ABSTRACT
The critical role entrepreneurship play in economies made it necessary for the study to be done to examine critical factors that affect students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions. The heightened rate of unemployment in Ghana coupled with the Ghanaian youths’ overreliance on the state for employment made the conduct of this study critical and timely, as it sought to assess the effect of access to credit on students’ entrepreneurial intentions at the Valley View University, Oyibi.
The convenience sampling technique was used to select 150 students of VVU. The quantitative methodology was used for study. A self-designed questionnaire which consists of close- ended questions was used to collect data from VVU. After a cross- section data was gathered, the data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The regression analysis that was conducted found a positive relationship (R2 = 0.11) between access to credit and entrepreneurial intentions of students of VVU. The study also found that students have negative perceptions about entrepreneurship, as most of them perceived entrepreneurship to be a risky venture; the field is meant for only student who are talented entrepreneurs; and the field is meant for students who are from rich homes. The entrepreneurship education in universities was also found to be non- practical. It is therefore recommended that the state should consider creating equity fund to supporting the financing of entrepreneurship.
It was also recommended that students should be reoriented about the benefits of entrepreneurship.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
According to Holt (2003), entrepreneurship is a risk bearing activity which involves the combination of factors of production like land (natural resources); labor (human resource) and capital to produce goods and services to satisfy needs. Schumpeter (1934) also saw entrepreneurship as an enterprise of creativity where an individual entrepreneur formulates his own business pattern of ideas or models to solve problems. Unlike the earlier authors, Schumpeter situated his definition on not just the identification of needs but also the use of one’s ingenuity to introduce a new paradigm of problem-solving which otherwise did not exist. He describes this process of dismantling the already existing pattern and creating a new structure as “creative destruction”.
Kayode et al., (2014) saw risk bearing; investment of one’s effort and resources; creation of something of value; and profitability as the core elements of entrepreneurship. Considering all the diverse definitions by the different authors, it is clear that all the definitions seem to have some key resemblance, thus; risk bearing, creativity and problem-solving.
The importance of entrepreneurship to individuals and economies is not in any way in dispute, as it is seen as a medium from which useful and economic application of land, man power as well as capital spring. It therefore prevents resource dormancy and idleness (Holt, 2003). In this era of upsurge graduate unemployment in Ghana and other developing nations, entrepreneurship has
become a necessity. Several thousands of students graduate from the various tertiary institutions in Ghana. One would have expected that with the passing out of these youngsters who have obtain knowledge from different fields of academic discipline, these young graduates could apply the knowledge they have obtain to transform their societies by identifying and solving pressing problems but the contrary is true in the case of Ghana and many other developing nations. The main question that remains unanswered is, “why do graduates after acquiring skills end up as burden to society” Ghanaian youth, especially graduates seems to have an insatiable urge to work for others rather than for themselves, this phenomenon predates back to the country’s colonial days (Kayode et al., (2014).
The seeming lack of youth interest in entrepreneurship has heightened the country’s unemployment rate to an astronomical level. Those who have passion for entrepreneurship have had their dream shattered because of the difficulties that comes with raising funds to support their dream (Olowe et al., 2013).
