Entrepreneurship is the ability and readiness to initiate, assemble, organise, and run a business enterprise, along with any of its uncertainties to make a profit. Entrepreneurship is considered to be an indispensable aspect of a nation’s capacity to succeed in an ever-changing and more competitive global marketplace.
The term entrepreneurship is usually considered to be more important to males than females but in reality, both a man and a woman can be an entrepreneur and be equally useful. Women entrepreneurs have been noticed to be the new mechanism for growth and the rising tools of economics in various countries.
Although, the global reckoning of Nigerian women has continued to surge with over 23 million female entrepreneurs putting Nigeria amongst the highest entrepreneurs in the world.
Nigeria should still refocus and consider women’s entrepreneurship as a fundamental tool that can be used in tackling the economic instability of the country.
Providing more job opportunities to women, empowering them in the businesses they do, and giving them equal access to participation in businesses and holding various key positions, if qualified can improve the standard of the economy of the country. Women have unique character and attributes which they can use to provide a better solution.
Women entrepreneurs are the bedrock of development because they control a lot of the monetary economy as well as the non-monetary economy which without it no nation can survive as Yawa 1995 noted in his work.
However, women entrepreneurship also provides innovative solutions to existing problems in various industries. It Inspires other women to start businesses, which leads to more job creation for women and eventually helps in reducing the gender gap in the workplace, it accounts for a larger number of enterprises creating employment, fostering economic growth and social cohesion, enabling new markets to develop, it increases material income and tax revenues, and it is a platform for women to unleash their creativity.
In addition, a woman is the agent of reproduction, which places her in the position of the lifeblood of the entire humanity. She is also the first teacher of her child and so is the major moulder of the child’s character, norms, values, and traditions. And this will determine the kind of citizens Nigeria will produce.
The percentage of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria according to one survey research revealed that most businesses are operated by men (57% of respondents). Women make up as high as 43% of entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Similarly, the findings about the impact of marital status on female entrepreneurs are ambiguous. Women entrepreneurs are 4.3% less likely to be self-employed while 3.9% are likely to be self-employed.
Above all, although the effort of the Nigerian government is commendable more needs to be done to encourage more women entrepreneurs.
Helen Ularam Musa,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri, Borno state