IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN ABUJA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Abstract

Giving people the abilities, know-how, and mindset needed to launch and run profitable enterprises requires an entrepreneurial education. Small and medium-sized businesses, or SMEs, are the backbone of the Nigerian economy, creating jobs and making a substantial GDP contribution. Nonetheless, a lot of SMEs in Nigeria deal with issues including poor service delivery, a lack of innovation, and a restricted ability to create jobs. This research looks into how entrepreneurial education affects SMEs' performance in Abuja, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 250 managers of SMEs as part of the survey research technique used in this study. Multiple regression analysis, correlation analysis, and descriptive statistics were used to examine the data. The finding reveals that entrepreneurial education has significant effect on innovation, and service delivery. The study's conclusions show that entrepreneurship education significantly improves the innovativeness, employment generation, and service delivery of SMEs in Abuja. In particular, the essential elements of entrepreneurial education that have a major impact on SMEs' success include entrepreneurship, business planning, and entrepreneurial planning. The study suggests that the government fund policies and initiatives that encourage the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.