Nigerian government through its various agencies, World Bank, nongovernmental organizations, and even private philanthropists, has recently resorted to committing a lot of resources to training and empowering the youths in various entrepreneurships. This is done with the aim of enhancing creation of jobs, reduction of poverty, and generation of income both to individuals and government thereby bringing about economic diversification which will help reduce overdependence on government and oil revenue, hence leading to economic growth and development. While these initiatives are steps in the right direction, this study therefore empirically examined whether empowering the youths has significantly contributed to the growth of entrepreneurship thereby leading to economic diversification in Nigeria using the Nigeria Enterprise Survey Data (2014) and applying the multinomial logistic regression model. It was found among others that almost all the variables used to capture entrepreneurship growth and development in Nigeria were statistically significant except for tax rates, transportation cost, and land access (comparing micro and large enterprises with the small-scale enterprise) and tax rates, subsidy, and land access (comparing medium enterprise with small-scale enterprise). It was recommended among others that governments at all levels and its various agencies, World Bank, nongovernmental organizations, and even private philanthropists, need to do more on entrepreneurship training programs of youths. The training should be accompanied with sustained financial and nonfinancial support and monitoring the business activities of these entrepreneurs after empowering them.

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Ed uc at io n Ec on om ic s an d De ve lo pm en t

Private-owned firms make up a large chunk of the firms existing in different countries of the world, especially Nigeria, and as such, contribute its quota to economic activities and growth of the economy. This study examined private ownership structure and firm productivity from the angle of firm - level empirical evidence from Nigeria using World Bank, Nigeria enterprise survey 2014 data and applied econometric model based on OLS technique. It was found among others by the study that a percentage increase in firms owned by private domestic individuals, companies or organizations (private domestic owned firms), would on the average have a significant positive impact on firm productivity in Nigeria by about 0.217276 units. In line with this, the study concludes that private domestic owned firms has positive significant impact on firm productivity in Nigeria. The study recommended among others that government should create more enabling/conducive business environment for private domestic firms to thrive and contribute more to overall economic growth and development. When this done, it will significantly increase employment, especially youth employment, reduce poverty and the menace of insecurity, increase per capita incomes, raise overall standard of the living of the people, and finally contribute significantly to economic growth and development of not only Nigeria, but Africa at large.

This study examined inequality and regional poverty in Nigeria using the Nigeria Living Standard Survey – NLSS (2019), and adopted decomposition analysis of the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Index. It was therefore found by the study that in this regard, inequality and regional poverty is more in the Northern Nigeria with North West having the greatest head count ratio or poverty incidence, poverty gap or poverty intensity and poverty severity. This is followed by the North East, and North Central. Going southern part of the country, it was found by the study that inequality and regional poverty is more in South West, followed by South-South, and least in the South East. The study therefore recommends that there is urgent need for national policies geared towards reduction of poverty incidence in all the geopolitical regions of the country. This could come through employment creation, increased investment in infrastructure, increased development and support of informal sector businesses, among other social investments that could increase incomes through increased employment.