How do you prepare millions of young people for an economy that cannot provide enough salaried jobs?
Over the past two decades, university enrolment in Nigeria has risen from roughly 448,000 students in the 1999/2000 academic session to more than 2.15 million in 2019.
For generations, higher education has been viewed as a pathway to better economic prospects. A degree could open the door to professional, white-collar and salaried employment and, ultimately, a more stable middle-class life.
But Nigeria’s labour market cannot absorb most workers into formal, salaried employment. In Q1 2024, 92.7% of employed Nigerians were in informal employment and about 84% were self-employed, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
That reality changes what higher education has to prepare young people for. A university education cannot be built only around the expectation that graduates will find salaried employment. Young people also need the ability to identify economic opportunities, build and sustain ventures, adapt to changing markets and, where possible, create jobs for themselves and others.
Nigeria’s higher-education regulators have embedded entrepreneurship education within tertiary curricula, with universities and other tertiary institutions developing entrepreneurship centres, innovation hubs, and incubators.
According to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Landscape Within Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria report by EyeCity Africa and the National Universities Commission (NUC), 45% of surveyed institutions have supported entrepreneurship education for six to ten years, while another 40% have been doing so for more than ten years. Only 15% have been doing so for less than five years. In other words, 85% of the institutions surveyed have had at least six years to build, implement and refine their entrepreneurship programmes.
Unfortunately, compliance does not tell the full story of effectiveness. Despite the high rate of adoption, concerns remain about the quality and practical impact of entrepreneurship education.