THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATES

Entrepreneurship education plays a major role in the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria. However, while most Nigeria universities have initiated entrepreneurship courses in their curricular; little research is available to assess its impact and to know whether a relationship exists between students taking courses in entrepreneurial development study (EDS) and their intention of becoming entrepreneurs. This paper provides understanding of the entrepreneurial intentions of small sampled Nigerian undergraduates. It reports finding from quantitative data retrieved from questionnaire administered to 120 undergraduates that were selected through stratified and simple random sampling. Analytical techniques used include frequency count, percentages, and inferential statistics in the form of chi-square and degree of significance to know the impact of entrepreneurship education on the rate of students’ self-employment intention. The study found that exposure to entrepreneurship education influences students’ intentions of becoming self-employed. It was however discovered that most students were not very confident about their intentions due to fear of capital, failure, and lack of experience in business management. The study concludes that despite knowledge of entrepreneurship education as a contributing factor in the reduction of unemployment, Nigerian youth requires additional supports to overcome the foreseen challenges.