• Scope of the entrepreneurship education programme

This programme will cover the general overview of a business enterprise from inception to growth and maturity stages. It is geared to making the students appreciate an operating entity within a business environment. It will cover the concept and functions of the entrepreneur, basic business management and other challenges of peculiar business types. Among other things the programme covers aspects of leadership, decision making, financial management, legal forms and requirements in businesses, and the cooperative business as a special case in the entrepreneurship process.

  • Qualification for the programme:
    • All university undergraduate students are qualified. However the programme is specifically meant for students of the university in their penultimate years.
  • Programme Courses:
    • The two courses to be taught are – CED 341: Introduction to Entrepreneurship, and CED342: Business Development and Management.
  • CED 341: Introduction to Entrepreneurship
    • The CED 341, which is titled Introduction to Entrepreneurship, will comprise two basic course modules- Definitions, Concepts, and theoretical framework of Entrepreneurship. This module is expected to expose students to basic definitions, concepts, and theories of entrepreneurship. The second module covers Business opportunity evaluation and is specifically expected to expose students to: sources of information for finding and screening venture opportunities; generate new venture ideas that will eventually be used in business planning process; and the criteria used by entrepreneurs, angel and venture capital investors in evaluating potential ventures.
  • CED 342: Business Development and Management
    • This course is divided into two modules. The first module covers some basic issues in business management. Such as: leadership; customer loyalty; time management; and decision making processes. The first module is designed to equip the students with the requisite skill for effective interpersonal relationship management in the organization. The second module is on business development which deals with: business environment; cooperatives and information management. The second module gives insight into the analysis of market situations, production plan, financial plan and writing a complete business plan. Finally, students are exposed to the intricacies of new venture creation and documention and how to access financial assistance from financial institutions and other venture capital agencies.
  • BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME

The Business Management Enhancement Programme was developed to bridge the gap between town and gown in a warm beneficial relationship. It has two components: the Basic Business Management Enhancement Programme and the Advance Business Management Enhancement Programme. The two programmes complement and enhance each other.

  • Programme objectives:
  • To offer opportunity to small business operators to grow in theoretical and practical knowledge in business, as well as build capacity for industrialization.
  • To create a platform to enable the University to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), contribute in training and empowering the labour force engaged in direct productive activities and thus create receptors for technological development.

So far about 700 (seven hundred) artisans have been trained.

  • SKILL ACQUISITION

Over 500 participants have been trained in various skills, which include event decoration, fashion designing, bead/hat making, woodwork, catering, publishing, bakery, pond management, snail farming and agriculture among others. Some of them are well established and have won laurels at state level competitions. About 200 participants have acquired ICT training and proficiency in internet usage.

  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (EDC)

As the Implementing Agency (IA) of the Central Bank of Nigeria with regards to running the Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) South East, CEDR is carrying out specialized training on entrepreneurship for the benefit of the unemployed youths (university graduates and school leavers) in the South East and South – South of Nigeria.

  • To date, over 2,000 university graduates and secondary/primary school leavers have been trained. The training has enabled some of those trained at the EDC to start up businesses.
  • Currently, above 160 EDC graduates with bankable business plans have been successfully linked to finance
  • So far, more than 22 beneficiaries of the EDC programme have accessed bank loans

About 7000 small business operators were counseled; and most of them have recorded significant improvements in their business performance.