The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2013 report, which was unveiled recently at the GEM annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, also finds entrepreneurship a satisfying career choice worldwide – especially for women within innovation-driven economies.
Entitled, “Entrepreneurship and Well-Being’’, the report also found that women entrepreneurs from innovation-driven economies showed, on average, higher degrees of personal well-being than their male counterparts. Entrepreneurs worldwide, both at the established and early-stage phases, exhibited higher ratings on subjective well-being compared to populations not involved in entrepreneurship activities.
This, the report noted, suggested that entrepreneurship could be a good career choice for most.
A co-author, José Ernesto Amorós, said “our idea is to contribute to a better understanding about what influences a population’s perceptions about well-being and how that consequently shapes entrepreneurship indicators.’’
The report is the 15th annual survey of entrepreneurship worldwide and the largest single study of entrepreneurship in the world.
In addition to its annual measures of entrepreneurship dynamics, GEM analysed well-being as a special topic in 2013. The primary measure of GEM is the Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate, which consists of the percentage of individuals aged 18 – 64 years in an economy who are in the process of starting (start-ups) or are already running new businesses (new firms).
The 2013 survey reveals that Nigeria and Zambia have the highest TEA rate of 39 per cent among factor-driven economies, indicating that 39 out of every 100 Nigerians are engaged in some kind of entrepreneurial activity.
In 2013, Nigeria recorded a TEA rate of 35 per cent placing 5th behind Zambia (41 per cent), Ghana (36 per cent), Uganda (36 per cent), and Malawi (35 per cent).
This confirms Nigeria’s position as an entrepreneurial nation where adults see opportunities in entrepreneurship, believe in their own entrepreneurial capacities and declare themselves ready to start and run a business.
The survey result provides ample opportunity for policy makers, at all levels of government, to use the promotion of business as a strategy for poverty eradication, wealth creation, employment generation and sustainable development. The GEM Nigerian team is hosted by Tomeb Foundation for Youth Development and Entrepreneurship.
