Entrepreneurial Competencies: The Missing Links to Successful Entrepreneurship in Nigeria

comments and the conference participants for their invaluable inputs. The strategic role of the entrepreneur as an agent of economic transformation in society is visible in employment and wealth generation, stimulation of indigenous entrepreneurship or promotion of entrepreneurial culture. The Nigerian government has accordingly created the enabling environment to nurture entrepreneurial development, through the establishment of various agencies to provide financial resources to small and medium scale enterprise operators or entrepreneurs. Despite the provision of financial resources to these entrepreneurs, there is still a high rate of entrepreneurial failure. The paper advocated a shift in paradigm in re-thinking entrepreneurial failure in the country. The missing links to successful entrepreneurship were identified to be entrepreneurial competencies, defined as the cluster of related knowledge, attitudes, and skills which an entrepreneur must acquire or possess to enable him produce outstanding performance and maximize profit in the business. These entrepreneurial competencies were the critical success factors to entrepreneurship, and they deserve serious consideration in entrepreneurial discourse and not to be neglected