Is Entrepreneurship All About Chin-Chin and Soap Making?

 Following a directive from the National Universities Commission (NUC) in 2006, Nigerian universities began the implementation of mandatory entrepreneurship education for all undergraduates during the 2007/2008 academic session. Most institutions officially launched these programs to promote self-reliance and reduce graduate unemployment.

However, since then, entrepreneurship programs have largely been about the baking of cakes, chin-chin, the making of soaps, and adire in our universities.

What most people perceive entrepreneurship to be is simply starting a new business. They wouldn’t be wrong in thinking so, as most entrepreneurial ventures start from scratch. However, the term has broadened in recent years and now incorporates a variety of ideas and areas.

Business entrepreneurship is probably the most common type of entrepreneurial engagement, which includes the buying and selling of goods. Because of this, many believe it to be the only form of entrepreneurship, whereas other forms also exist.

Trading entrepreneurs mainly deal with activities involving marketing, branding, and the exchange of goods and services. Agricultural entrepreneurship is not only related to the production and marketing of agricultural produce but also to its modern branding and packaging.

Entrepreneurship is now a broad concept that has penetrated other human disciplines such as political, social, technical, corporate, and professional fields, among others.

In fact, an industrial entrepreneur is concerned with manufacturing activities aimed at developing new products within the industrial sector.

This is an idea that should be adopted and supported in this country. China, being the second-largest economy in the world, has built its economy largely on industrial entrepreneurship rather than on small-scale production like beads, cakes, and puff-puff making.

Therefore, Nigerian higher institutions should focus more on helping students understand the nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship. They should teach, motivate, and develop students to gradually build the businesses they envision. They should also encourage students to improve on what they already know and help modernize existing family businesses, rather than making them compulsorily produce local insecticides and deodorants that are discarded immediately after leaving the practical centers.

Art students should focus on creative entrepreneurship. Computer students should focus on hardware or software development and repair. Food-related students should focus on food preservation. Business administration students should focus on business management, while science students should focus on the combination and application of chemicals for improved agricultural output.

Growing our economy starts with you!

-Oluwaseun Abiade