The Vice Chancellor of Skyline University Nigeria, Prof. P.K. Biswas, made the call at the institution’s maiden faculty seminar held on Saturday.
Prof. Biswas, who delivered the workshop’s keynote address titled: “Landscape of Entrepreneurship For Sustainable Development,” described entrepreneurship as key to Nigeria’s socio-economic development.
“Entrepreneurship is the attempt to create value through recognition of business opportunities and the management of risk appropriate to opportunities. It is the process of designing, launching and running of a new business, which is initially a small enterprise.
“The government should create investment climate, create entrepreneurship temperament and encourage educational institutions to create entrepreneurship units. Entrepreneurship is important tool for development because we want development that is sustainable,” he stated.
He also decried the high poverty and unemployment rate in Nigeria, saying despite the country’s abundant human and natural resources, its economic growth has been disappointing, hovering between 2 and 3 per cent.
The vice chancellor added: “There are number of problems facing Nigeria and these include poverty, malnutrition and energy. There are also ecological problems (population growing faster than available resources).
“For example, in India, one of the leading countries in term of economic growth (7.5 per cent). There are people living in extreme poverty but have access to education. Although there are several billionaires in India, few state have highest poverty rate.
“Nigeria has huge resources but the unemployment rate is massive. There is little access to education and many children die before the age of five.”
Speaking further on Nigeria’s situational analysis, Prof. Biswas said the United Nations Development Programmeme (UNDP) in its 2016 report, ranked the country 152nd out of 188 countries in Human Development Index (HDI).
“Other African countries mentioned in the HDI were Senegal (162), Benin Republic (167) and Mali (175).
“In life expectancy, Nigeria recorded 53.1 per cent, while Senegal, Benin and Mali garnered 66.9 per cent, 59.8 per cent and 38.5 per cent respectively.
“The number of people living in extreme poverty (below $2/per day) in Nigeria as at 2016 was put at 60.7 per cent compared to 53.1 per cent and 38.0 per cent for Benin Republic and Senegal,” he concluded.