Economic Recession in Nigeria: Can Business Education come to the Rescue?

Abstract

The study assessed the extent to which business education could reduce absolute poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation. The study adopted a survey design and sampled 111 business educators in four colleges of education in Delta State. Three research questions were raised and a structured questionnaire of 15 items was used to obtain information from the respondents. The results were analyzed via the descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. Cronbach’s alpha measurement technique was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.77. The findings of the study showed that business education can reduce the rising rates of absolute poverty and unemployment in Nigeria to a high extent, but is ineffective to address environmental degradation in Nigeria. Based on these findings, it was recommended amongst others, that Government, non-governmental organizations and stakeholders in the education sector should adequately fund business education programmes in Nigeria for sustainable economic growth and development.

Keywords: Economic recession, business education, unemployment, poverty, environmental degradation