The Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business Incubation Certification (EIBIC) programme initiated by the Federal Government of Nigeria, is set to kick-start this year, 2026, with 14 federal universities designated to pilot the programme, while intending to expand it across all federal universities by next year, 2027, by 2928, to all tertiary institutions - polytechnics and colleges of education. The EIBIC is designed for students in the tertiary institutions as a compulsory entrepreneurship development Programme that will run simultaneously with conventional academic programmes, from first level to final. The students will receive additional certificate in entrepreneurship upon completion, alongside the usual academic degree.
Entrepreneurship is key and central to the present reality (unemployment) facing the labour market in Nigeria. It is believed that entrepreneurship has what it takes to remedy or address the biting social phenomenon that has continued to bedevil the country, especially, when factoring in related human development indices such as average income per head (income per Capita) and standard of living (SOL). The worrisome situation has continued to stir up or triggered thought-provoking initiatives especially around the tertiary institutions, because it boats of producing the biggest percentage of the unemployed population in Nigeria.
There are so many unsuccessful initiatives made by the government towards solving unemployment in Nigeria, especially for students who will later constitute part of the problem, when they might have graduated. The introduction of mandatory entrepreneurship certificate programme (EIBIC) for students in tertiary institutions is the newest, followiing the introduction of compulsory entrepreneurship course across the tertiary institutions' curriculum some years ago.(about 2006/2007), by the National Universities Commission (NUC), with the aim of solving graduates unemployment challenge in the country, and it was effective from the 2007/2008 academic session. However, it has not fully yielded expected result due to poor implementation, focusing basically on theoretical aspect.
In view of the above, there are critical and actionable strategies that should be highlighted and mainstreamed by the relevant stakeholders, especially Ministry of Education, NUC, and the various universities, if this laudable initiative will yield expected result. These include:
(1) SUSTAINABILITY PLANS
It should not only stop at issuance of certificates, because such is what education is mainly not. That is why the certificate aspect of the programme should not be celebrated or mainstreamed. Efforts should be channeled towards what the students will use the knowledge and exposure for, during and after graduation. Effective follow-up mechanism for monitorring and evaluating performance and resilience (stability) of ventures that will be set up by students should be the underlying issue. Such designed plan should be well researched on, in order to reap expected benefits of the programme.This should form core part of implementation plans, to emphasize its seriousness and importance to the success of the programme. Part of the strategy should include establishing strong partnership and collaboration with relevant government's departments, agencies and ministries, to assist in monitoring the growth and resilience of the ventures that will be created by students during and after graduation. For example, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Ministry of Youths Development, National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), etc. can be brought in for effective joint implementation of the sustainability project of the EIBIC Programme.
Another aspect of the sustainability plans is the participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E), which should be expanded beyond the concerned implementing organizations, to include supportive organizations such as mentioned above; the main aim is to factor in the transitioning process from studentship to graduate level, which the school management may not have direct control over them, to ensure effective implementation of the programme. For this to be effectively achieved, all hands, specifically the relevant stakeholders, must be on desk, to ensure gaps are identified for actionable steps to be taken and targets are met.This is part of what will guarantee the success of the EIBIC programme.
(2) STRONG PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION PLANS
This EIBIC Programme is too big for only one or two organizations to implement successfully, the transitioning process and the referral components that will connect so many of her organizations, makes the plans extremely necessary. Aside from the government, the private organizations fit in very well for this purpose, perhaps as part of discharging their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the public, and we'll meaning citizens, to successfully drive the programme. This should commence immediately fresh students are enrolled or onboarded into the programme in their first level, to ensure smooth continuity and should be designed to take effect in stages, as they move from various stages in life.
The programme transcends studentship, the schools alone and may be the relevant regulatory body will be incapacitated or limited, in terms of resources to execute it effectively. There is need for strong partnership and collaboration to guarantee needed support, especially on sustainability drive, which should focus primarily on the sustainable implementation of the programme after graduation. The private sector should be seriously tasked to help contribute in this regard. Many government's programme have failed due to lack of sustainability strategy, this should not follow the same failed pattern.
(3) PRACTICAL AND LUCRATIVE VENTURES/PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT FOR EACH STUDENT
practical and projects development should be mainstreamed, instead of certificates, so that students can be able to create innovative sustainable projects that will translate into job creation before graduation. Don't tell me the incentive or motivation is to have double certificates upon graduation. The programme should take the form of undergraduate research project, which is a partial fulfilment for the award of a degree. However, the EIBIC Programme should be more concerned with the practical skills of the students in the specific area of interest, to guarantee proficiency and profitability in the area of one's business or enterprise. Similarly, the project development should form part of the fulfilment requirements for the award of the entrepreneurship certificate, on graduation.
The practical project development should be bothered on or centred around sustainability drive, in a way that would enhance job creation and employability status of prospective graduates. The long term plan of such project development should be the core yardstick for undertaking it, as will be scrutinized by the relevant authorities for subsequent approval. Don't forget, the primary objective is to create jobs and reduce alarming unemployment rate bedeviling the country.
(4) INTERNSHIP/INDUSTRIAL TRAINING (IT)
Internship and industrial training(IT) is usually undergone by students in their various areas of study or specialty, for the purpose of obtaining practical skills on the knowledge acquired in school. This should happen for mastery, exposure and experience sake, especially for those with interest in the technical related field. Since the EIBIC Programme involves the entire tertiary institutions, some students would definitely pick interest in technical related ventures, perhaps based on their field of study, which may demand enrollment for internship programme to obtain practical experience before being able to set up something similar. There are so many businesses that require such process before one is able to set one up .
The point of emphasis is this: such internship programme is definitely more useful and important than certificate, hence the need it should be mainstreamed, for the successful implementation of the EIBIC programme.
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