Unchaining African Economic Development: Entrepreneurship Education

Author(s): Forje Lema Catherine

Africa lacks the vital knowledge necessary to establish a creative and innovative society capable of fostering economic development. Entrepreneurship knowledge is said to be the strength of economic development; it empowers and encourages people to start economic development activities. Presently, many educated Africans are those that do white collar jobs that produce very little economic developmental results. Africa needs people with entrepreneurship knowledge to enable them think creatively and be innovative. Such knowledge will enable a learning process that encourages engagement in economic development activities. People can only carry out economic development activities if they are educated to understand the factors that bring about such development. Economic development theories designed to help Africa economic development is unlikely to achieve that objective as long as the continent holds only to primary goods production. Porter (1998) in analysing the diamond of national competitiveness claims, natural resources is the only resource Africa has. From this perspective, Africa needs necessary knowledge that enables the production of finished goods. The objective of this study is to critically examine the role of entrepreneurship knowledge in economic development and how it orientates people to become creative, and innovative. Entrepreneurship’s knowledge is believed to enlighten individuals and a society at large on what is needed for economic development to occur. Considering the view that developing entrepreneurs in the classroom is about developing an enterprising environments and approaches to learning in which entrepreneurial aptitudes and capabilities can flourish alongside business acumen and understanding, data is collected from management students in two universities in Cameroon and one university in Nigeria. The result is that Africa needs an entrepreneurial based that enlightens people to understand entrepreneurship and its role in economic development. The implication is that the study empowers people with knowledge required for business opportunity identification, creativity and innovation. The conclusion is that entrepreneurship should be taught at all school levels.

Creativity, Economic Development, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Knowledge, Learning

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