of the production process. They stated further that, entrepreneurship refers to one of the ways of making organizations to be adaptive. It is the practice of corporate entrepreneurship where managers begin and develop new business ventures within the structure of an existing organization.

Binks and Vale defined entrepreneurship as ‘an unrehearsed combination of economic resources instigated by the uncertain prospect of temporary monopoly profit’. Hence Kanothi, defined Entrepreneur as the ‘instigator of entrepreneurial events for so long as they occur’. 

Tijani-Alawiye, [4] defines 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 by creating 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 developmental goals. One of these goals is sustaining employment. Furthermore, Acs and Szerb, [5] noted that entrepreneurship revolves around the realization of existence of opportunities in combination with decision to commercialize them by starting a new firm. This reasoning is what Thornton, [6] called demand and supply perspectives of entrepreneurship discourse.

Entrepreneurship Development

Shepherd and Douglas, observed that the essence of entrepreneurship development is the ability to envision and chart a course for a new business venture by combining information from the functional disciplines and from the external environment in the context of the extraordinary uncertainty and ambiguity which faces a new business venture. It then manifests itself in creative strategies, innovative tactics, uncanny perception of trends and market mood changes and courageous leadership. 

To the duo, ‘entrepreneurship’, when treated as ‘enterprise-creation’ helps develop new skills and experiences that can be applied to many other challenging areas in life. More importantly, Schnurr and Newing justified the need for promoting entrepreneurship culture on the ground that youth in all societies have sterling qualities such as resourcefulness, initiative, drive, imagination, enthusiasm, zest, dash, ambition, energy, boldness, audacity and courage which are all valuable traits for entrepreneurship development.

Supporting this assertion, Bennell, maintained that governments, NGOs and international bodies seeking to improve youth livelihoods could best pursue their empowerment objective by tapping into the dynamism of young people and build on their strong spirit of risk-taking through entrepreneurship development. Entrepreneurship development has also led to employment generation, growth of the economy and sustainable development. The current number of colleges and universities offering small business management and entrepreneurship development programme has grown from one university in 1947 to over 1600 in the 1990s [7-8]. White and Kenyon, also found a ‘flourishing youth enterprise culture’ in the United Kingdom among young entrepreneurs aged 18-24 years.

Entrepreneurship Education: Entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings. Variations of entrepreneurship education are offered at all levels of schooling from primary or secondary schools through graduate university programs.

Types of Entrepreneurship

Salami [9] has identified two types of entrepreneurship viz: 

• Opportunity - Based Entrepreneurship. This occurs when an entrepreneur perceives a business opportunity and chooses to pursue it. Ernst and Young in a survey found that majority of entrepreneurs said they saw economic slowdown as the perfect time to pursue new market opportunities. In addition, economists, academics and industry leaders agree that recession tend to favour the naturally innovative temperament of entrepreneurs

• Necessity - Based Entrepreneurship. This occurs when an entrepreneur is left with no other viable option to earn a living. It is borne not as a choice but compulsion which makes him or her choose entrepreneurship as a career. An example is the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 when the economic embargo introduced by Federal Government forced the secessionist Biafra to develop fuel pump from coconut and palm oil

In a similar vein, a study by Anyadike, Emeh and Ukah [3] revealed that entrepreneurs are of two categorizes viz: craft entrepreneur (who exploits and utilizes personal skills) and opportunistic entrepreneur (who is interested in having the business to grow and expand).

Entrepreneurship Development Stages 

Typically, entrepreneurship development follows a cycle consisting of stimulating, supporting and sustaining activities. The stimulating activities ensure the supply of entrepreneurs ready to take initiative and organize their enterprises by risk taking through awareness programmes. The support activities however, provide infrastructural facilities, resources like information, finance, technology, ability and skills for enterprises launching. The sustaining activities refer to efforts that facilitate the growth and continuity through expansion, modernization, diversification, technology and provision of enabling environment for growth and survival of small-scale industries.

Empirical Literatures

Scholarly works on entrepreneurial education and its significance have been well researched over time. A few of these works are reviewed below:          

Onuma [10] study investigated exposure of under-graduates students to entrepreneurial education for post-graduation job creation ability. The population of the study consist of all the final year students of Educational Administration, Ebonyi state University 2013/2014 academic year totaling 200 respondents. The population served as the sample size. The instrument was a structured questionnaire, subjected to face and content validation by experts in Educational Administration; Measurement and Evaluation units, test for reliability yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.79. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r) statistics and population t-test of analysis were used to analyze the data at 0.05 alpha level. The findings showed a significant relationship in the three hypotheses. The result implies that entrepreneurial education is relevant to students with regard to equipping them with skills for post-graduation job creation ability rather than job seekers. The study recommended collaborative efforts of National University Commission with Department of Educational Administration to identify other entrepreneurship programmes to address graduate unemployment on graduation.

