Impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria

Purpose In Nigeria, insecurity has been breeding very rapidly given the Nigerian economic conditions in the recent past. Insecurity exposes enterprise development and survival to a serious threat. It has serious effects on lives and properties, obstructs business activities and discourages local and foreign investors, which in turn militate against Nigeria's overall economic growth and development. This rising wave of insecurity has assumed an unsafe facet to enterprise development and its subsequent survival, hence, if unchecked, it can threaten the overall communal existence of the country as one entity. The purpose of this study is therefore, to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach This study used the most recent Nigeria Enterprise Survey data (2014) and applied multi-nomial logistic regression model to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria. Findings It was found among others that all the captured insecurity variables in this study have negative significant impact on enterprise development and as such significantly retards enterprise growth and development except for corruption and availability of strong, fair and impartial legal system (comparing partnership and limited partnership enterprise to the sole proprietorship), which were found to have positive impact on enterprise development in Nigeria. Practical implications This study therefore recommended among others that government at all levels - federal, state and local - should try harder to live up to its primary constitutional function of providing adequate security of lives and property to its citizenry. Originality/value There is no known study that has investigated the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria. There is dearth of literature in the study area, hence this study enormously contributes to the growing literature on insecurity and enterprise development.