Entrepreneurship Pursuit: Its Challenges and Hurdles
Entrepreneurship is more than just “starting a business.” It is a process through which individuals identify opportunities, allocate resources, and create value. This creation of value is often through the identification of unmet needs or the identification of opportunities for change.
An entrepreneur is an individual who undertakes innovations with finance and business acumen to transform innovations into economic goods. Hence Entrepreneurs see “problems” as “opportunities.”
Entrepreneurial success is simply a function of the ability of an entrepreneur to see opportunities in the marketplace, initiate change and create value through solutions.
Nigeria is blessed with entrepreneurship opportunities and citizens who are ready to explore these opportunities; however, the realization of the full potential of these opportunities has been dampened by some challenges.
Some experts have attributed the challenges faced by entrepreneurs to a systemic failure in entrepreneurship development. Others think entrepreneurs fail due to their unpreparedness for the entrepreneurship journey.
Young and vibrant Nigerian graduates venture into business due to lack of jobs. This group face enormous challenges due to lack of training and mentorship.
Challenges faced by young entrepreneurs
Some of the perceived challenges that budding entrepreneurs face in Nigeria include lack of knowledge of entrepreneurial culture and education, lack of knowledge of technology, unfair competition, multiple taxes, unfavourable monetary policies, uneasy access to funding, inadequate market research, unfavourable fiscal policies, poor policy implementation, and social problems such as inadequate understanding of the business environment and lack of mentoring and guidance.
Poor Infrastructure
The presence of infrastructure aids the development of the mind and body and guarantees productivity. One of the many challenges faced by entrepreneurs in Nigeria is poor infrastructure. Entrepreneurs have decried the cost of running a business in the country due to poor road network, power supply, access to information and communication technology.
The absence of necessary infrastructure has made entrepreneurial activities cost-intensive and unprofitable.
Inadequate working Capital
The availability of capital is central to the establishment and continued existence of any business.
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. Banks are reluctant to give out loans to budding entrepreneurs. And when they do, the procedures for accessing such credits are often rigorous and dependent on the provision of collateral which the entrepreneur may not possess; causing intending entrepreneurs to fall back on their savings or loans from family members and friends.
Lack of adequate training
To succeed in your entrepreneurial pursuit, you must be conversant and in tune with events around you; this is why proper education and guidance is critical in preparing and empowering the entrepreneur with the requisite skills for business success.
Unfortunately, the role of education in forming young people to become change agents have been ignored. The educational curriculum focuses more on the theoretical without a corresponding practical approach.
These challenges are enormous, some of which you must have encountered but are not discussed in this post. Join the conversation, let us brainstorm solutions.
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