ABSTRACT
This study is on performance of indigenous entrepreneur in international business in Coal Camp Enugu. The survey research design was adopted and a sample size of 171 (one hundred and seventy one) was gotten using Taro Yamani formula. Questionnaire were administered to the respondents and 50 was returned, which was used for the analysis. The data for the study was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics of SPSS. Hypotheses were tested using the Chi-square. The study revealed that indigenous entrepreneur have various modes of entry into international business, there are some constraints confronting the development of indigenous enterprises such as poor management practices constrain the success of indigenous entrepreneur, lack of infrastructural facilities hinders the performance of entrepreneur, financial problems or inadequate capital by indigenous entrepreneurs hinders my improvement, poor management expertise is a problem to my development, to a great extent, government plays some roles towards the promotion and development of international business for indigenous entrepreneur, and it was also noticed that support are given to indigenous entrepreneurs by the government agencies to improve their performance in international business.Based on the research at hand, the researcher made the following recommendations: The government should put more effort in showing support and making it easy for indigenous entrepreneurs to participate in international business, the indigenous entrepreneurs should try and observe the state constraint confronting their performance in international business and also in their domestic trade, the government agencies which sees the affairs of the indigenous entrepreneurs should make sure that they keep to the standard of which any participant most adhere to and the indigenous entrepreneur at Coal Camp should always endeavour to have a good relationship with the government in other to have free trade without inviting law enforcement agencies.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1 .1 Background to the Study
The role of indigenous entrepreneurs in developing countries, Nigeria in particular is progressively becoming significant. It is significant in the sense that all available resources in any given situation in the economic wellbeing of a nation must be developed for industrialization and ultimately consumption through the small and medium scale businesses. Hence, the impact and potential contribution of small scale businesses on a broad and diverse base as well as their accelerated effect in achieving macro-economic objectives pertaining full employment, income distribution and the development of local technology, make the existence most inevitable. Therefore, the importance of small and medium scale enterprises in particular to the general economic development of any nation especially a developing one like Nigeria cannot be over emphasized (Osalor 2012).
Indigenous enterprises have been recognized as indispensable components of natural development in both developed and developing economies. This sub-sector of the economy is globally acknowledged to contribute substantially in enhancing employment creation or generation, poverty alleviation,, equitable distribution of resources, income redistribution, technical and technological innovation, entrepreneurial skills development, more uniform industrial and economic region- moreover, they have been touted strategic in ensuring food security and encouraging rapid industrialization and reversal of rural-urban migration (Balunywa 2010).
Although indigenous enterprise are seen as veritable engines of economic development, the growth and development of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria have been slow and in some cases even stunted, due to a number of problems and challenges confronting this all important sub-sector of the economy. Some of the problems highlighted in the body of literature as being responsible for the slow growth and development of the small and medium scale enterprises include: deplorable infrastructural facilities funding and financing challenges; inadequate managerial and entrepreneurial skills; corruption and lack of transparency arising from government regulation and regulators etc. It had been argued that the most disturbing among these challenging is funding, but concedes that most new small business enterprises are not attractive prospects for banks as they want to minimize their risk profile (Abereijo 2014).
Indigenous enterprise in Africa have therefore been found to rely largely on own savings, not only to grow, but also to innovate, whereas firms often need real services support and formal finance assistance, failing which under investment in long term capabilities (Training, Research & Development) may result on the other hand, indigenous enterprise in Nigeria had been blamed for poor performance on management practices, poor access to funds, low equity participation from stakeholders, poor infrastructural facilities, shortage of skilled manpower, multiplicity of regulating agencies and the over-bearing operating environment, societal and attitudinal problems, little access to markets and lack of access to information. In spite of these problems and challenges, Government and other financial institutions had held out programmes for the prospects of indigenous enterprise in Nigeria (Aigboduwa 2013).
