CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Poverty and unemployment represent the biggest challenges to government in Nigeria. Unemployment rate continue to rise alarmingly, poverty has economic, social and political ramifications. Basically, Poverty has been conceptualized in the following ways;
1. Lack of access to basic needs/goods.
2. Lack of or impaired access to productive resources
3. Lack of job opportunities e.t.c.
The level of poverty since the implementation of SAP in the 1980s has tremendously increased [UNDP Nigeria, 1998; FOS, 1999; World Bank,1999].The poverty profile has shown that poverty increased from 28.1% in 1980 to 43.6% in 1985 but declined to 42.7% in 1992 and rose again to 65.6% in 1996.since 1990,the country has been classified as a poor nation.
In recent years, there has been a semblance of continuity of liberal tradition in Nigeria; attitudes towards the system of welfare that supports the poor are rooted in our different cultural settings. The normative tradition approach to liberalism in the Nigerian society
function to promote social cohesion, solidarity and citizenship. The duty to share among Nigerians in our diversity is intuitive. This duty rests on the consideration of human worth. In this context, we reason that others have human souls as we do and so we always choose to be indifferent to the needs of others (FEAP, 2001). Apparently, Nigerians always choose to care for others. This duty comes from a sympathetic concern that others be able to make life. In mitigation, however, it has, over time, introduced several macro-economic measures and initiations to address unemployment questions and also promoting entrepreneurship in the country. There was a structural adjustment programme (SAP) in 1986, which preached the liberalized economic approach, Directorate of food, roads and rural infrastructure (DFFRI), which was devoted to rural infrastructural projects and more recently, the national poverty eradication program (NAPEP) but of more relevance to the youth were such initiatives as the national Directorate of employment (NDE) programs, which targeted skills development and job creation among the youths. Thus the difference between NAPEP and poverty reduction agencies is that it is not a sector project implementation agency but a co-ordination facility that ensures that core poverty eradication
ministries are effective. It would only intervene when necessary, under its secondary mandate which gives it the right to provide complementary assistance to the implementing ministries and Parastatals nationwide. The importance of both small and large enterprise growth and, more broadly, of sustainable private sector development and expansion as principal sources of economic growth and employment cannot be overstated. Economic growth is fueled, first and foremost, by the creativity and hard work of entrepreneurs and workers. Driven by the quest for profit, private sector enterprises innovate, invest and generate employment and wage income. They typically represent not only a majority of the total stock of enterprises but also a significant proportion of the national production system. They also are largely responsible for the vitality of local markets and make a major contribution to the improvement of living standard. The promotion of sustainable entrepreneur activity both large and small and of the national private sectors that contain them, is “ a broad and wide ranging subject, because entrepreneur takes many forms, not just in terms of size, sector and spatial dimension but also in terms of how an entrepreneur is managed and governed and its legal status and operational objectives”. (Google).