AN APPRAISAL OF RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BADAGRY, LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Rural areas are an integral part of the human society. They contribute immensely to the economy. Rural entrepreneurship involves the innovative contribution of ideas towards helping to expand the economies of rural areas and by implication, national economies. Rural entrepreneurship is an important yardstick for measuring economic and national development. This study is a critical appraisal of the state of rural entrepreneurship in Badagry local government area of Lagos state,
Nigeria. The study is a survey that elicited the objective opinions of respondents (rural entrepreneurs) using the selected indicators that determine the level of rural enterprise development. These indicators were: employee strength, online business presence, level of technology adoption and usage, business capital base and ease of access to business support services. The result of this study shows that businesses within Badagry metropolis are micro-enterprises that do not use technology for business operations, lack presence of their businesses online (especially on social media platforms), have restricted access to business support service from the government and other private agencies in this capacity. In addressing these problems, this study proffered the following solutions: creation of industrial/innovative clusters to conduct business research to help promote
rural enterprises, simplification of finance and insurance policies and processes to make it easier for rural entrepreneurs to access the business support services, development of simple home-grown technologies to help business accuracy and forecasting and finally, the organization of business fora and seminars where rural entrepreneurs can gain and disseminate industry-based knowledge among themselves.