Entrepreneurship Development : The key to Economic Growth and Freedom
Lecturer: Olumide Abimbola Ajayi, B. Sc (Hons), Ph. D
Project Coordinator,CBN Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Lagos
The United Nations Secretary General High-Level Panel on Post-2015 Development agenda at their last meeting on February 1, 2013 in Monrovia, Liberia, had this to say about poverty and job creation, I quote;
“Our vision and our responsibility is to end extreme poverty in all its form in the context of sustainable development and to have in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all. We see to make gains in poverty eradication irreversible. This is a global, people-centered and planet sensitive agenda to address the universal challenges of the 21st century; promoting sustainable development, supporting job-creating growth, protecting the environment and providing peace, security, freedom and equity at all levels”
From Spain to Greece to Portugal and Italy, the job queue kept on increasing in length on daily basis. The unemployment figure was a major issue during the 2012 American presidential election. The economic fragility that used to be the neighbor of many African countries is on a long visit to many European countries. While job queues are not common in Nigeria and several African countries because there are no job centres, we however know that in several streets and corners of our cities, both in urban and rural areas is a great army of idle and unemployed youth looking hungry and frustrated. My first message this day is that youth unemployment has become a global phenomenon with its attendant problems of poverty, instability and insecurity. Contemporary wisdom dictates and has demonstrated over several decades that the pillar of the economic and industrial development rest on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
