Abstract:

This work sought to determine the impact of Economic Environment (EE) and Entrepreneurial development in North central, Nigeria. The unprecedented factors arising from inconsistencies, to lack of continuity of policies and programmes implementation constitute a lot of constraints that impede on the establishment, growth and development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the North central, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: (i) Ascertain the extent to which unemployment rate effects start-up business and entrepreneurial development in North central, Nigeria. (ii) Evaluate the extent to which total tax rate effects the growth of business enterprises in North central, Nigeria. (iii) Assess the extent to which domestic interest rate by banks to private sector impact on entrepreneurship development in North central, Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design, and ex-post facto, the population of the study was 18,173 staff made of owner-founder and management staff, from 2,178 private enterprises that registered with the respective state ministries of trade, commerce, industry and tourism in North central, Nigeria. A sample size of 377 was drawn from the population using Krejcie and Morgan (1970), sample size determination. The instrument used for data collection was mixed method: Quantitative method (structured questionnaire) and Ex-post facto (secondary data). The hypothesis were tested using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) to ascertain the time series properties of the variable for hypothesis one. Hypotheses two and three were tested using simple linear regression. The findings revealed that, to a large extent the listed Economic factors had significant negative relationship with entrepreneurial development in North central, Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended that, there should be strategic policy by government and individual put in place to ensure substantive numbers of work force engaged in both private and public sectors; government should encouraged entrepreneurial development by enforcing on financial institutions to issue one-digit interest rate loan to entrepreneurs and business concern to boost business activities in the region. More so the issue of double taxation on entrepreneurial activities should be minimized or avoided to provide a level plane ground for business enterprises to strive, grow and develop in North central, Nigeria.