Influence of Entrepreneurial Leadership Education on Poverty Reduction as Perceived by Academic Staff of Tertiary Institutions in South East, Nigeria

The study examined the influence of entrepreneurial leadership education on poverty reduction as perceived by academic staff of tertiary institutions in South East, Nigeria. In pursuit of the objectives, three research questions were drafted and answered while three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Population of the study comprised targeted 13,223 lecturers, from universities, polytechnics and colleges of education while a sample size of 1,300, representing 10% of the lecturers was drawn through proportionate sampling technique. An instrument, titled ‘Entrepreneurial Leadership Education and Poverty Reduction Questionnaire’ (ELEPRQ) which was validated by three academic research experts was used for the data collection. Reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed through Cronbach’s Alpha method with a cumulative coefficient of 0.81. The researcher, together with 10 research assistants administered and retrieved the responded instrument. Mean and Standard deviation were utilized in the analysis of the research question while One-Way ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed among other results that the mean ratings of lecturers on the extent to which training on adapting to changes (innovative leadership) influence poverty reduction did not differ significantly based on the categories of higher institutions (university, polytechnic and college of education). The study concluded that entrepreneurial leadership education was perceived by academic staff as having influence on poverty alleviation in South East, Nigeria. It was recommended that academic staff, especially those in educational management, administration, planning and leadership, should be steadily trained to become more enterprising by developing self-owned businesses, so as to create more sources on income