[01] John Nkeobuna Nnah Ugoani, Department of Management Sciences, College of Management and Social Sciences, Rhema University, Aba, Nigeria.

It is becoming increasingly recognized that a major objective for the promotion of microenterprises is employment generation. From the early 2000s Nigeria introduced relevant measures, including the MSMEs Act to support the growth of the sector. From then, unemployment rate in Nigeria entered a downward trend reducing from about 9.6 percent in 2010 to about 4.9 percent in 2016. It is estimated that MSMEs sector accounts for about 99.6 percent of the registered businesses in Nigeria and employs about 63 percent of the labour force. In India and Bangladesh the MSMEs sector employs about 96 percent and 87 percent of the total working force respectively, while making a contribution of over 30 percent to the GDP. The exploratory research design was used for the study. It was found that microenterprises management has positive correlation with unemployment rate reduction in Nigeria.

Employment Generation, Registered Businesses, Cottage Industries, Total Working Force, Productive Enterprise

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