Virtue or vice? Public policies and Nigerian entrepreneurial venture performance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how inter-agency engagement across levels of government and the agencies' policies impact the development of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, with focus on taxation, business registration and access to finance.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study involved data sourced through questionnaire administered to 192 MSMEs owners, semi-structured interviews with key officials, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with leading members of the Osun State Chamber of Commerce, Mines, Industry and Agriculture (OSUCCIMA).FindingsAmidst increasing levels of engagement amongst public agencies, most MSMEs had not benefited from MSMEs' support programmes. Also, although agencies increasingly utilised the mediating roles of OSUCCIMA in policies for MSMEs, gaps remain because of not factoring in OSUCCIMA's inputs into final policy/programme drafts. Again, policies and programmes were tangential to the desired development outcomes amongst MSMEs, irrespective of size.Research limitations/implicationsConsidering differences in socio-economic and psycho-social orientations of residents/business owners across the various states, further studies focussing on other parts of Nigeria will help to strengthen the argument on how Nigeria aligns with the developing countries literature on the subject.Originality/valueExisting literature demonstrates government's recognition of the significance of MSMEs and policy actions taken in setting the right atmosphere for them to thrive, focussing on the national or local governments. This study draws on these but also explores actions at the subnational level and the role of mediating institutions, thereby showing how a multi-level governance approach could influence outcomes.

Gender-based policies and women’s entrepreneurship: an fsQCA analysis of sub-Saharan African countries

“…[Insert Figure 3 here] policymakers in sub-Saharan African countries need to look for ways to promote the effectiveness of these gender-based policies (Edoho, 2016;Olorunshola and Odeyemi, 2023), which could include an evaluation of the existing gender-based policies such as access to credit, signing contracts, business registration, and bank account, to identify a unique configuration of gender-based policies suitable in supporting women's entrepreneurship in this social cultural contexts. Before proceeding to the theoretical contributions of this study, we discuss in detail four implications of our findings.…”

“…For instance, in a recent study of Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank (2022) found that women in Sub-Saharan Africa are still underrepresented in entrepreneurship and ownership of businesses due to cultural, legal, and institutional barriers that hinder women from accessing the resources and opportunities needed to start and grow businesses. Previous works have reported that a proactive gender-based policy is required for women's entrepreneurship to be successful (Azmat and Fujimoto, 2016;Ogundana, 2022;Olorunshola and Odeyemi, 2023;Ogundana et al, 2023). With a proactive gender-based policy on signing contact', 'business registration' and 'bank account', women's entrepreneurship is likely to be successful.…”

“…Another critical issue is the scarcity of evidence evaluating the effectiveness of entrepreneurship policies, particularly in developing economies (Edoho, 2016;Olorunshola and Odeyemi, 2023). Limited research and evaluation hinder the understanding of how policies influence entrepreneurship and the specific contexts in which they operate (Smallbone, 2016).…”

“…This study proposes to address this call by focusing on four gender based entrepreneurial policies -business registration (the presence of policies that allow women to register a business in the same way as men), bank account (the presence of policies that allow women to open bank accounts in the same way as men), access to credit facilities (the presence of policies that prohibit discrimination in access to credit based on gender, and signing contract (the presence of policies that allow women to sign contracts in the same way as men) -which have received coverage not only in the broader women's entrepreneurship literature but also in sub-Saharan Africa women's entrepreneurship research (Hyland et al, 2020;Ogundana et al, 2022;Olorunshola and Odeyemi, 2023;Simba et al, 2023). This is perhaps because they have been recognised by entrepreneurship stakeholders, including the World Bank, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and the African Development Bank, as crucial for supporting the establishment and growth of women-owned businesses in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region (AFDB., 2019;GEM, 2019;World Bank, 2018).…”

“…Yet, there is a need to evaluate the impact of those policies on women's entrepreneurship. Doing this contributes to the monitoring and evaluation process required for a proactive government policy (Olorunshola and Odeyemi, 2023;Simba et al, 2023). Thus, [Insert figure 1 here] 3.…”