Abstract

This paper examined the business education as a panacea for growth of SMEs and national development. The study basically assessed the relationship between SMEs and employment creation as a driving tool for national development as well as the role of business education in national growth and development. The study found that SMEs proffer solution to the lingering problem of poverty and unemployment, while business education plays a vital role in national development in areas of employment generation, industrial development, entrepreneurship strategy, and poverty reduction, promotion of the Nigeria economy, culture and value. The study identified unqualified teachers, obsolete technologies, the size of business classes and poor funding as main challenges of business education and recommended that government should properly and adequately fund business education through increased budgetary allocation and made compulsory at all levels of education with the use of appropriate technologies.