EFFECT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON WEALTH CREATION IN NIGER STATE. Journal of Intellectual Discourse

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is one of the ways of creating wealth in every economy. A country might remain backward not for lack of natural resources or dearth of investment capital but because of its inability to tap the entrepreneurial talents existing in that society for wealth creation. This study focuses on the effect of entrepreneurship on employment generation and improved standard of living in Niger State. The population for the study comprises 1,694 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) operating within Minna Metropolis of Niger State. The sample size of 324 was determined using Taro Yamane method of 1973. A combination of purposive and simple random sampling was used to select the respondents. Descriptive statistics and one sample t-test were employed for the data analysis and test of hypotheses respectively. The results show that entrepreneurship generates significant employment and also has significant effects on the standard of living in Niger state. It is recommended that the government, at all levels, should provide an enabling business environment that will encourage entrepreneurship. Policy makers equally, should not only introduce practical skills acquisition programs but design it to foster creativity and innovation. This will encourage entrepreneurship to create more employment opportunities and raise the standard of living of the people in Niger State.