INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG PRIVATE UNIVERITIES STUDENTS IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Entrepreneurship skills development programme is an effective way of promoting and cultivating students' interest and tendencies towards entrepreneurship in the university system and eventually leading to new venture creation in Nigeria. One of the main motivations influencing how most countries' economies are led is entrepreneurship. It has served as the vehicle for the ongoing introduction of fresh concepts and innovative business strategies in the market place. Despite the inclusion of entrepreneurship courses in tertiary education curriculum, there has been no positive effect on entrepreneurial venture creation in Nigeria. Consequently, the university students in the dynamic complexity of the emerging markets are unable to translate their intentions into entrepreneurial goals and aspirations after graduation. As a result, graduate unemployment is expected to continue to rise. This study, therefore, was carried out to investigate the effect of intellectual capacity on entrepreneurial intention among private university students in South-West, Nigeria. The study was anchored on social learning theory of career choice. The study adopted survey design. The population of the study consisted 652 final year students in the faculties/colleges of Business and Social Sciences of eleven (11) selected private Universities in South-West, Nigeria. A total of 652 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents out of which 623 copies were returned and analyzed. Structural Equation Modelling technique was used. Findings of the study revealed that intellectual capacity has no statistical significant influence on entrepreneurial intention (where π -0.162; t- 0.858 and p- 0.392). Intellectual Capacity has not achieved a considerable success in stimulating the entrepreneurial intention among final year students of the selected private universities. The study concluded that students who exhibited high intellectual competencies are not expected to embrace venture creation after graduation and are less likely to engage in entrepreneurship activities.