Redefining Entrepreneurial Education in Africa through Africanisation: A Review of the Igbo Apprenticeship System

Abstract

Despite having abundant natural resources, Africa has consistently experienced high rates of poverty and unemployment. Enormous efforts have been exerted to raise living standards by integrating entrepreneurial education into the curriculum of higher institutions. Tragically, these exertions have not yielded the desired dividends. The goal of this study is to examine and evaluate how Africans can develop an Africanised philosophical framework on which their identity and worldview can be incorporated into an entrepreneurial curriculum that has been appropriated from Western nations. The conceptual research review approach was used to achieve the research objective. The findings from the review of extant literature show a paucity of empirical studies on the Africanisation of entrepreneurship education curriculum; the Igbo Apprenticeship system; a misfit between the present academic curriculum and Africa’s identity; and how the Igbo Apprenticeship System (IAS) has influenced economic, social, and environmental development in Nigeria’s Eastern region. Resulting from the failure of the present entrepreneurial education to provide the desired outcome on the continent, this study, therefore, proposed a framework that will ensure the infusion of the IAS model into the curriculum of institutions of learning in Nigeria.