THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Abstract

Entrepreneurship plays an influential role in the sustaining economic development and standard of living of a country and region. As a startup founder or small business owner, one may think that he is simply working hard to build his own business and provide for himself and immediate family. However, he is actually doing a whole lot more for his local community, state, region, and the country as a whole. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of entrepreneurship to sustainable economic development: An empirical study on South-South regionof Nigeria.To achieve the objectives of the study the researcher employed descriptive research design for analysis; data was collected from both secondary and primary sources. Under primary source, 80 respondents from three selected Trading and Contracting companies in Port Harcourt through questionnaires. The paper adopted the Theory of Entrepreneurship. The theory was advanced by one famous scholar, Schumpeter. Schumpeter believes that creativity or innovation is the key factor in any entrepreneur’s field of specialization. The study was aiming to examine the contributions of entrepreneurship to sustainable economic development. The study revealed that entrepreneurship increases the employment level of the country and region, the productivity, and also makes considerable change in the living standards of those involved in the entrepreneurial activities. The researcher recommends that both the central and regional governments should establish centre for coordination of entrepreneurship and come up with policies and programs aimed at improving and encouraging entrepreneurial endeavours in Africa.