Corporate social responsibility (CSR) occupies the center stage of the debate on the operations of transnational corporations in the developing countries. The quest for profi t maximization as the overriding value at the expense of corporate social responsibility puts some transnational corporations on a collision path with their Niger Delta host communities, who are demanding environmental sustainability. Militant groups have shut down fl ow stations and taken oil workers hostage. Unresponsiveness of oil fi rms to community demands for CSR is heightening the volatility of the Nigerian oil industry. The problem will intensify until oil fi rms initiate authentic CSR strategies to address the environmental havocs emanating from their operations. At the core of such strategies is recognizing the host communities as bona fi de stakeholders and addressing their socioeconomic needs.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to African governments by delineating a framework that would help them to formulate policies that have the potential to engender opportunity entrepreneurship. This framework is used to critique existing entrepreneurship policy in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship policy should stimulate economic growth as a necessary condition for employment generation and poverty alleviation. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts evaluative methodology. Data and information used in this paper were obtained from several secondary sources. These included literature review related to the subject area addressed; the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has designed and funded various initiatives to enable SMEs access funding for their businesses; the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics which has conducted surveys of SMEs in the country; and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria, which was established to help promote and develop the SME sub-sector. Findings The critical findings of the paper are that opportunity entrepreneurship has a better prospect of promoting growth, creating jobs and alleviating poverty than a generic MSME policy being current currently promoted. Targeted entrepreneurship policy to incentivize opportunity-oriented entrepreneurs would produce greater benefit to the economy and society. Such entrepreneurship policy should aim at motivating and facilitating the transitions of necessity entrepreneurs to opportunity entrepreneurship and microenterprises to small and medium enterprises. More importantly, entrepreneurship policy should be targeted at drastically shrinking the informal sector to the barest minimum, while helping to aggressively expand the formal sector, spur innovations, foster growth, expand opportunities and create jobs. Research limitations/implications The implication of this paper is the desperate need to refocus public policy on a high-impact entrepreneurship. This calls for a rethinking of existing policy and programs to address their inherent shortcomings. Originality/value Existing micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) policy has not achieved the twin goals of job creation and poverty alleviation. This paper contributes to the existing body of work by providing a framework for informed decision-making relative to entrepreneurship policy that has the potential to achieve macroeconomic goals of job creation and poverty alleviation. The framework directs the attention of policymakers to opportunity entrepreneurship as a necessary focus of public policy.

Purpose – This Guest Editorial provides contextual insight to the contributions in this special issue that addresses entrepreneurship and economic growth challenge confronting Africa. Although the contributors come from various academic disciplines and adopt different perspectives, they are united in their singularity of focus on entrepreneurship as a pathway for African future. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The papers in this special issue adopt different methodological approaches that help to provide a composite insight to the multidimensional entrepreneurial challenges facing Africa. They review published materials from the government sources and international agencies. They draw heavily on the literature in the field of entrepreneurship. Findings – African countries have made significant progress in stimulating economic growth in recent years. However, they still have a long way to go in terms of institutionalizing entrepreneurial paradigm to foster self-regenerating development. Africa needs to do more by leveraging public policy for entrepreneurial development as a pathway for expanding economic opportunities and alleviating poverty. A policy framework designed to anchor entrepreneurial culture in the economy is a key to African economic renaissance in the twenty-first century. Originality/value – The originality and value of the papers in this issue hinge critically on the all too often ignored proposition that African countries need to embrace a proven approach to development that is both broad based and citizen driven. Entrepreneurial paradigm will empower citizens to take not only full responsibility, but more importantly inalienable ownership, of the development process. This is the only way to ensure that the ongoing much celebrated growth in Africa is sustainable.

This chapter examines how countries in sub-Saharan Africa seek to enhance their human, institutional, technology and infrastructure capacity to enable them establish a vibrant sustainable economy and enjoy a more vigorous entrepreneurship. It is argued that educational and infrastructure capacity building can be crucially important in economic organization and sustainable growth as well as in industrial development. Dimensions of the African labour market are examined, and the chapter recommends appropriate policies that could address the capacity building challenges in Africa.