1.0 Introduction

Nigeria is a country with numerous business and investment potentials due to the abundant, vibrant and dynamic human and natural resources it possesses ( Utomi, 2011)[1]. Although, it is a nation blessed with numerous natural and material resources but large proportion of the population live in abject poverty as a result of unemployment problems.

Nigeria is still one of the poorest countries in the world and has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in sub-Sahara Africa Chukwubuikem (2008)[2].Youth unemployment is a critical problem in Nigeria and other African countries.

The situation of the Nigerian youths in the labour market has remained a worrisome development, as youth unemployment and job losses have become a national issue which the government of the day is yet to address. More worrisome is the poor working condition and the paltry remuneration of some employed youths, and the increase in the number of those withdrawn from the workforce. Youths have well spring of ideas for innovation which would spur economic, political and social growth if harnessed[3]. It is expected that youths be gainfully engaged.

However, unemployment has remained a perennial problem that Nigerian youths have lived to battle with every day[4]. Self-employment in small enterprises has been identified as a partial solution (Nelson, 2006; Republic of Kenya, 2002).Hopefully, entrepreneurship education can play a major role in changing attitudes of young people and providing them with skills that will enable them to start and manage small enterprises at some point in their lives (Oyelola O.T et al 2014). Many other countries have been able to energize and transform entrepreneurship sub-sector to such a vibrant one that they have been able to reduce to the barest minimum their unemployment and poverty level because of the immense contribution of the sub-sector to their economic growth and development, but such cannot be said of Nigeria (Onugu, 2005). Research by White and Kenyon (2000) alsofound a ‘flourishing youth enterprise culture’ in the United Kingdom among young entrepreneurs aged 18-24 years.

In Nigeria, it was show that 25% of the youth are self-employed (Chigunta, 2001). Most of these young people especially, younger youth, tend to be concentrated in marginal trading and service activities. Also, findings in Ghana of small scale enterprises reveal that young people owned almost 40 percent of the enterprises (Osei, Baah-Nuakoh, Tutu, and Sowa, 2003). Similarly, research in South Africa suggests that the probability of self-employment among young people rises with age (Chigunta, 2001).

2.0 Aim and objectives of the paper

The main aim of the paper is to determine the influence entrepreneurial education women and youth development in Yakur local government areas of Cross River State. Other objectives of the paper are:

1.  to examine whether women and youth participate fully in small scale business

2.  to determine the extent to which entrepreneurial education has influenced the attitude of women and youths towards entrepreneurship

to investigate on the factors affecting the implementation of entrepreneurial education in Yakur Local government area of Cross River State

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