ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF THE NATIONAL DIRECTORATE OF EMPLOYMENT

<em>The issues of entrepreneurship development and employment generation continue to receive high attention because of their impact on unemployment and poverty reduction in many parts of the world. The National Directorate of Employment was introduced by government in its efforts toward employment generation. In furtherance of attempts toward tackling unemployment, addressing issues of poverty and vulnerability and promoting inclusive finance at the grass-root levels, the Directorate has a Special Micro Empowerment Scheme which is aimed at promoting social inclusion and job creation. Micro, Small and Medium enterprises such as water/beverage sales, shoemaking, shining, among other vocations account for about 99.6 percent of registered businesses in Nigeria by which about 63 percent of the labour force earn a living. The Directorate has created over 2.076 million employments since it was established. The NDEs one million job creation programme remains a wonderful idea in employment generation. The survey research method was used for the study. Surveys refer to an investigation of events that exist at the time of the research and connected with some problem situations that is felt over a wide area. Data analysis was done through Pearson’s techniques. The result showed a very strong positive correlation between entrepreneurship development and employment generation. This is the aim of the study.