The popular description given by the French economist Jean-Baptiste Say, of the entrepreneur as someone who shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield, seem to characterize most business owners in Nigerian today regardless of the scale, don’t you think so?
Willing to take risks, entrepreneurs venture into creating, starting, organizing, managing and growing businesses that tackle specific human needs in their communities; local and global. And this whole process from start to finish is called entrepreneurship.
Typically, businesses are classified either as small scale, medium scale or large scale. These categorizations aim to differentiate businesses on the level of their operations in terms of size; numerical strength and capital base.
Small scale businesses are characterized by a lower number of workforce, a smaller startup capital base and little revenue generation as a result of a small clientele base and most of the time, one primary location for business.
Medium-scale businesses on the other hand are characterized by a relatively larger number of workforce and startup capital when compared to businesses that are run on a small scale.
With a relatively larger clientele base, these businesses experience higher profit margins and may even have service or production facilities set up in multiple locations that are easy to connect and manage.
Large-scale businesses are businesses whose workforce, startup capital, revenue, clientele base, plants, facilities, resources, and in general whose operations are way higher, larger, and wider than that small scale business or medium scale business operator.
Over the years, the Nigerian economy has experienced several changes from dealing in mainly agricultural-based products to joining the bustling chimes of the oil markets, you would think that the Nigerian economy should have reached a plateau with all the toggles these oil markets seem to have.
However, the Nigerian economy still has a strong heartbeat, one that is pounding fast and bringing life, meaning, and sustenance to her people and at its core, is the activities of various individuals, who independently identify a problem or need, study its potential to improve lives and provide a growing and steady income.
This same activity performed by millions of people in various forms in Nigeria has increased the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by creating millions of jobs for a large and diverse group of people. It has indeed birthed a new way of doing things by the driving force of an entrepreneurial spirit.
Entrepreneurship Development In Nigeria
So the question is on what scale is entrepreneurship practiced in Nigeria?
Like many of the businesses we see in the Nigerian economy, it is evident that there is an intertwining of various scales of business operations in the country.
However, it is safe to say that there are higher percentages of small and medium-scale entrepreneurial businesses in the Nigerian economy. Spread across various regions, states, and local communities, these entrepreneurial businesses have created employment for people, which has provided them with a steady stream of income and improved their standards of living.
As these businesses continue to grow, they provide viable investment opportunities and create new markets for old and new players.
Some of the most popular entrepreneurial businesses run on a small scale in the Nigerian economy include;
- Cyber Café Operators
- Mobile Food Vendors
- Barbing and Hair Salons
- Fish Farming
- Poultry Rearing
- Retail Store Operator
- Graphic Designer
- Fashion Designer
- Web Developer/Designer
- Blogger
- Photography
- Handcraft; bead making, basket weaving, painting, and pottery
- Gardening
- Consultancy
- Event Planning
- Cement Block Production
- Tutorial Centers
- Day Care Centers
- Carpentry
- Sculptor
- Cleaning/Janitorial Services
- Mini Importers
Frankly, the list could go on and on. These small scale businesses can also be operated on either a medium scale or large scale. However, they are likely to be small scale businesses.
Entrepreneurial business scales are not the only things that can be categorized. Entrepreneurs are also grouped into several categories, some of which include;
- Drone Entrepreneurs; this category of entrepreneurs is resistant to change, modifications, or innovative ideas that will alter the structure of the organization if implemented. You could say they are willing to make big-time losses instead of implementing smart, profitable, and innovative business ideas.
- Manufacturing Entrepreneurs; as the name implies, these are entrepreneurs who are directly involved in the production of goods and operate facilities of their own.
- Women Entrepreneurs; women who own their own businesses and champion initiatives directed at improving the wellbeing and welfare of other women, with the majority of its workforce being composed of women.
- Trading Entrepreneurs; these are entrepreneurs who engage in selling or distribution activities that help finished goods reach consumers, by linking them to producers of desired commodities through retailing and wholesaling activities.
- Technical Entrepreneurs; these groups of entrepreneurs are technologically inclined, innovative, and quick to build and adapt technological advancements to their processes or provide technological solutions to solve problems.
- Imitative Entrepreneurs; this entrepreneur imitates innovative technologies that have proven to provide smart solutions or modify processes. Imitative entrepreneurs do not build these technologies or come up with the ideas but they readily copy and implement these ideas in their businesses.
- Fabian Entrepreneurs; this category of entrepreneurs is not unwilling to adopt innovative techniques like their counterparts the Drone Entrepreneurs but they adopt innovative techniques with much skepticism and caution, hinged on the fear of inducing changes that will lead to great loss.
- Inventors; entrepreneurs under this category, are constantly identifying new problems and creating new solutions to tackle them; hence the name inventors.
- Social Entrepreneurs; this category of entrepreneurs seems to be more come these days globally and has within the past decade, soared in the entrepreneurial space of the Nigerian economy. They create initiatives that are aimed at tackling vices within the context of communities, with the intention to instigate positive changes. Such initiatives are targeted at human beings.
Here is how entrepreneurship development in Nigeria is faring and being carried out for those who do not know and want to join the entrepreneurship race.