EFFECT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT ON EMPLOYMENT GENERATION IN ABUJA, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of Entrepreneurship Development (ED) on Employment Generation (EG) among registered enterprises in the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria. Chronic unemployment and the dominance of micro-enterprises in the FCT highlight the need to understand which policy inputs specifically Entrepreneurship Training Participation (ETP) and Access to Credit (ACE) most effectively translate entrepreneurial activity into stable job creation. Grounded in Schumpeter's Innovation Theory, the research employs a descriptive survey design, analyzing data collected from a sample of 309 registered businesses in Abuja, and uses Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that the model is statistically significant (R^2=0.204, p=0.000), confirming that ETP and ACE collectively influence employment generation. Individually, however, the results are mixed: Access to Credit was found to have a statistically significant and positive effect on Employment Generation (β_2=0.318, p=0.009), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis and affirming finance as the primary lever for Schumpeterian growth in the region. Conversely, Entrepreneurship Training Participation was found to be statistically insignificant 〖(β〗_(1 )=0.183, p=0.094), indicating that current training interventions, when isolated, do not reliably translate into increased labour absorption. The study concludes that financial capital, rather than solely human capital, is the binding constraint on firm scaling and employment generation in Abuja. It recommends that policymakers prioritize the implementation of collateral-free micro-lending schemes and revise entrepreneurship training curricula to be purely outcome-based and integrated with financial access to maximize job creation efforts in the FCT.