Entrepreneurship in Africa (Problems / Solutions)

Business creation is not a new thing in Africa. Indeed, history teaches us that Africans were big traders. Time has passed and entrepreneurship has not really changed. But as you know, set up a business in Africa, large or small, is sometimes a long and difficult road to walk into. It takes knowledge, resources, tools, and ideally a mentor or a sponsor to support you and give you that helping hand to progress into this administrative and financial jungle. Often times in Africa, the lack of financial solution prevents young business and management students to follow through their ideas and create profitable businesses.

There is no doubt that the creation of small businesses would allow economic recovery of certain villages, cities, and would offer to youngsters the opportunity to stop the exodus in search of an imaginary Occidental paradise and work for the development of our continent. But, for this to happen we must first, create an environment conducive to entrepreneurship.

Problems Encountered
Indeed the issue of entrepreneurship in Africa is a problem we must address at the core. As an African proverb says, "The construction of a house, always start with the foundation"; thus develop entrepreneurship at its core and base concepts. And that can be done by addressing the factors that hinder the development of entrepreneurship in Africa. Here are a few:

• Low entrepreneurial culture in Africa: Young Africans face a socioeconomic environment that does not promote the spirit of entrepreneurship. We must educate the public about the benefits of entrepreneurship which in principle is the key to Africa’s development. The lack of support and mentor to young entrepreneur is also a problem to solve.
• The lack of access to adequate financial services: opportunities for business financing are very slim. It is difficult to find an appropriate financial institution for adequate and long term funding. This funding problem does not arise with the same intensity for all genres or regions of the continent, entrepreneurs need a financing for working capital, financing for advances on markets, project financing (investments). Many entrepreneurs here have to resort to the tontine system as found in Africa. It is a savings that could be called informal and is often used and invested directly in the small family business or craft and substitute bank credit to finance the informal sector; Thus Africa’s financial systems must be adjusted in order to address these deficiencies. Basically we need to multiply the institutions of venture capital, to increase tenfold guarantee funds, to improve the financial market and diversify funding.
• Cumbersome administrative procedures and Justice: The process of business creation is complex and distributed among several agencies or institutions. With the scourge of corruption in some African countries, we must "put hand in pocket" if we want the process to be accelerated. In general we have to wait long enough and put the price in order to finally open a business. At this level the politics must allow the centralization of administrative procedure, lower legal steps and cost to reduce the time to create a business.
• Lack of skilled workforce for business management: Business and management schools are increasing in Africa, but there are not many young people who are capable of managing large firms and assert themselves as entrepreneur. We have to reform our education system to have even in science major, courses in business management, marketing, sales and economy. Because most of our graduates are skilled but don’t have any knowledge about money and business management.

Examples of suitable financing
Despite all these difficulties, it would be incorrect to say that entrepreneurship is dead in Africa because there are hundreds of successful private companies in our soil and some whose sponsors had faith in them and were able to find good financing suited to their projects here is a partial list:

• SITRAFER: rehabilitation of the railroad in Madagascar.
• 3T: specialized in transit, has raised funding from IFC leasing.
• TUNDE Group: First printing craft, became a structure involved in the printing industry, transportation and agribusiness through Cowrie Investment.
• Ecobank: Deploying the west and center, plans to open a subsidiary that specializes in investment (IFC).
• People Input: IT, West Africa and Central Africa.
• Les Moulins du Burkina: privatized mills, viable structure with the support of EBID.
• TRADEX: imports petroleum products, distributes petroleum products, made the "bunker" at sea.
• Niger Milk: industrial manufacture of milk derivatives by BOAD and Cowrie Investment.

The development of entrepreneurship in Africa will require the creation of an African concept of entrepreneurship and not necessarily an exact copy of what exists abroad. We must combine the best practices in Western business creation with African context and concepts. The concept of African entrepreneurship is based on the value of African culture but also on the joint development by highlighting the socioeconomic environment.

Think African entrepreneurship is also up to resolve once and for all the problems of finding adequate funding and the cumbersome procedures, the development of local initiatives such cooperatives in the countryside and village groups.

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What Is Entrepreneurship / Qualities Of A Good Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is the act of creating wealth and / or employment through the creation or acquisition of a company. An entrepreneur is thus a person who is engaged in an effort to transform his knowledge, ideas and innovations concepts in economic goods. This may lead to new organizations or perhaps to the revitalization of certain branch of an existing organization in response to a perceived opportunity.

