ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR MICROBIOLOGY GRADUATES IN NIGERIA

ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR MICROBIOLOGY GRADUATES IN NIGERIA

Authors

  • Umm-kulthum Abubakar Gimba Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Minna – Nigeria

Keywords:

Microbiology, Entrepreneurship, Graduates, Self-reliance, Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment among university graduates is a problem that has steadily worsened over the last
two decades in Nigeria. The root of this socio-economic problem is the fact that university graduates
in Nigeria all want to be employees in the public and private sectors, and there are just not enough
jobs to accommodate them all. Previous studies on graduate entrepreneurship in Nigeria have been
descriptive in nature seeking to understand the relationship between entrepreneurship education,
self-employment intentions and actions and obstacles hindering graduate entrepreneurship. This
paper provides a different perspective by providing a prescriptive and normative step-by-step
approach which Microbiology graduates can utilize to actualize their entrepreneurship dreams after
graduation. This involved identifying entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of Microbiology
such as academia, food, agriculture, laboratory services, water quality services, the pharmaceutical
industry and public health. The paper also identified the main obstacles hindering microbiology
graduates from achieving self-employment such as limited access to funding, lack of business
management skills, limited access to technology, limited access to markets and difficulties
navigating different regulatory hurdles. Practical steps which microbiology graduates can adopt to
overcome these challenges were presented, and the paper concludes by suggesting policy
recommendations in the form of targeted policies and programs that promote entrepreneurship and
support self-employment ventures which create a more enabling environment for graduates to
establish and grow their businesses, thereby creating employment opportunities for others

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Published

2023-08-10

Issue

Section

Articles