Entrepreneurship Education Phenomenon and Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The fact that entrepreneurship education phenomenon has attracted enormous attention all over the world from almost all sectors is now trite knowledge. Many initiatives are taken at various levels to accommodate and ultimately generate successful entrepreneurs but at the same time, problems in entrepreneurship education phenomenon and performance of small and medium scale enterprises still remain. The aim of this paper is to empirically explore the relationship between entrepreneurship education phenomenon and performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. With the aid of statistical package for social sciences version 25, data collected through primary sources were analyzed using mean, aggregate mean, standard deviation, and spearman rank correlation coefficient. Affective education was found to significantly relate to profitability in the light of which the study concludes that there exists a significant relationship between entrepreneurship education phenomenon and performance of small and medium scale enterprises. It recommends that because entrepreneurship education aims at providing expertise, entrepreneurial abilities and inspiration amongst entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship education centres for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be set up in Nigeria, where small and medium enterprises managers can have courses in entrepreneurship education and financial literacy. For example, if financial literacy coaching is acquired, SMEs would adopt riskier ventures, diversify investments and raise capital for growth and transformation into stronger companies.