Entrepreneurial Skills Training Needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Plateau State

The increasing deadly attacks on various communities in Plateau state and the destruction of lives, properties, businesses and farm lands has forced many inhabitants to flee their homes to nearby towns and villages. This situation calls for urgent intervention to usher in more sober responses to the plight of the internally displaced persons. It is against this backdrop that the study examined the entrepreneurial skills training needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Plateau state. To facilitate the conduct of the study, three specific purposes, three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated. The descriptive survey design was used.  A total of 400 IDPs were surveyed from the five local government areas (Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Mangu and Ryom) using the non-probability sampling. The instrument used for data collection was the Entrepreneurial Skills Training Needs Questionnaire (ESTNQ).  The questionnaire was complemented by focus groups discussions across the five LGAs. The instrument went through face and content validation by three experts. The reliability of the instruments was ensured using the Cronbach Coefficient Alpha and the result yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.78.  The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation.  The hypotheses were tested using independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance.  The findings revealed that IDPs needed entrepreneurial skills such as managerial skills, financial skills, marketing skills and general business skills for self-reliance.  The study further revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean responses of male and female respondent on the entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial training methods for IDPs.  The study concluded that the scale and complexity of internal displacement in Plateau state means that significant efforts are required to provide an effective and well-coordinated humanitarian response.  The study recommended that government and all other stakeholders should as part of their interventions institute entrepreneurial skill training programmes for internally displaced persons.