ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILL THROUGH ONLINE/E-LEARNING PLATFORMS AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE/SUSTAINABILITY AMONG THE YOUTHS IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA: IMPLICATION TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Entrepreneurial skill acquisition over the years has been observed as a panacea to the recurring challenges of unemployment and other socioeconomic crises squarely located within the ever growing youth population world over. While this has been meeting with some level of challenges in the developing nations where corruption, government incapability and poverty have overtaking the system, the digital world in the recent times appeared to have brought succour to the youths in the developing nations who are disenchanted with the continuous government failures and disappointment. In Nigeria, the large population of the youth looking for a way out of mass illiteracy and poverty have found a solace in the digital world through online/e-learning platforms. This study focused on the use of online/elearning platforms for entrepreneurial skill acquisition among the youths in southeast Nigeria. 1320 youths were engaged in a survey to assess their knowledge and use of online/e-learning platforms for entrepreneurial skill acquisition as well as practicing the acquired knowledge and, how this affected their financial dependence and sustainability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were deployed to analyse the collected data. From the findings, majority of the youth (66%) involved in the study in southeast Nigeria are involved in using online/e-learning platforms for entrepreneurial skill acquisition, there is a positive correlation between using online/e-learning platforms for entrepreneurial skill acquisition and financial independent (r = .355, p< .000), and financial sustainability (r = .018, p< .000) while financial sustainability among the youth is predicted by other socioeconomic factors including using online/e-learning platforms for entrepreneurial skill acquisition (p<.05, R-2 = 96.3%).