ENTREPRENEURSHIP MARKETING AND NIGERIAN YOUTH ACTION

ABSTRACT

An important aspect of economic growth in any given nation is the entrepreneurs who promote change and initiate development activities. Due to the inability of large organizations to create enough employment opportunities for our youth, the SME sector has received considerable attention. The main issue of concern in the development of youth enterprises is the generally high failure rate. The purpose of this research project was to evaluate the current youth entrepreneurship programs to establish the effectiveness in ensuring beneficiaries are well equipped to start and run viable ventures. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design to collect data from members of the population considering entrepreneurship marketing and enterprise growth and development as the various variables. The population comprised of the 238 youth enterprises financed by the YEDF in Lagos state. A stratified random sampling method was applied. The sample was considered adequate as it ensured every entity out of the target population of 238 enterprises had an equal chance of being selected. The primary data was collected through structured questionnaires as the only convenient means of data collection. The result of the study showed that the content of entrepreneurship marketing and competence of the trainers was not adequate to prepare the beneficiaries with the required skills for entrepreneurship. The duration of training was also not sufficient to accord trainees practical training and exposure. The entrepreneurship marketing was found to have limitations especially on the curriculum content and process of delivery. The study also noted that youth who have been trained acknowledged to have benefited as they acquired knowledge on effective utilization of resources and provision of quality services and products. The research established a weak positive relationship between the quality of entrepreneurship marketing and growth and development of youth enterprises. The study established that the quality of training being given to the youth does not result to significant growth and development of the youth enterprises. The study recommended that there is therefore need to revise the curriculum used by YEDF to include other training areas such as internship and mentorship in order to improve performance and survival rates of the enterprises.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Entrepreneurship is widely regarded as a central engine of economic growth, job creation, and innovation, particularly in developing economies such as Nigeria, where the inability of large public and private sector organizations to absorb the country's growing youth population has pushed successive governments to place increasing emphasis on small and medium enterprise (SME) development as a pathway to youth employment. Over the past two decades, this emphasis has produced a succession of government-backed youth entrepreneurship support initiatives, including the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) programme, the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN) scheme, the N-Power programme, and the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), each combining some form of entrepreneurship training with financial support intended to help young beneficiaries start and sustain viable business ventures.

Despite this accumulated policy investment, recent Nigerian research raises persistent questions about whether the training component of these programmes is genuinely effective in producing survivable enterprises. A 2023 study assessing the impact of entrepreneurship on the livelihood of NDE programme beneficiaries in Kano State found that while trained entrepreneurs did earn higher incomes than non-entrepreneurs, this income advantage was often only marginally above the national minimum wage, and that access to entrepreneurship training was one of several factors, alongside credit access, group membership, and asset ownership, that jointly determined successful engagement in entrepreneurship, suggesting that training alone, when not paired with adequate complementary support, may deliver only limited returns for beneficiaries (Adeyanju, Akomolafe, Mburu, Ohanwusi, Adebayo, & Joy, 2023). This finding is consistent with a broader concern raised in the wider entrepreneurship development literature, which notes that entrepreneurial training, even when effective in isolation, cannot function as a standalone solution and must be paired with complementary interventions such as microfinance and continued mentorship if beneficiaries are to successfully translate learned skills into viable ventures, a concern that directly echoes the general documented tendency for entrepreneurship support agencies in Nigeria to fall short in their operational effectiveness.

This concern about programme effectiveness, as distinct from programme existence, is further reinforced by research examining the relationship between government entrepreneurial programmes and youth SME participation more broadly, which found that while government intervention, encompassing financial support, infrastructure, and capacity building, significantly enhances youth entrepreneurial consciousness and SME participation, the strength of this effect depends heavily on how well these support components, particularly financial availability, are actually delivered to beneficiaries, with a moderate but incomplete correlation observed between financial availability and new venture creation among the youth studied. Taken together, this literature suggests that Nigerian youth entrepreneurship support programmes, whatever their specific name or funding structure, have consistently struggled to translate training investment into strong, reliable enterprise growth outcomes for beneficiaries, a pattern directly relevant to understanding the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship marketing and youth enterprise support structure examined in this study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Despite substantial and sustained investment in youth entrepreneurship support programmes in Nigeria, the SME sector continues to be characterized by a generally high enterprise failure rate among youth-led ventures. Existing research suggests that training components of these programmes often deliver only marginal benefits to beneficiaries when not paired with adequate complementary support such as credit access and continued mentorship (Adeyanju, Akomolafe, Mburu, Ohanwusi, Adebayo, & Joy, 2023), and that the effectiveness of government entrepreneurial support depends heavily on how well its individual components, including training content and delivery, are actually implemented.

This raises an important question specific to the youth enterprises financed under the fund examined in this study: is the entrepreneurship marketing and training content currently being delivered to beneficiaries of sufficient quality, duration, and practical relevance to genuinely equip them to start and sustain viable enterprises, and does the quality of this training translate into measurable enterprise growth and development. Without empirical evidence directly addressing this relationship, programme administrators risk continuing to invest in a training model whose actual contribution to beneficiary enterprise success remains unverified. It is this gap that the present study seeks to address.

1.3 Research Objectives

The general objective of this research was to establish the entrepreneurship marketing and Nigerian youth action under the fund in Lagos state. The specific objectives were:

1. To establish the level and quality of entrepreneurship marketing.
2. To establish the level of growth and development of youth enterprises.
3. To establish the relationship between the quality of entrepreneurship marketing and the level of enterprise growth and development.

1.4 Research Questions

1. What is the level and quality of entrepreneurship marketing provided to youth enterprise beneficiaries?
2. What is the level of growth and development of youth enterprises among the beneficiaries?
3. What is the relationship between the quality of entrepreneurship marketing and the level of enterprise growth and development?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the quality of entrepreneurship marketing and the level of growth and development of youth enterprises.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will benefit programme administrators of youth enterprise financing and training schemes, by providing evidence to guide curriculum revision, including the inclusion of internship and mentorship components. It will benefit policy makers responsible for youth employment and SME development policy, by clarifying the actual relationship between training quality and enterprise outcomes. It will benefit youth entrepreneurs and prospective beneficiaries, by highlighting the training elements most in need of improvement. Finally, the study will serve as a reference for future researchers examining youth entrepreneurship support programmes in Nigeria.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is limited to examining the entrepreneurship marketing and enterprise growth and development of youth enterprises financed under the youth enterprise fund in Lagos State.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

The study relied on self-reported questionnaire data from beneficiaries, which may be subject to recall or social desirability bias. Time and resource constraints limited the study to enterprises financed within Lagos State rather than a nationwide sample.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Entrepreneurship Marketing: The training, content, and delivery process through which aspiring or existing entrepreneurs are equipped with the marketing and business skills needed to start and grow a venture.

Youth Enterprise: A business venture established and operated by a young person, typically supported through targeted government or donor financing.

Enterprise Growth and Development: The measurable expansion and improvement of a business venture over time, in terms of scale, profitability, or sustainability.

SME (Small and Medium Enterprise): A business falling within defined thresholds of employee size, assets, or turnover, distinguishing it from large corporations.

Failure Rate: The proportion of new enterprises that cease operations or fail to become viable within a given period.

REFERENCES

Adeyanju, D. F., Akomolafe, K. J., Mburu, J. I., Ohanwusi, E. O., Adebayo, S. A., & Joy, C. (2023). Does entrepreneurship improve the livelihood of young people? Evidence from the NDE program beneficiaries in Kano state, Nigeria. Cogent Business & Management, 10(2), 2248735. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2248735