ABSTRACT
The United Nations Millennium Development Goal One (MDG 1) identifies poverty and food insecurity as a prime challenge. The Human Development Index (HDI) in Nigeria remains very unsatisfactory. Among the parameters of these unsatisfactory aspects, the development situation in Nigeria includes low levels of literacy, low income, high unemployment, and high infant and maternal mortality among others. A common ingredient in the policy milieu in Nigeria over the years has been the promotion of small and medium-scale enterprises. The fundamental basis for this approach is the identification of some weaknesses of the Nigerian entrepreneurial class, principally their weak financial and capital bases. However, those small and medium enterprises promoted suffered stiff competition from imported goods as Nigeria's economy became more liberalized. The inability of the Nigerian government at various levels to solve the problem of poverty and unemployment has led the government to encourage people in Nigeria wishing to establish their own enterprise rather than looking to government for employment.
