Abstract

Dwindling oil revenue, high youth unemployment, very high foreign exchange rates and recession are the challenges that Nigeria is currently faced with. There is therefore the urgent need for diversification and resuscitation of the economy. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are thus an important tool to achieve this. How therefore can acquisition of entrepreneurship education skills; adoption and use of technology; and globalisation through improved cross-border transactions enhance performance of SMEs, bring about economic recovery, and thus help to ameliorate the economic challenges. Cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The instrument consisted of forty items on a five-point Likert rating scale, which was administered on four hundred owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs sampled using cluster, proportionate and random sampling procedures from six selected states across all the geo-political zones of Nigeria. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer three research questions. Linear regression was used to test the three null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated that acquisition of entrepreneurship education skills; adoption and use of technology devices and platforms, as well as, globalisation enhance productivity and profitability of SMEs in Nigeria. It is concluded that for manufacturing SMEs to operate competitively, profitably and significantly contribute to the economic recovery and growth of Nigeria, they need to continuously acquire newer entrepreneurial skills; adopt and use innovative modern technologies; and have an internationalized profile.

Key words:         Entrepreneurial skills, adoption and use of technology, cross-border transactions, SMEs, competitive advantage, superior performance, Nigeria.