Decolonising Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Nigeria

Overtime, Africa, most importantly, Nigeria, has not considered the impact of entrepreneurship as critical to economic development. Literature on decolonising entrepreneurship in Africa, including Nigeria, has been very scant. The pre-colonial or traditional methods of our production and lack of enduring policy had hampered the growth and development of this phenomena. In addition, the literature on the trends of the growth and development of entrepreneurship from the pre-colonial/ traditional periods to the current level of decolonisation has not been properly documented. This has led to poor economic growth in the areas of employment and industrialisation. The paper, therefore, looks at the growth of entrepreneurship during pre-colonial, colonial and current developments from 1861 to date. The paper also reviewed the data on the impact of decolonising entrepreneurship on economic development. The paper noted that Agriculture made a significant contribution of 28% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as of 2023, while the level of employment improved moderately. However, the informal sector contributed 58.2% which impacted positively to the level of employment and poverty reduction. The paper, therefore, recommended that policies on entrepreneurship in Nigeria and other developing nations must focus on integrating indigenous entrepreneurship knowledge, providing adequate financial and educational supports, and also providing enabling environment for women entrepreneurs as they have been at the forefront of traditional entrepreneurship for sustainable entrepreneurship decolonisation in Nigeria.