Resumen
This study investigated the challenges confronting human capital development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The authors adopted the survey research design. An instrument was designed using the 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). The instrument has two sections. Section A has nine items which sought the views and opinions of respondents on the challenges of human capital development in SMEs and Section B has eight items which elicited the demographic profiles of respondents. A total of 165 questionnaires were distributed to the target population using the purposeful (judgmental) sampling technique. Out of the 165 questionnaires administered, 140 were returned upon which the analysis was based. This represents an 85% response rate. Data analysis was carried out with the aid of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). It was found that human capital development in Nigerian SMEs leaves much to be desired. Based on the analysis of data, it was found that 79% of respondents agreed and strongly agreed that many SMEs have negative training philosophy and pay lip service to human resource development. Seventy percent of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that many SMEs do not have laid-down policies governing training and development programmes, while 52% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that SMEs engage in human capital development haphazardly, without embarking on need analysis. The authors recommended the need to address the issues of human capital development in SMEs and for SMEs to embrace the investor in people criteria if the desired corporate and national goals are to be realized.