Business
East Africa the cheapest region to launch a StartUp – Savannah Fund
Experienced engineers in Uganda bill the lowest costs at US$12,000 per year, while entry level engineers cost on average US$2,500 per year. Nigerian experienced engineers ranked second cheapest, charging on average US$15,000, while experienced engineers in Kenya demanded costs of US$20,000 on average. Entry level engineers in both Nigeria and Kenya charged US$4,000, the study revealed.
Ghana and Tanzania proved quite expensive among the countries surveyed, with experienced engineers charging over US$30,000 per year in both countries; while entry level hiring costs came it at around US$10,000 in both countries.
The researchers questioned whether the costs of hiring engineers could be linked to the standard of educational institutions in the respective countries.
In infrastructure terms, South Africa was most expensive again, followed by Ghana and Nigeria, with accommodation and office rental costs comprising the bulk of costs.
The costs of web hosting and Internet for a year were largely similar across the countries, except for in Nigeria which had almost twice the costs of other countries at over US$2,000 a year.
Administrative costs – including admin and sales staff, accounting, legal costs and business permits, were highest in Uganda where average yearly costs came in at over US$8,000; with the majority of costs formed of administrative and sales staff salaries. Nigeria proved second most expensive at just short of US$8,000, however accounting costs were much higher in Nigeria, taking up a significant portion of overall admin costs, while admin and sales staff salaries were much lower.
Administrative costs in Ghana came to US$75,000, with legal costs and accounting costs taking up 80 percent of all charges.
