The Chancellor and Founder of Maduka University, Samuel Maduka Onyishi, has urged Nigerian universities to focus more on entrepreneurship education that will help students become job creators instead of job seekers.
Onyishi made the call while speaking at the second Academic Lecture of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. His lecture was titled ‘Entrepreneurship for Human Development and Economic Progression: A Call on Nigerian Universities’.
He stated that the rapidly changing world and modern business challenges have rendered the traditional university education model outdated. According to him, in today’s knowledge-driven society, universities no longer have complete control over the creation of new ideas.
“Rising global competition means our universities are under increasing pressure to contribute directly to economic development — hence the need for an entrepreneurial shift,” he stated.
According to him, the goal is to equip universities with the capacity to identify and create opportunities, foster innovation, encourage teamwork, embrace calculated risk-taking, and effectively respond to emerging challenges, hallmarks of the entrepreneurial mindset.
He argued that strategic entrepreneurship education is crucial to reducing widespread unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. According to him, Nigerian universities must go beyond theory and adopt a more practical and structured approach to entrepreneurship training.
Describing this as “targeted entrepreneurial education,” Onyishi proposed a comprehensive model that includes entrepreneurship education, financial literacy, vocational and skills acquisition training, leadership development, time management, legal education, ICT literacy, life skills and healthy living, business intelligence, family planning, cooperative education, and more.
He emphasised the need for universities to encourage students to form cooperative societies, investment clubs, and partnerships, adding that holiday internships are highly beneficial to students’ development.
