ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BUSINESS EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY

Entrepreneurship in Business Education and National Development: A Strategic Management Framework for the Nigerian Economy. This paper examines Entrepreneurship in Business Education and National Development: A Strategic Management Framework for the Nigerian Economy, with particular interest in the persistent gap between Nigeria’s abundant natural resources and its relatively weak business development, employment creation, and wealth generation. The paper is motivated by the need to examine how entrepreneurship education within business education can be strategically managed to transform students from job seekers into self-reliant entrepreneurs and job creators capable of contributing meaningfully to national development. The paper critically reviews the concepts of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur, business education and entrepreneurial competencies, strategic management framework for entrepreneurship development, the need for strategic entrepreneurship development in Nigerian business education, empowerment for self-reliance, business creation and job opportunities, the role of strategic management in entrepreneurship development, and policy recommendations for entrepreneurship development. Based on the critical review, the paper finds that entrepreneurship education has significant potential to develop entrepreneurial competencies, particularly in opportunity recognition, financial management, strategic planning, self-efficacy, and innovation orientation. However, its contribution to national development is constrained by inadequate curriculum integration, insufficient funding, limited practical training, inadequate faculty expertise, weak infrastructure, unreliable power supply, and poor coordination of entrepreneurship-related policies. The review further finds that strategic management is essential for transforming entrepreneurship education from a largely theoretical activity into a coordinated system that promotes innovation, sustainable business creation, employment generation, and economic growth. The paper concludes that effective integration of entrepreneurship education with strategic management in Nigerian business education can promote self-reliance, business creation, job opportunities, and sustainable national development. It recommends adequate curriculum integration, practical and experiential entrepreneurship training, faculty development, sufficient funding, establishment of university-based business incubation hubs, improved infrastructure and power supply, stronger mentorship and funding mechanisms, and coordinated government policies that encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.