Abstract
This study investigated the relevance of basic electricity to the survival of small and medium scale business enterprises in Edo state, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of the study, three research questions were raised and one hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study used the descriptive survey research design. The sample which was the entire population of the study was 120 small and medium scale business enterprises owners taken from the three geo-political zones in Edo state. A four-point rating scale questionnaire titled Relevance of Basic Electricity to Small and Medium Scale Business Enterprise Questionnaire (RBESMSBEQ) was the instrument used to collect data from the respondents. The validity of the instrument was ascertained by three lecturers in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education and one lecturer in The Department of Evaluation and Measurement, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The split half technique was employed to determine the reliability of the instrument. Two sets of scores were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient (PPMC) and the process yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.72 which showed that the instrument was reliable. Research question 1 was answered with simple percentage while mean ( ) and standard deviation (SD) were used to answer research question 2 and 3. The hypothesis testing was done at 0.05 level of significance with chi-square. The findings revealed that owners of small and medium scale business enterprises are much aware of the relevance of basic electricity to the survival of small and medium scale business enterprises. Owners of small and medium scale business enterprises are moderately familiar with basic electricity as it relates to daily business operations, and the extent to which the owners of small and medium scale business enterprises have acquired basic electricity skills relevant to daily business operations was found to be low. The hypothesis test revealed that the perception between male and female owners of small and medium scale business enterprises of the relevance of basic electricity to the survival of small and medium scale enterprises vary with no significant difference. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that business owners should acquire basic electricity skills to enable them carry out electrical maintenance of their business facilities for maximizing profit.