In fact many definitions of entrepreneur can be found in the literature, another broader definition by the French economist JB Say (1800) says "The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of lower and into higher productivity and greater yield."

Types of entrepreneurship
The most widespread form of entrepreneurship is starting a new business, but in recent years the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activities. Thus we can distinguish three types of entrepreneurs that can be differentiated by their motivations:

• Social Entrepreneur: A social entrepreneur is motivated by a desire to help improve and transform society, environment, education system and economic conditions.
• Serial Entrepreneur: A serial entrepreneur is one who always has new ideas and creates new businesses. He is more likely to take risks and overcome or bounce back from business failure.
• LifeStyle Entrepreneur: These entrepreneurs put passion before profit when launching a business. Their motivation is a combination of personal interests and talents with the ability to earn a living.

Be or become an entrepreneur is not easy; indeed you must be highly motivated and fully determined, because it requires hard work, many sacrifices, dedication and perseverance. It is a profession where the risk of failure is very present; besides the vast majority of businesses (80%) fail in their first years. Apart from qualities in Business Management, a good entrepreneur must be a good leader. It must communicate its corporate vision, persuade his partners and his team members and boost their performances to ensure maximum productivity for the attainment of corporate goals.

Qualities of a Good Entrepreneur
It is clear that anyone can become an entrepreneur, but only the good entrepreneurs are successful and manage to get the fruits of their investment. There are some distinctive qualities that are required to be a successful entrepreneur. A number of these qualities are probably already built into your personality, while others may need to be worked and developed. Here is a list of some of these qualities:

• Passion: It almost goes without saying that to become a successful entrepreneur, you must be passionate about your business. This does not necessarily mean you have to build a business around something you love. You can (and should) identify a profitable market and grow your business from there. The fact that you love your company will also help you to persevere in your efforts in difficult times like the development stage (quite painful), and other obstacles ahead.
• Leadership: Although the definition of a leader is not easy, we recognize one when we see him in action. Basically, it's the ability to be in charge of people and guide them to achieve their objectives. A leader must be able to plan, motivate, coach and evaluate his staff. A leader must also have both managerial and interpersonal skills.
• Interpersonal skills: Business management is about managing people, you will therefore need to be good at communication if you want to succeed. Whether with customers, suppliers or employees, it is important that you learn to effectively communicate your entire message to ensure your business is run as smoothly as possible.
• Organization and time management: Time management will help you organize and make sure you do all your work as efficiently as possible. It is very easy to give in to procrastination when working alone, so you need to find ways to solve this problem. Maybe you can create a task list or use time management software to help you manage your workload and increase your productivity.
• Risk-Taking: A good entrepreneur must be willing to take calculated risks if he wants to succeed. Sometimes in business you will need to trust your instincts and walk on water, when you do not have enough information or time to make a rational decision. However, you will need to distinguish between craziness and calculated risk. Make sure you do your research and ensure that your business plan is feasible before starting the project. This may prevent you from having an unpleasant surprise in the future.
• Competitiveness: Competition is everywhere. Business is strictly based on out compete your competition. If you can establish your presence in the market, differentiate yourself from your competitors and surpass them by providing a product with better quality and affordable price, your chances of being a successful entrepreneur will be much larger. It’s a struggling game that you play to win, but never sacrifice your integrity for the sake of a few bank bills.
• Confidence: Confidence is a key competence for entrepreneurial success. It is easy to be demoralized or frustrated if you do not have confidence in yourself. Confidence concerning your capacity and performance. A successful entrepreneur believes in his abilities. He is not afraid to explore new areas or opportunities, take risks and make difficult decisions in very little time.

Ultimately, there is no substitute for hard work when it comes to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Most people choose the most simple and fast way when it comes to work. If you want to be successful, you must devote to persistent and productive work, leadership and rational time management.

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Why Be An Entrepreneur In Africa

Africa is not going well, its entire economy is at risk, plus, Africa appears to be abandoned by the international community who’s looking at Africa dying. It is time for us Africans to fight against this scourge by providing an environment or a platform that’s conducive for the creation and development of small and medium businesses and attractive for foreign capital. We must not only train and educate continuously our workforce but also create markets by engaging in various business sectors.

Problems and challenges of Africa.
Africa is a continent full of resources, both material and human. With a population of over 1 billion inhabitants (2010), Africans account for 16.14% of the world population. But unlike the economies of other continents, the African economy continues to plummet. The share of Africa in world exports fell from 4.5% in 1990 to 1.1% in 2008 and foreign direct investments fell from 5.8% in 1990 to 1% in 2008, according to a statement from the FAO. The contribution of Africa in world trade is very low, and in permanent decline from 8% in 1990 to 2% today, and its exports are 80% oil, minerals and agricultural products. This is what makes Africa a continent totally abandoned in globalization.