Olorundare and Kayode [11] in their study on Entrepreneurship Education in Nigerian universities: a Tool for National transformation opined that Nigeria is faced with myriad of problems among which are graduate unemployment, poverty, crime, and other social vices, which are as a result of economic meltdown or unsustainable development in the country, which needs urgent attention. In order to overcome this menace, this position paper examines the nature and concept of entrepreneurship education and its application for graduates of Nigerian universities. The specific impact of entrepreneurship education on the society for national transformation among which are the provision of employment opportunities, increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), improved standard of living as well as under-dependency on white collar job by the universities’ graduates are discussed. The paper comes up with a model of how public and private partnership can be enhanced through entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities towards national transformation. The challenges of entrepreneurship education which include inadequate trainers or little knowledge of entrepreneurship by the universities’ lecturers, inadequate fund for the program by the universities administrators as well as challenges in the area of curriculum development and implementation were also pointed out and recommendations were made on how such challenges can be overcome towards the practical realization of entrepreneurship education in our higher institutions.

In his work Nwekeaku [12] examines Entrepreneurship Education and Challenges to Nigerian Universities where he put forward that the entrepreneurship education is a relatively new phenomenon in Nigerian Universities. The objective of this paper is to examine the state and challenges of entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities. Secondary data, generated through document reading, were used for the analysis. Structural functionalism was adopted as a framework of analysis. It is discovered that though many Nigerian universities have embraced the entrepreneurship education, there is not yet any fundamental change in the teaching and learning process of this important subject. Most of the lecturers have not acquired new and special skills, the teaching methodology has not fundamentally changed from the old system, adequate and appropriate equipment are yet to be procured, the value system which favours certificate acquisition in preference to practical demonstration and ability is still in vogue, the general attitude of the society which favours craze for immediate materialism to functional education is still subsisting. An immediate review of the entrepreneurship curriculum for result oriented skills and functionalism, provision of necessary learning materials and equipment, regular training and retraining of lecturers, orientation for a new and desired value system, improved funding ,among other measures, are recommended for a functional entrepreneurial education in Nigerian universities.

Chidiebere, Iloanya and Udunze [13] in their study reveals that the development and transformation of Nigerian and the Sub-Sahara Africa is highly dependent on youth empowerment through Entrepreneurship. They stated that entrepreneur is the backbone of economic development all over the world and play important role for employment, income and societal changes, particularly in transition economies like Nigeria. The concerned of their paper was on to what extent can entrepreneurship in Nigeria help to reduce youth unemployment; where they outlines the initiative taken by government to curtail unemployment and also the challenges and prospects for the development of entrepreneurship. The study revealed that such polices and initiative by government has affected the “transformation question”. This is due to the increase of corruption, inadequate and inefficient infrastructural facilities and maladministration. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship development is an engine for job creation; innovation and diversity and therefore recommends that Government (policy makers) should genuinely recognize the essence of entrepreneurship to economic development by providing the enabling environment and secured environment for the youth to be gainful employed for economic development and also provide adequate infra-structural facilities such as water, electricity, road network, communications etc. [13]. 

In Nigeria, a study by Ihugba, Odii and Njoku [14] on the Challenges and Prospects of Entrepreneurship in Nigeria; the  researchers holds that the success of generating income for majority of rural and urban dwellers with no formal paid employment highly depends on Entrepreneurship. They stated further that entrepreneurship is the backbone of economic development all over the world and play important role for employment, income and societal changes, particularly in transition economies like Nigeria. Their paper focused on the nature and the extent to which entrepreneurship in Nigeria has been developed so far, and outlines the initiative by government and also the main current and future challenges and perspectives for the development of entrepreneurship. The study revealed that such initiatives by government failed abysmally due to over bearing bureaucracies, corruption, inadequate and inefficient infrastructural facilities and maladministration. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship miracle in other country is an engine for job creation; innovation and diversity and Nigeria’s entrepreneurs have a long way to go before they can effectively drive changes in the economy and recommends that Government (policy makers) should genuine recognize the essence of entrepreneurship to economic development by providing the enabling environment for private sector led investment for economic development and also provide adequate infra-structural facilities like water, electricity, road network, communications etc [14].

