Rural Entrepreneurship: The Panacea For Growth In Nigeria Using China As a Case Study By Ogbeide Ifaluyi-isibor

 

Some have defined Entrepreneurship as the art or Science of innovation and risk taking for growth and profit in Business.

 

Entrepreneurs have have shaped the growth,progress and development of many nations in the last century and it still plays a very major role in today's world.

Africa for some reason have played the back role/taken the back seat in this drive and that has resulted in her present state of Economy.

 

In the past two years, as the leading Western economies are mired in financial distress, slow growth and high unemployment, developing economies should be looking longingly for guidance at the Chinese model of Entrepreneural development..

 

One of the least understood aspects of Chinese growth is how vital the role of entrepreneurship is. The most dynamic and vibrant entrepreneurship in China today is rural, in terms of its geography and in terms of its composition. 

When most of us think of entrepreneurship, we think of people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg etc. technical geniuses who created huge business empires based on science and technology. But in a context of a poor country like Nigeria, technical entrepreneurship is relevant but to an extent. 

We define a country as poor because it has lots of poor people. The reigning issue for entrepreneurship in developing countries is not technology but how to grow income and to create jobs for those who need income.

 

This is where rural China fits in. It is not out of place to say that the modern history of entrepreneurship in China has been written by its rural people. They single-handedly created the miracle growth of the last 30 years at a time when ideological risks of venturing into a commerce and market economy were still substantial. Since the mid-1990s, rural entrepreneurs represented between 30 to 50% of China’s private sector and its still the case today. One little-noted fact about the Chinese economy is that some of its most competitive manufacturing operations are not located in the highly urbanized regions or the capital of the country; rather than they are found in some of the historically more rural provinces.

 Some of the best manufacturing firms in China, such as Wanxiang, an automobile supplier and Geely, the firm that just acquired Volvo, were all started by rural entrepreneurs.

 

The significance of rural entrepreneurship has not diminished. In fact, it is more important than ever.

 

 As Western economies continue to struggle, with low growth rates and high unemployment, one of the key policy challenges in China is how to generate domestic consumption to replace its unhealthy dependency on exports which should be the Ultimate focus of Nigeria today.Nigeria has got the most hardworking youths on the continent,we have abundant Human and Natural resources,diverse culture,Amazing land scape and Topography,Magical weather and a staggering population growth nearing 200 million.We have all that is required,only proper policy formulation,Increased partnership between government and the private sector,Increased entrepreneural Education and enlightenment and focus.

 Today, between 55 to 65% of the Chinese population is still rural. Unless their income growth accelerates. As the experience from other developing countries shows, the key to get the growth of rural income going is not to artificially jack up agricultural prices but to facilitate a transition from the low value-added agriculture to higher value-added non-farm activities. Rural entrepreneurship is the key to this transition.

 

Today,it is alot easier to become a Billionaire in China that it is in America,8 in every 10 women Billionaires are Chinese and Chinese billionaires now number 596 after a staggering 242 Chinese became billionaires in one year, although this number would rise to 715 if Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan citizens were included.

 

'Despite the slowdown in the economy, China's richest have defied gravity, recording their best year ever,' Most of the wealth created are from Information Technology,Manufacturing and Agriculture..

 

Nigeria has to focus on what she can produce locally to meet her growing demand as against importation.Manufacturing of every commodity is key to our sustainable development,there must be reduced importation of food and local production encouraged.improved agricultural practices and Merchanized commercial farming should be priority now as Government gets involved with formulating favourable policies that favours local content..