Al-Hikmah University Journal

Literatures have widely acknowledged that there is more closure of small businesses in Oyo state than their birth by business education graduates, and very little empirical research has been conducted to reveal the true causes of this phenomenon. As a result, this study investigates the characteristics and challenges of establishing small businesses by business education graduates in Oyo state in an exploratory manner. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. The study used a descriptive survey design. The study's population consists of all business education graduates from Oyo state's colleges of education 2017/2018 to 2020/2021 academic session totaling 2,559. 255 of them were chosen randomly. A 21-item questionnaire served as the data collection instrument. The instrument was validated by two business education experts and received a reliability coefficient of 0.85 using the Cronbach Alpha Procedure. For the research questions, data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while the t-test was used to test hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this study, graduates of both universities and colleges of education do not differ in their mean ratings of the characteristics and challenges confronting small business owners in Oyo state. Recommendations were made that, among other things, the government establish a community bank where university and college of education business education graduates can borrow without difficulty