A similar study on Entrepreneurship development and employment generation in Nigeria: Problems and prospects were conducted by Anyadike, Emeh and Ukah [3] the paper took a study of Nigeria’s growing unemployment situation and how it increasingly dwindles the potentials of the country, especially following official figures from the Bureau of statistics that puts the figure at about 20% (about 30 million), which still did not include about 40 million other Nigerian youths captured in World Bank statistics in 2009. They stated that by implication, it means that out of the 150 million Nigerians, 50% are unemployed, or worse still, at least 71% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. Anyadike et al [3] stated further that these days, employment creation is no longer the prerogative of government but, a joint effort between the public and private sectors. It is in this regard that their paper seeks a permanent solution to this endemic and pandemic phenomenon in Entrepreneurship development. At the end of the study, having utilized the secondary source of data generation to source data for the paper, relying extensively on current articles from ardent scholars on entrepreneurship development and government statistical documentations, the paper made several findings and recommendations among which is that government should make entrepreneurship sellable to the people by inculcating it into the educational curriculum at every strata of the educational sector and also utilize a re-modeled NYSC scheme to educate the youths more on the importance, essence and need for entrepreneurship development especially on a practical basis and then find a means of supporting these entrepreneurship projects cutting across all spheres of the country; and also create enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive by ensuring social security and adequate infrastructural facilities [3].

Likewise, in a study by Tijani, Oyeniyi and Ogunyemi [4] on the impact of technical entrepreneurial skills on employment generation in small and medium scale enterprises in Lagos State Nigeria; data were collected through administered questionnaire from 37 entrepreneurs in various activities and were analyzed through the use of sample t-test, paired differences sampled test and simple regression analysis respectively. All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The Results from the three hypotheses tested revealed that technical entrepreneurial skills generate employment in Small and Medium Scales Enterprises in Nigeria than the commercial entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, the study revealed that the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria had no significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Nigeria due to the identified variables as well as other stochastic variables. It was recommended that all stakeholders especially the Government should redirect and rethink on establishment of technical schools and provision of all business friendly environment factors like; constant power supply, good road networks and others [4].

The Role of Institutions of Higher Learning in Entrepreneurial Development

As put forward by Olorundare and Kayode [11] the followings are the expected roles to be played by entrepreneurship education that is expected to be anchored by higher institutions towards national transformation when properly and actively implemented:

• Training and learning centres: Entrepreneurship education will serve as learning and training centres for the translation of dreams and ideas into successful ventures. It will help the students to discover and think entrepreneurial. This will help them to discover their potentials and work towards achieving it and by so doing, it will reduce over reliance on white collar job

• Facilitates the identification, creation and utilization of non-existent saving: with the training received by the students, it will expose them to how they can identify, create and utilize capital. The course will expose them to how they can write a good feasibility study and win a grant for starting up a business. According to Erwart, entrepreneurship education builds skills such as managerial, human, technical, conceptual skills in the individuals by teaching and allowing them to start businesses with little or no money for themselves

• Self-fulfilment for the entrepreneur: entrepreneurship education brings about self-fulfilment to the recipient when he has really discovered the strength, weakness, opportunities and treats in a business

• Create a balance in rural-urban migration: if entrepreneurship education is implemented in the university system in Nigeria, a lot of student who travel to urban area for search for job will be reduced and the rural area will also develop and more jobs will be created as well. This tends to alleviate and eradicate poverty as well as improving the general security

• Creates employment. Research has shown that 70% of the entire work force is employed by entrepreneurial ventures and hence, rate of unemployment is greatly reduced

• Mobilises resources that ordinarily would have remained idle in the hands of people and employ them productively and by doing so, capital formulation is encouraged

• Links up the various sectors of the economy and constitute the market for agricultural extractive and industrial output as well as providing source of material and labour input for big industries

Higher education institutions according to Oteh certainly have a unique and vital role to play in their interaction with these three levels - macro, firm and individual - of entrepreneurship. They include:

First, higher education institutions can partner with governments in developing the required strategy for fostering entrepreneurship both at the individual and the firm level. Also critical is the role of higher institutions in originating the content and setting the tone for developing the policy and institutional framework for entrepreneurship. 

