International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 10, Issue 3, March 2020 627 ISSN 2250-3153 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.03.2020.p9977 www.ijsrp.org Entrepreneurial Competencies and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ Performance in Nigeria Victor A. Umoh, Ph.D* , Victoria S. Umana Ph.D, Michael B. Effiom Department of Business Management, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.10.03.2020.p9977 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.03.2020.p9977 Abstract- This study was on entrepreneurial competencies and performance of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. The study was a survey with questionnaire as instrument for data collection. The study’s population was 1,319,607 entrepreneurs while the sample 400 was determined using Taro Yamane formular.. The data obtained in the study were analyzed with both simple and multiple regressions. The findings of the study indicated that about 51.4% of the variance in MSMEs performance was attributable to entrepreneurs’ innovation skills; about 33.6% of the variance in success of MSMEs was attributable to ability of entrepreneurs to generate ideas; about 47% of the variance in performance of MSMEs was attributable to risk taking; about 50.1% of the variance in MSMEs performance was attributable to entrepreneurs’ creativity and that about 37.1% of the variance in of performance of MSMEs was attributable to the entrepreneurs’ ability to envision opportunities in the business environment. It was recommended that since entrepreneurial competencies can determine success in entrepreneurship, it is essential for entrepreneurs to consider acquiring useful skills before venturing into business; that existing entrepreneurs should avail themselves of various training programs for all manners of business executive to sharpen their management skills in order to improve performance of their business and that government should step up efforts at training entrepreneurs in all business lines and that encouragement should be given to competent entrepreneurs by way of contract award to spur up others into fully embracing training programmes aimed at improving their business fortune. Index Terms- Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Competencies, Micro, ,Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Performance, Nigeria I. INTRODUCTION t is an established fact that worldwide Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) enhance their countries socio- economic development. They make contributions in the areas of employment creation, production of goods and services, improvement in standard of living of citizens, payment of taxes and levies to government, reduction in poverty, creating a link with the industries among others, have variously attracted the attention of academics, researchers and the government. (Kalpande, Gupta & Dandekar, 2010). The contributions of businesses within the MSMEs bracket to national economic growth having been recognized have made various governments consider a number of options and approaches targeted at positioning them to play more pronounced role in the economy. In Nigeria, government has in so many ways demonstrated its interest in this class of businesses through several agencies, policies and incentives. These include, National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), and Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS) and the like. In spite of government initiatives towards growing entrepreneurship in the country, businesses in the category of MSMEs have not had an expected corresponding match in terms of growth, survival and performance as shown by some studies. Oyelaran (2010) revealed that small businesses contribute approximately 1% of Nigeria’s GDP compared to 40% in Asia and that of USA put at 50% . These data indicate that small businesses in Nigeria are performing below expectation. Granted a number of issues confront entrepreneurship in the country and some regrettably result in their failure. It is imperative to investigate these issues with a view to managing them to brighten their likelihood of improved performance and avoidance of business failure. Authors such as Van der Laan, Driessen and Zwart (2010) asserted that the most important asset of a business is a competent manager. It therefore becomes important that the entrepreneurial competencies of operators of small business enterprises be examined. Martina, Hana and Jiří (2012) define entrepreneurial competencies as a set of specific knowledge, abilities, skills, traits, motives, attitudes and values essential for the personal development and successful participation of each person in an organization. Rezaei-Zadeh, Hogan, O’Reilly, Cleary and Murphy (2014) defined it as the abilities of the person that enable him/her to demonstrate the appropriate entrepreneurial behaviour. Mitchelmore and Rowley (2013) state that identifying and developing entrepreneurial competencies, namely, idea generation, innovative skills, envisioning opportunities, risk taking and creativity possessed by entrepreneurs may support the development of potential businesses. Business performance is seen as the long term well being of a business compared to those of competitors. Performance explains the degree of fulfillment of managerial goals in business practices and realized outputs of these goals by the end of a specified period (Mitchelmore & Rowley, 2010). Performance measures can take different dimensions. These dimensions may include: Sales growth, revenue growth, growth, net profit, I