Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

This study examined the effect of entrepreneurship development on economic growth in Nigeria, using new business registration, credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and gross capital formation as indicators of entrepreneurship development, while Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) served as the measure of economic growth. Entrepreneurship development has been widely recognized as a catalyst for economic growth through business creation, employment generation, innovation, and investment. Despite various government interventions aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in Nigeria, the country continues to experience slow economic growth, high unemployment, and low industrial productivity, raising concerns about the effectiveness of entrepreneurship development in stimulating sustainable economic growth. The study adopted an ex post facto research design. The population comprised annual macroeconomic and entrepreneurship data for Nigeria covering the period 2010–2024. Since the study relied on annual time series data, no sample size or sampling technique was applicable. Secondary data were obtained from the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI), the World Bank Entrepreneurship Database, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. The analysis was conducted using EViews 13. The findings revealed that new business registration (β = 0.2146; p < 0.05), credit to SMEs (β = 0.1769; p < 0.05), and gross capital formation (β = 0.3518; p < 0.05) all exerted positive and significant effects on Real Gross Domestic Product in Nigeria. The study concluded that entrepreneurship development significantly promotes economic growth in Nigeria. It therefore recommended that government should simplify business registration procedures, improve SMEs’ access to affordable credit, and increase investment in productive infrastructure and capital formation to stimulate sustainable economic growth.