Entrepreneurial Culturing of Formal Education Programmes in Nigeria

Abstract

The importance of entrepreneurial competencies is widely acknowledged, but its systematic incorporation into formal education in Nigeria has been quite slow. This paper contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship, and how formal education can be transformed through entrepreneurial acculturation. More specifically, a framework for entrepreneurial culturing of undergraduate programmes of universities in Nigeria is proposed. Formal education is a core component of enterprise development because the larger proportion of the population go through it to actualize their career goals; hence the need to mainstream entrepreneurial training in tertiary education. But doing so calls for comprehensive review of the curricula to accommodate more action learning, internship, fieldwork, and running of mini-companies by students. Drawing on lessons from the experiences of the UK and other European Community countries, the paper proposes the entrepreneurial culturing programme (ECP) as a framework for mainstreaming entrepreneurial competencies in the undergraduate programmes of Nigerian universities. Workability and sustainability of ECP call for sound fiscal governance, effective partnership and collaboration with private investors and donors, and regular monitoring to reward high performing students, teachers, and institutions appropriately.