Second, there is the imperative of dramatically scaling up the quantity and quality of higher education across different disciplines and striving to become world class. Within that context, in addition to the disciplines of science, engineering, entrepreneurship should be promoted. There is very little consensus on the precise contours of entrepreneurial education. The many facets of entrepreneurial education include raising awareness of the central concepts about entrepreneurship by teaching students about entrepreneurs and their individual experiences. A broader view of entrepreneurial education includes encouraging the attributes of successful entrepreneurs by equipping students with the skills and knowledge to start a successful business. A third facet would relate to using the process of the creation of new ventures to help students acquire the range of business skills required to run a successful business. Higher education has the potential not only to teach about entrepreneurship, but also nurture the qualities of entrepreneurship. 

Third, a critical role for institutions of higher education is to promote innovation by supporting academic and research activities, often with historical antecedents and far reaching impact beyond their immediate vicinity. Similarly, business and institutions of learning can partner to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. Germany was the pioneering country where the university/industry relationship helped create the pharmaceutical industry in the early 19th century. Institutions of higher education fuel a more knowledge-intensive approach to development, a viable option for many developing countries and possibly the only route to sustained, outward-oriented development. 

Fourth, traditionally, institutions of higher education conducted basic research that contributes to underlying scientific understanding, leaving the process of converting research results to commercial products to the private sector. Recently, institutions of higher education have experienced the limitations of licensing technologies to industry and are forming private corporations from technology developed through their own research. For instance, Helsinki University of Technology created Innopoli, a business incubator on its campus funded through various public and private sources. Technology-based business incubators managed by institutions of higher education present a myriad of options related to technology transfer, educational opportunities, and community development, creation of wealth and jobs, and scientific freedom. There are more than 4,000 business incubators in the world, according to the American National Business Incubator Association (NBIA). Through these business incubators, entrepreneurial institutions can create the social capital that can sustain development of intellectual capital in their regions and consequently foster the creation and growth of high technology firms that will lead innovation and wealth creation in that society.

Furthermore, within the framework of the National Policy on Education, the primary goals of university education in Nigeria are to:

• Contribute to national development through high level relevant manpower training

• Develop the intellectual proper values for the survival of the individual and society

• Develop the intellectual capability of individuals to understand and appreciate their local and external environments

• Acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self-reliant and useful members of the society

• Promote and encourage scholarship and community service

• Forge and cement national unity 

• Promote national and international understanding and interaction

Items a, b, and d of the preceding goals are specific to development of entrepreneurship skills among undergraduates. The efforts of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in this regard are a formidable driving force for entrepreneurship education. University education is under extreme pressure to explicitly prove to society that it can make effective and efficient usage of their resources and that their activities bear relevance to the employment market, aspects only really achievable through modern management acting in accordance with the prevailing environment. This is the area universities have to demonstrate entrepreneurship capabilities in their programmes so that their graduates would largely become job creators and not job seekers. The right question to be asked at this juncture is; to what extent this has been achieved.

Factors Inhibiting Nigerian Universities from Delivery of Entrepreneurship Education

Unfortunately, several challenges currently face Nigerian universities in their bid to properly entrench entrepreneurship education as important curriculum issue across all disciplines. According to Amoor, these challenges include:

• Lack of lecturers with practical entrepreneurial training and consciousness. Although lecturers’ awareness of entrepreneurship education has grown in the last five years and attitudes towards the new curriculum has become more positive, majority of lecturers still do not know enough the aims, contents and work method of entrepreneurship education. Consequently, they may unable to effectively impart the desired knowledge and entrepreneurial skills to their students

• The task of drawing up course content to be included in the curriculum of entrepreneurship-related education programme in Nigerian universities will require a very long educational process

• Entrepreneurship education is capital intensive and both lecturers and students need money to practice the theory of initiating, establishing and running enterprises. This undoubtedly constitute constraints which subsequently frustrate the integration of the entrepreneurship in academic programmes in Nigerian universities

Furthermore, Brown highlighted nine basic factors that hinder entrepreneurship education in our universities in Nigeria. These are:

• poor knowledge based economy and low spirit of competition

• poor enterprising culture 

• lack of entrepreneurship teachers, materials and equipment

• unavailability of relevant funds

• non-inclusion of entrepreneurship program in the general school curricula

• poor societal attitude to technical and vocational education development

• inadequate facilities and equipment for teaching and learning in practical-related courses

• insensitivity of government to enterprise creation and expansion strategy

• Poor planning and execution of processes of action. However, one can state categorically that several of these factors are gradually being tackled by the Federal Government of Nigeria under its relevant agencies

