The Unemployment – Inflation Dynamics: the role of Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria.

Abstract The study empirically discussed Unemployment – Inflation Dynamics: as it impacts Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria spanning the period of 1990 -2021.The technique of Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was employed to study the dependent variable of Private Sector Productive Capacity Index (PSPC) in Nigeria, proxy of Entrepreneurship Development, and the explanatory variables of Inflation rate (INFR);Commercial Bank Credit to Small Scale Enterprises as percent of total Credit to Private Sector (CBCER);Unemployment rate (UNEMPR);and Real Interest rate (RINTR). The findings revealed among others; a statistically significant positive relationship exist between UNEMPR and PSPC in Nigeria. As a result, non-inclusive and segregated approaches of institutions to government entrepreneurship development programmes especially on youth employment coupled with, institutional based constraints including property rights and justice system could be a cog on the wheel. RINTR resulted in a positively insignificant relation with PSPC yielding non-conformity to theoretical expectation owing to structural and financial inflexibility to enterprise development in Nigeria. Whereas, INFR conformed to expectation but statistically inadequate to expand the course of PSPC in Nigeria during the review period. However, policy recommendations based on research findings suggest proactive and practical steps be followed to adjust mundane policy frameworks and strict implementation to ensure financial inclusion to start – ups businesses and private sector to a large extent.