In other words, Africa is going bad and it's all alone with his destiny. There are fewer foreign investors in the continent, thus exports are less and less possible. We must therefore start to take these problems more seriously and find ways to solve them by ourselves, ways that will enhance the image and status of African economy to attract new foreign investors. These are difficult and complex tasks; and to have any chance to succeed we must take action in a distributed manner, in fact each one has a role to play in this battle: politicians, governments, large, small and medium enterprises and each African.
Given that I am not a politician, I'll just talk about the private sector. How to change organizations, create jobs, impact the economic growth, have a solid and steady income by being an entrepreneur or business owner in Africa.

Why Entrepreneurship is a practical solution for these problems.
In general the first cornerstone for a flourishing economy is employment. But either in private or public sector, Africa is the continent where there is more unemployment in the world. Despite the proliferation of education and the increasing number of graduates, there are still not enough jobs for all fresh graduates, thus you will find graduated students doing hand labor like masonry or other jobs less lucrative, and irrelevant to their intellectual background. If Africa wants to get out of this mess, Africans we must step ahead and transform ourselves into entrepreneurs and create jobs, inspire and motivate others to do likewise, because at the end of the day, it is a work of mentoring, collaboration and sharing. Many others continents and countries have done this, and why not Africa?

Example of countries where entrepreneurship has been the solution to problems.
The current world economic prowess continually covers entrepreneurs whose successes opened new doors and contribute to finding new markets and new opportunities. The discovery of lucrative markets attracts foreign capitals that contribute to increase the brand and economy the country. Two examples of countries that were once poor just like us, but now have a rapidly growing economy: China and India. 

China: It is a country whose economy is experiencing a remarkable rise, with a system which promotes the growth of the private sector and attracts foreign investors. Globally, on average, the volume of Chinese exports rose by 14% between 1990 and 1999, and by 20.5% between 2000 and 2008. Imports grew a bit slower: 13% per annum during the 1990s, and 16% between 2000 and 2008. China generates about 9% of world exports and 7% of world imports in 2008, against 1.2 and 1.1% in 1983. The presence of foreign firms on Chinese soil is largely responsible for the sharp acceleration in export growth.
The establishment of "market socialism" has established many factories in China, which has been called the world's workshop, because of the social dumping of its manufactory. China attracted the skilled workforce in coastal areas where they are located. Only 41% of Chinese exports come from enterprises fully Chinese. Today, 39% of exports from China are made by companies whose capital is one hundred percent foreign and 20% of exports are the result of partnerships between foreign companies and Chinese companies. China maintains its attractiveness for companies with cheap, skilled and docile workforce. That’s why China is the King in outsourcing.  

India: Like other BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, China), the Indian Union is emerging as a new major industrial country. In recent years, investment flows are increasing rapidly, up 25 billion dollars in 2005, but $ 66 billion in 2006. In 2007, India is the 12th largest economy with a GDP of $ 1,171 billion or 2.15% of world GDP (World Bank, GDP 2007). Among all sectors (agriculture, industry, service), the computer services industry is one that stands out and supports a dramatic increase in recent years.
The service environment is very important in the economy, with employment of millions of people to sustain the production of software, hardware, advanced data capture and high technology. The advantage for multinational companies like IBM, to expand and settle in Indian Territory, is again the low cost of workforce compared to other countries.

Synthesis
With these two examples, we can see that it is possible to move from the current status of the African economy, to a growing economy with attractive and lucrative markets for foreign companies. These markets can be in primary sectors like agriculture, fishing and mining, as well as in some secondary sectors such as banking, transportation and information technology. Private companies more than public companies are those catalyzing economic development in these countries. Hence it is great time for us as Africans to create businesses, train young people in all business sectors in Africa in order to have a skilled, not necessarily cheap, workforce for foreign investors. The capital and energy to invest depend on the type and size of the business to create.

What is important to remember is that we can all take action and do something in our level, there are sectors that require little financial and human resources for their launches, the technology and informatics industry is one of those sectors. Indeed, India, China and Brazil are currently well ranked on the world market by offering such services.


In my next articles, I will propose a list of the different sectors of interest in, with details and tips that can help and guide you to success as an entrepreneur in Africa.

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