Observed Challenges/Hinderances/Constraints

Constraints of entrepreneurship development could either be economic resources or human resources. Economic resources are made up of labor, land capital and entrepreneurial abilities, which when combined produce a great output. The key roles of entrepreneurship include mobilization of domestic savings for investment, significant contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI), harnessing of local raw materials, employment creation, poverty reduction and alleviation, enhancement in standard of living, increase in per capita income, skills acquisition, advancement in technology and expert growth and diversification. Irrespective of the benefits associated with entrepreneurship, there are lots of barriers that have prevented youths from fully realizing their potentials and assuming responsibilities in the society. These barriers are however differently grouped by different authors and scholars in the literature, but According to Onwubiko, [15] the barriers to entrepreneurship were grouped under the following sub-headings:

Absence of Infrastructural Facilities

It is a universal belief that certain basic infrastructural facilities aid the development of the mind and body and assist productivity in any environment. These facilities have been identified as good roads, good water supply, constant power, access to information and communication technology and other tools of trade. A case where these are lacking in a country, the growth of the economy will be adversely affected. In Nigeria, these basic work tools as well as the enabling environment is lacking. All these put together have made entrepreneurial activities cost intensive, unprofitable and uninteresting thereby dissuading the youths from assuming entrepreneurial leadership positions. Absence of Facilities especially infrastructure kills entrepreneur orientation which the first in desiring entrepreneur. Krueger and Carsrud are of view that entrepreneurial orientation is central to understanding the entrepreneurship process because it forms the base for the foundation of a new venture. According to Gartner, because entrepreneurship occurs over time, entrepreneurial orientation might be viewed as the first step in an evolving long-term process.

Inadequate Working Capital

Even though many scholars such as Onugu, have argued against non-availability of capital as the prime problem of entrepreneurship development, the availability of capital, says Onwubiko [15] is central to the establishment and continued existence of any enterprise irrespective of the size, focus and objective. It has been observed that for an entrepreneur in Nigeria to start a business, he /she must have adequate funds. In a situation where the working capital is inadequate or unavailable, it becomes a problem. This is one of the major, if not the major problem that young people encounter when opening a business. Banks are reluctant to give out loans to intending entrepreneurs especially when they are young people. The procedures for accessing such credits are often rigorous and dependent on the provision of collaterals which the potential entrepreneur may not possess. Therefore intending entrepreneurs often fall back on their personal savings or on loans from family members and friends.

Low Standard of Education

The world today is a global village and since an intending entrepreneur must be conversant and in tune with events around and about him, education becomes a critical factor in preparing and empowering the entrepreneur with the qualities required of him. Unfortunately, the role of education in forming young people to become change agents it seems, have been ignored. Year after year, the quality of education in the Nigerian institutions has gradually been on the decline, due to strikes and unqualified teachers. While those who stay in the system is as a result of the unavailability of alternative jobs. Government policy or lack of one has been a major bane of education in Nigeria. The schools are not adequately funded, equipped, regulated and managed to bring out their optimum potentials in youths and potential entrepreneurs.

Lack of Adequate Training

Absence of adequate training for students such has made it difficult to them to meet up the transformation question. This challenges the future of the youth as entrepreneurs. It has been observed that the educational curriculum in Nigeria focuses more on the theoretical without a corresponding practical approach. Most employers are always compelled to retrain their employees due to lack of knowledge of basic work ideas or familiarity with the area of study of the employee. Technology has been used to improve the quality of life through the use of the computers and other technological discoveries such as the internet. Where the youth does not have the knowledge or skill of the latest technology, it affects their outlook to life. This also results in low morale, inefficiency and lack of confidence.

According to Ile, there are factors that could shape the success or failure of a potential entrepreneur. They include the following, political, legal, ethnical, economic, cultural, social and physical. They play a role in stifling the dreams and aspirations of the youth towards assuming entrepreneurship positions. Economic factors such as policy reversals, high and double taxations, difficulty in procuring business approvals, high inflation and unstable exchange rates are some of the areas of concern for the potential entrepreneur who is in most cases a greenhorn basically there are three major factors that hinders entrepreneurship : structural, cultural and the lack of political will by policy makers.

Structurally, structural inhibitors in the growth of entrepreneurship have its origin in the Nigerian education policies since independence in 1960. Another related structural problem is the low budgetary allocation to the education sector, particularly the vocational and technical education sub sector. Poor leadership, corruption and mismanagement of resource have also contributed to the gross under-funding of education.

