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The Implementation Gap in Youth Entrepreneurship Policy: A Comparative Study of Nigeria and India

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Authors : Rachael Osioyemi Olaiya, Shreeya Gupta, Arya Rani, Nithin Reddy

Citation :

Rachael Osioyemi Olaiya, Shreeya Gupta, Arya Rani& Nithin Reddy. (2026). The Implementation Gap in Youth Entrepreneurship Policy: A Comparative Study of Nigeria and India. Institute For Policy Research and Governance, 1(11). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21361195


Abstract :

India and Nigeria are two of the world’s largest developing economies, both marked by young, fast-growing populations and fundamental youth unemployment, prompting governments to create entrepreneurship programmes. Despite these programmes, most businesses remain informal. Roughly 80% of Nigerian SMEs fail within five years, and nearly 90% of India’s youth workforce is informally employed. Output-focused evaluations fail to capture the implementation gap between formal policy and its on-the-ground effectiveness. This paper evaluates why youth entrepreneurship policies in India and Nigeria consistently fail to produce sustainable outcomes, and what both countries can learn from economies that have successfully closed this gap. Adopting a qualitative-comparative case study approach, the paper examines India and Nigeria as primary cases benchmarked against South Korea and Rwanda. Drawing on national MSME surveys, ILOSTAT, World Bank Enterprise Survey, GEM India, and government program evaluations, the paper applies Stam’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Framework as the analytical lens across all four countries. The analysis reveals that India and Nigeria’s ecosystems remain weak across formal institutions, finance, infrastructure, and intermediate organisations, reflecting a governance approach that controls outcomes rather than building conditions required by businesses to grow and formalise. South Korea’s unified SME Ministry, collateral-free policy funds, alongside Rwanda’s regulatory reforms, demonstrate that closing this gap requires deliberate ecosystem governance rather than direct financial interjection. The paper concludes that high failure rates reflect design flaws in ecosystems built for the formalized urban minority, not low entrepreneurial ambition, and calls for development policy to measure success by accessible infrastructure rather than loan disbursement volume.

Keywords: Youth Entrepreneurship, Implementation Gap, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Informality, Ecosystem Governance, India, Nigeria

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