THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY

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• THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE
  SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY
• D. S. Yawas
• Mechanical Engineering Department
• Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
• dyawas_at_yahoo.com

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• INTRODUCTION
• The story of engineering and technology is,
  indeed, the story of mans civilization
  throughout all the ages, in which man strives to
  overcome the obstacles on his way and becomes the
  master of the environment.
• Engineering is a profession in which a knowledge
  of mathematical and natural sciences gained by
  study, experience and practice, is applied with
  judgement to develop ways to utilize economically
  the materials and forces of nature for the
  benefit of mankind.

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• The role of engineering in the economic
  development of our dear country Nigeria has
  assumed an urgent dimension under the on-going
  globalization of the world economies. Engineers
  must appreciate the responsibility thrust on them
  towards salvaging our local economy. Engineering
  is so persuasive that there isnt a single
  structure on this earth that is man made which is
  not tied directly to engineering. Every thing in
  life has a touch of engineering input.
• It is now clear to all of us that the countrys
  relative technological backwardness is
  responsible for the massive importation of all
  kinds of goods into the country while at the same
  time our industrial capacity dwindles and the
  country is impoverished. Some of the indicators
  of our countrys state of development are
  (Adewolu, 2001, Awobamise, 2008)
• low per capita income of about US370
• about 70 of the population still live below the
  poverty line
• manufacturing production accounts for only about
  5.5 of GDP
• the number of the unemployables increase by the
  day
• the economy is virtually a mono-product economy
  based on crude patrolmen oil.

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• The present Nigeria educational system operates a
  supply-drive policy whereby the output of
  graduates is dictated by the production capacity
  of institutions and not necessarily by the
  demands of the labour market. Institutions or
  rarely consider it their business to equip their
  products for self-employment or help them to find
  jobs in the labour market. The realities of this
  21st century demand that this tradition must be
  discarded. Skill-delivery institutions must
  become veritable channels for the production of
  entrepreneurs.

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• The importance of engineering entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship has traditionally been
  considered to be part of the business world,
  rather than engineering world. Training in
  entrepreneurship is usually outside the
  curriculum of the school of engineering.
  Furthermore many engineering graduates have found
  that the current engineering curriculum does not
  adequately prepare them for the non-technical
  aspect of being an engineer.

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• It is estimated that about 3 million people enter
  the labour market in Nigeria every year, most of
  these are graduates or dropouts from the various
  levels of the educational sector. It is widely
  accepted that only about 10 of these graduates
  find jobs in the formal sector. The vast majority
  of the remaining 90 are usually unemployed or
  underemployed for many years, with many drifting
  into the informal sector (Bamiro, 2000).

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• FEATURES THAT DEFINE AN ENTREPRENEUR
• For an entrepreneur to succeed in any enterprise,
  he or she must have the following
  characteristics or abilities
• identifying opportunities
• Ability to assemble required resources for the
  establishment of the enterprise (turning
  opportunities into a business idea)
• Ability to manage available resources
• Ability to take risks
• Ability to endure and forgo immediate enjoyment
  for future success
• Ability to relate positively with workers, and
  consumers.
• It is the perception of opportunity by
  entrepreneur that has led to one of the
  traditional definitions of the entrepreneur as
  creative and innovative.

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• What is a sustainable development?
• Sustainable development, as defined by the
  Brundtland Commission, is that which enables us
  to meet the needs of the present without
  compromising the ability of future generations to
  meet their own needs.
• Sustainable development is not about engineering
  alone although engineering has a very important
  part to play because it is the means of DOING
  most of what has to be done to achieve
  sustainability (Scherer, 1989, Shapero, 1982,
  DeWit and Van Winden, 1989).

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• Challenges of engineering entrepreneurship
• The quality of a business-startup is related to
  the immediate context. The basis of
  entrepreneurship is not a general definition of
  innovativeness of the activities but a relative
  definition of uniqueness. That is, relative to
  the context in which the entrepreneurial
  activities emerge.
• This emergence of entrepreneurial activities, the
  start-up, should be seen as a series of events.
  Both personal factors and factors from the
  environment guide the start-up process. These
  factors consist of personal features and motives
  (Dolton et al, 1990 DeWit et al, 1989)
  education and experience (Dolton et al, 1989),
  milieu and social background (Uxem et al, 1996),
  the availability of role-models with the personal
  network (Shapero, 1980 Scherer, 1989), and the
  effective implementation and activation of
  networks (Johannisson et al, 1993). This implies
  that the self-employment among graduates should
  take a process-contingency approach.

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• THE WAY FORWARD
• Marketing, one of the organic business functions
  of management is as relevant to small business
  enterprises as to big business organizations. The
  basic issue that marketing emphasizes is the
  satisfaction of needs and wants of customers,
  which leads to customer retention and loyalty. In
  the strongly competitive marketplace, the
  companys first order of business is to retain
  customer loyalty through continually satisfying
  their need in a better way.

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• it therefore becomes very imperative for the
  small scale businesses to inculcate resonant
  marketing principles and practices in their
  operations in the Nigeria (Ameshi, 2006).
• The advancement of the developed economies since
  the end of the Second World War can be directly
  attributed to a very aggressive investment, human
  as well as institutional, in engineering and
  technology capacity building. A review of why
  these countries were successful shows that the
  collaboration between institutions involved in
  capacity building was instrumental and necessary
  for their advancement (Awobamise, 2006).

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• In spite of the adverse environment in Nigeria
  for engineering and technology Capacity Building,
  Nigeria is blessed with a large number of
  internationally recognized experts in virtually
  all aspects of Science and Engineering. It is
  these resources that must be tapped in order to
  successfully build the capacity that will enable
  Nigeria, to take its rightful technology
  leadership position not only in Africa but also
  among the other developing countries.

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• Strategies for the Sustainability of Engineering
  Entrepreneurship
• 1. Knowledge and application by the entrepreneur
  of his/her entrepreneurial capacities
• 2. Transparency and knowledge of the market
• 3. Building and management of networks
• 4. Skills acquisition and past experience
• 5. Economics of overview
• 6. Utilization of improved technologies and
  advanced education
• 7. Encouraging Government Policies
• 8. Public-private partnership initiative for
  technical education
• 9. Confidence in Nigerian Engineers
• 10. Technical quality assurance scheme

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• CONCLUSION
• With a population of well over 140 million,
  numerous institutions of higher learning and a
  government committed to local content and the
  advancement of indigenous engineering and
  technology businesses, Nigeria has the potential
  for successfully building engineering and,
  technology capacity if only the right policies
  are implemented. Such policies will create an
  environment/framework that fosters collaboration
  and creates the right incentives that attract and
  reward institutions (private and public) that
  make engineering and technology Capacity Building
  a priority.
• Our training programmes should aimed at imparting
  skills to enable students to evaluate the
  viability of a new venture, produce and present a
  business plan for a new or growing venture, and
  the ability to analyze a new or growing venture
  from the perspective of an investor, a
  family-business successor, or an owner-manager.
  Government should proactively seek to protect and
  nurture it to growth as a deliberate and viable
  economic policy aimed as tapping its vast
  potentials in the sustainable development of the
  Nigerian economy.