Stress and Frustration Among Small Business Owners in Nigeria
STRESS AND FRUSTRATION AMONG SMALL SCALE BUSINESS OWNERS IN NIGERIA: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS (A CASE STUDY OF APHA FURNITURE COMPANY, IKPOBA SLOPE BENIN CITY)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Before the arrived of the British Colonialists in Nigeria, there were numerous small scale industries and handicraft enterprises based on the available raw materials to meet local and regional demand. The Hausa, Yoruba and Bini people developed significant small-scale manufacture of goods for a variety of trade, social and religious purposes.
This traditional manufacture survived well into the colonial period, which understandably failed to provide sustainable basis for industrial change or investment (Synge, 1993). However, the 1962 – 1968 National Development Plan, tried to correct past deficiencies in the nation's industrial sector programme. Given the poor base of industrialization in the country and increase in direct government investment and promotional measures coupled with an ever increasing demand for foreign manufactured goods abroad, the strategy of Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) was adopted. The original aim of the strategy was to promote growth and economic diversification as a means of reducing the dependence of the economy on the agricultural sector as the principal earner of foreign exchange. The strategy was adopted also because it was aligned to the potential as well as other known requirements of ready-made markets. It was limited at its early stage to the replacement of imports of nondurable consumer goods which generally called for the services of unskilled and semi-skilled labor and less application of advanced technological method (Sule, 1986).
Furthermore, there is a sense in which the SMEs industrial growth strategy could be viewed as an integral part of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS), which is a grass-root, approach to development through 'mass empowerment'. Indeed, this new
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Before the arrived of the British Colonialists in Nigeria, there were numerous small scale industries and handicraft enterprises based on the available raw materials to meet local and regional demand. The Hausa, Yoruba and Bini people developed significant small-scale manufacture of goods for a variety of trade, social and religious purposes.
This traditional manufacture survived well into the colonial period, which understandably failed to provide sustainable basis for industrial change or investment (Synge, 1993). However, the 1962 – 1968 National Development Plan, tried to correct past deficiencies in the nation's industrial sector programme. Given the poor base of industrialization in the country and increase in direct government investment and promotional measures coupled with an ever increasing demand for foreign manufactured goods abroad, the strategy of Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) was adopted. The original aim of the strategy was to promote growth and economic diversification as a means of reducing the dependence of the economy on the agricultural sector as the principal earner of foreign exchange. The strategy was adopted also because it was aligned to the potential as well as other known requirements of ready-made markets. It was limited at its early stage to the replacement of imports of nondurable consumer goods which generally called for the services of unskilled and semi-skilled labor and less application of advanced technological method (Sule, 1986).
Furthermore, there is a sense in which the SMEs industrial growth strategy could be viewed as an integral part of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS), which is a grass-root, approach to development through 'mass empowerment'. Indeed, this new