A boy from southeast Nigeria moves in with an established trader. For years he carries boxes, watches deals and learns the codes of the market. At the end, the master settles him with capital to open a business of his own — often in the same market. The Igbo call it Igba Boi.

A 2024 study in Cogent Business & Management interviewed 40 former and current apprentices to trace how the system actually teaches. The answer is mimetic learning. The apprentice watches, imitates and absorbs both knowledge and behavior over a long period, building a lifelong approach to enterprise.

The learning happens outside the formal education system and does not depend on any particular level of schooling. What it demands instead is long-term commitment — from the apprentice, from his family and from the master. The authors see in it effective mechanisms for transferring skills and training people in business.

Earlier research by Paul Igwe and colleagues, based on interviews with 50 Igbo entrepreneurs and community leaders, shows the wider frame. Igbo families provide an entrepreneurial leadership platform: role models, early experiences of mastery and a safe environment for risk-taking, creativity and innovation. The informal apprenticeship system passes that mindset on to the next generation.

Other studies point to the system's challenges, among them disputes over settlements and the long exclusion of women.

Read the study

Sources

Irene, B., et al. (2024). Entrepreneurial learning in informal apprenticeship programs: Exploring the learning process of the Igbo Apprenticeship System (IAS) in Nigeria. Cogent Business & Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2399312

Igwe, P., et al. (2018). Keeping it in the family: Exploring Igbo ethnic entrepreneurial behaviour in Nigeria. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-12-2017-0492

Familoni, O. O. (2024). The role of the Igbo Apprenticeship System in entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. African Journal of Management and Business Research. https://doi.org/10.62154/ajmbr.2024.016.010361