How Relevant and Effective are the University Entrepreneurship Programmes in Addressing Graduate Unemployment in Nigeria?

This Policy Brief draws on a NISER Study on Enhancing Graduate Employment through Entrepreneurship Education in Nigerian Universities.

Until the 1980s, the notion that automatic employment would be secured in the public sector immediately after university graduation prevailed in Nigeria. However, from around 1985 when the Federal Government began a push towards a private sector-driven economy, the burden of employment generation was also shifted to the private sector. Sadly, the private sector, operating in a weak and unfavourable business and investment climate, could not undertake the task sufficiently.

Unfortunately, most of the young graduates lacked the skills required to tap into the emerging modern
economy and, therefore, remained largely unemployed.

What the universities did next are examined in this policy brief.