Entrepreneurship Education: Panacea for Unemployment and Poverty among Business Education Graduates in South-South, Nigeria

This study investigated Entrepreneurship Education as Panacea for unemployment and poverty among Business Education graduates in South-South, Nigeria. It adopted the descriptive survey design, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The target population which served as sample comprised 217 Business Education Lecturers in universities south-south, Nigeria. A questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The questionnaire had two parts: part A contained 4 items of demographic variables of respondents – name of university, sex, university type (Federal or State), mode of entry. Part B contained 10 items based on the two research questions: Research Question One contained 5 items and Research Question Two contained 5 items. The questionnaire was structured on a 4 – point scale of responses: Very High Extent 4 – points, High Extent 3 – points, Low Extent 2 – points, Very Low Extent 1 – point. There was face and content validity of the instrument. The instrument was validated by experts in Business Education and Measurement and Evaluation at the Delta State University, Abraka. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained through Cronbach Alpha and the results of the two research questions are – r = 0.87 and r = 0.88 respectively. A total of 217 copies of the questionnaire were administered to 217 Business Education Lecturers in all the universities offering Business Education Programmes in South- south, Nigeria. 202 copies were fully completed and returned indicating a return rate of 93.09 %. The Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviations. The findings showed the respondents affirming to a high extent that Entrepreneurship Education can help in eradicating unemployment and poverty by sustaining Entrepreneurship and creating wealth. It was therefore recommended among others that Entrepreneurship Education should be integrated in the education curriculum and government should establish Enterprise Development centres to promote Entrepreneurship Education.