Entrepreneurship Education and Youth Development in Nigeria:The Nexus

Entrepreneurial creativity and innovation, the key elements needed for sustainability at all levels could be learnt either formally or informally. Therefore, Entrepreneurship Education is criticalto successful enterprise setting due primarily to the fact that enterprise setting devoid of entrepreneurship educationhas greater chances of failure due to poor preparation for the challenges linked with business start-ups.The thrust of this piece of write-up is to examine the effect of entrepreneurship education on youth developmentin Nigeria. The study adopted human capital Theory advocated by Robert(1991).Secondary data were mainly instruments utilized for data collection. Objectives were articulated to investigate challenges militating against success of entrepreneurship education in Nigeria and also how entrepreneurship education can assist in nation building .It was concluded that through well-planned and executed entrepreneurship education, the Nigerian youths will learn to be happy and fulfilled, as they will be more productive and committed as employees or employers of labour; thereby allowing their unique capabilities to be utilized for the development of the national and global goals rather than abandoning their country for greener pastures overseas. It was also recommended thatentrepreneurship education should be incorporated into the ongoing career preparation programs in secondary schools, colleges of education, polytechnics and universities, since it is imperative that the country's workforce have entrepreneurial skills and attitude before they enroll in employment, whether as employers or employees in order to compete effectively and efficiently in the marketplace.