Socio-Cultural Practices and Entrepreneurial Behavior among the Tiv People in Benue State, Nigeria

The study examines the Effect of Socio-cultural Practices on Entrepreneurial Behaviour in Benue State with
emphasis among the Tiv people. Structured Questionnaire instrument with five likert scale was used for primary
data collection, a survey research method was adopted and a sample size of 400 respondents was used. While
secondary information were gathered from previous research studies done by different authors in journals, textbooks
and internet among others. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as tables and simple
percentage. Furthermore, multiple regressions were used for further analysis and test of hypotheses. The findings
from this study indicate that there was an established relationship between dimensions of socio-cultural practices
and entrepreneurial behaviour. The study revealed that most of socio-cultural factors have negative effect on
entrepreneurial behaviour in Tivland, and Benue state at large. The study made some recommendations based on the
research findings, some of which are; social groups, traditional and religious institutions should roll out policies and
sensitization programmes that will help discourage cultural practices that are capable of retarding entrepreneurial
behaviour of people in Tivland such as high cost of funeral ceremonies, rather, promote the culture of investing such
funds in small businesses. Family members in Tivland should always be involved in training their young ones
through family businesses to let them have business background right from their childhood so as to give them initial
orientation and encourage them on the need to be independent through generation of business ideas, venture
creation, purchases and sales of goods. This will help in boosting entrepreneurial behaviour and entrepreneurship
development in Tivland, Nigeria and the world at large.