Culturally, it can be argued that entrepreneurship has been hindered by two major factors: society’s perception about the socioeconomic status of artisanship and the value system which is fast being eroded. There is the general perception that artisans and technicians are “never-do wells”, dropouts, societal rejects or even failures that should perpetually remain at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

Politically, Lack of Political Will on the side of our political leaders have been a more hindrance to entrepreneurship development and reduction of unemployment in Nigeria [15]. The neglect of vocational/technical education has been robbing the nation of the potential contributions of its graduates to national growth and economic development. The inability of policy makers to has lead underdevelopment of Africa. Agbeze et al [16], writing on the obstacles of Entrepreneurship Development averred that the challenges and obstacles facing aspiring Nigerian entrepreneurs include amongst others the following: 

• Constrained access to local and international markets stunt entrepreneurial expansion and proliferation because Entrepreneurs find it difficult to successfully market and expand their business as a result of high cost of doing business. Enterprises can only succeed if awareness of market availability is created

• Severe infrastructure deficits (mainly of power and electricity) that hamstring both new and existing businesses. Interestingly, World Bank study carried out in the last ten years or so indicated that if government is able to remove power as a bottleneck, Nigeria will at least gain 30 percent competitiveness in production. It is therefore imperative that an effective energy policy be developed as business cannot thrive under a bad energy policy

• Inadequate access to finance and the absence of a viable credit policy that addresses the specific needs of enterprises

Observations Drawn From Reviewed Works

Entrepreneurship activity generates wealth, and thereby increases the extent of the market and thus brings about positive social changes in the citizenry [11]. There is also specialisation as entrepreneurs see and create niches through innovation. More of entrepreneurship will undoubtedly create jobs, infrastructures necessary for business development (e.g. roads, transport, communication, power supply, education and health services).

When and if properly managed in Nigerian universities, entrepreneurship will contribute to the nation’s economic growth and development. According to Amoor, it will help to discover talented, competitive, creative and very skilful individuals that will be the nation’s innovative assets; prepare individual student to be responsible and entrepreneurially conscious to contribute significantly to economic growth and development; and build a connecting link that creates productive and very thoughtful citizens that can contribute to local, regional and national competitiveness. It will also encourage the university graduates to establish small scale businesses and sustain them. Such small businesses form the cornerstone of future economic growth, job creation and wealth generation.

In assigning role to institutions of higher learning Oteh reflects on the multiple dimensions in which institutions of higher learning can promote entrepreneurship. He stated that Universities have tremendous impact on innovation and entrepreneurial development. Notable universities that have played this catalytic role in the United States include Stanford and Silicon Valley, University of Texas and Austin; University of North Carolina and Research Triangle. Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology also illustrate how universities can also serve as a source for talent and ideas, serving as economic magnets for investments, entrepreneurs and talent to a region. Universities equally serve an important networking function connecting innovators across a region through their incubators and technology parks. 

In developed countries, many entrepreneurs start up their companies at their universities precisely because they can have continued access to knowledge and talent e.g. The Facebook. In addition, many universities have restructured their research capabilities to be more responsive to local industries, setting up specialized research units, joint cooperative ventures, or interdisciplinary projects.

Findings and Concluding Remarks

Some of the revelations based reviewed works are:

• A number of equipment especially facilities and infrastructural needs in line with Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) requirements were not in place before the adoption of the entrepreneurial education teaching/training by most Nigerian Universities. Given the capital intensive nature of the investment required for acquiring needed facilities, it is not a priority for most universities administrative head

• In most institutions, there are no Entrepreneurial training workshops where the learning of creative works like tailoring, barbing, hair dressing, etc. can be learnt in place in most institutions. As such, most universities seem to be contented with doing theoretical teachings as against fully engaging the students in real practical and technical training

• No budgetary provision in place to tackle the infrastructural needs/facilities. This is a very big challenge. We also found that candidates who enrolled for entrepreneurial training write normal examination; the only difference is that it is computer based. But yet it is not sufficient to test the overall know how of the candidates. Rather, it should be through practical test/experience 

Recommendations

Based on the observed findings the following recommendations were made:

• A practical training template be designed to assist in fostering genuine entrepreneurial training in the Nigerian Universities

• A strong rule should be introduced by the NUC to ensure that institutions that have adopted the training should also acquire the necessary facilities or else the termination of the programme in defaulting institutions

• Special technical training committee be set up in various institutions to assist in the training of the practical aspect entrepreneurial knowledge and skills

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2. Kirzner, I.M. Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 35, 1997, pp. 60-85.

3. Anyadike, Nkechi et al.Universal Journal of Education and General Studies, vol. 1, no. 4, 2012, pp. 88-102.

4. Tijani, Abideen A. et al. European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 13, no. 1, 2012.

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