Business
Africa’s business impediments as highlighted by the Tony Elumelu Foundation
The Tony Elumelu Foundation has revealed that finance, infrastructure and inadequate resource centers are the major impediments affecting entrepreneurial development in Africa, a new report by the Africapitalism Institute of the foundation says.
The report was presented at the sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya where U.S. President Barack Obama gave the keynote address.
The 86-page report, titled “Unleashing Africa’s Entrepreneurs” seeks to understand the distinctive constraints encountered by Africa’s entrepreneurs and proffering solutions to public sector leaders for action.
It said that the challenges inhibit the potential viability and competitiveness of entrepreneurial endeavors on the continent.
According to the report, 87 percent of respondents indicated access to seed capital as a constraint, three per cent had commercial bank loan, while 69 percent used personal savings to finance their business.
Access to machinery, raw materials, office space was cited by 53 percent of entrepreneurs while 63 percent advocated for improved infrastructure to mitigate operational cost and boost their competitiveness.
Eighty-two percent of the respondents said that access to a business resource center was vital to business, while 66 percent revealed current participation in a business incubator program.
The report’s insights were gained from surveys provided to the 20,000 emerging entrepreneurs from 54 African countries and territories in the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Network.
The resulting set of data is the world’s largest and most diverse assessment of entrepreneurship from the perspective of emerging African entrepreneurs themselves.
The CEO of the Foundation said, “We want to improve the enabling environment for all of Africa’s existing, emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs.”
