Impact of Entrepreneurial Opportunities on National Security in Nigeria (a Case Study of Selected Small Scale Business Owners in Akure, Ondo State

ABSTRACT
This research investigaled the impact of entrepreneurial opportunities on the national security in Nigeria with specific focus on the security situation of the post amnesty programmes of the Federal Government in Ondo Stale. Specifically, the paper evalualed the relationship berween entrepreneurship opportunities and national security and it also analyzed the personal characterislics of the beneficiaries thal were exposed lo entrepreneurial opportunities in Ondo Sale. Both primary and secondary data were used. The primary dala were sourced through self-administered structured questionnaire designed for small scale business owners in Ondo State. Secondary data were sourced from the register provided by the national association of small scale businesses, Ondo State chapter containing the name and address of each registered member. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select a sample of one hundred and twenty (120) respondenis. Data collected were analyzed using Linear Regression Analysis through the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)in order to examine the impact of independent variable (entrepreneurial opportunities) on dependent variable (national security).
The result showed that entrepreneurial opportunities have statistical significant impact on the national security in the state with a P-Value of 0.0000 which is less than 0.05 level of significance. The result of the Linear Regression Analysis showed an overall P-value of 0.0000 and R2 of 0.69.4 percent which implied that entrepreneurial opportunities have statistical significant impact on national security in the state. Also, the study revealed that entrepreneurial opportunity creation and discovery as well as providing a model on how these entrepreneurial opportunities could be effectively and efficiently utilized jointly predic belter national security, which accounted for 69% variance of national security.
The paper, therefore recommended that there should be needs to ensure that those with innovative ideas are provided with the financial support to translate such ideas into reality and that a need to change the young people's mindset to embrace self-employment as a life career be pursued.