European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.5, No.27, 2013 1 Promoting Graduates’ Interest in Small Business Entrepreneurship in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria Dr. Ehikwe A. E Department of Marketing, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu State, Nigeria E-mail:angrede2006@yahoo.com FAAJIR, Avanenge Department of Business Management, University of Mkar, Mkar, Benue State, Nigeria E-mail:avanengefg@yahoo.com Abstract The failure of government policies and programmes to provide job opportunities for graduates and school leavers has made unemployment a very serious issue in the country. Some graduates have resulted to acquiring skills in order to provide jobs for themselves. This paper attempts to determine the promotion of graduates’ interest in small business entrepreneurship in Gboko local government area of Benue State. The study used both primary and secondary data in addressing the objective, stratified random sampling technique was used to select 30 respondents in Gboko local government. The regression, descriptive tools were used to analyse the data. The findings were that establishment of small businesses are a function of entrepreneurship; business owners operated because they were taught entrepreneurship and became interested; some became small business entrepreneurs because it was operated through centres of entrepreneurship and others were because start up capital was obtained through the entrepreneurship centres. It was recommended that, the government should encourage graduates and school leavers to start their own businesses by creating an enabling environment for small businesses to thrive. Key words: Entrepreneur, promoting, small business, income 1.0 Introduction The underlying philosophy of the various development programmes being run in the country today especially in our universities is targeted at increasing the supply of adequately trained entrepreneurs who will achieve success in business ventures. According to Okpara (2000) the government is therefore putting in place basic social and economic infrastructure, which will launch Nigeria into an industrial giant in the foreseeable feature. This can only be achieved through aggressive participation of the private sector and this role is assigned to the entrepreneur. Small business development is known to play very vital roles in promoting and sustaining economies and industrial development. For both the developed and developing nations, small scale businesses have contributed in generating income and output, enhancing regional economies through promoting resource utilization. This is critical to economic development, innovations, entrepreneurial skills development and encouragement for the use of local raw materials and local technology. According to Akighir et al., (2011), Benue State is recorded the 8 th poorest state of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN). The huge potentials that exist in the economy of Nigeria has not translated to the full exploitation of this sector, especially in it’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in employment generation. This may have contributed to the current state of poverty that has deepened among the people more so with the failure of government’s efforts at alleviating poverty in the state and particularly in Gboko local government area. Objective of the Study i. To determine the interest of graduates of tertiary institutions in formation of small business entrepreneurship. ii. To ascertain the level of promotions for career in small business entrepreneurship. iii. To examine the difficulties in starting any small business entrepreneurship. iv. To determine relationship between primary vocation and career in small business entrepreneurship