The top countries for entrepreneurship in Africa are Namibia, Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa and Zambia, according to an entrepreneurship index developed by Mara Foundation and Opinium Research.
The inaugural Ashish J Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index measures entrepreneurial environments around the world and assesses each of its 85 countries against a set of criteria that spans policy, infrastructure, education, entrepreneurial environment and finance.
Of the African nations, Namibia received the best ranking at 42, followed by Rwanda (43) and Botswana (44), and South Africa (46). The four African countries performed well on the 'policy' pillar and finance but have some way to go to improve on their infrastructure and education in particular, it noted.
According to the index, significant challenges exist in terms of Africa's political stability, underdeveloped infrastructure, poor education and under-diversified economies. Comparatively lower scores for infrastructure were primarily driven by a lack of electrical access and the technology that comes with reliable access to energy such as telecommunications and Internet access, it added.
The study pointed out that lower scores for education were due to the overall quality of education and lower literacy rates. Boosting opportunities for a quality education was imperative for increasing the region's quality of entrepreneurs and start-ups and providing a suitable workforce, it continued.
E-commerce offers Africa's entrepreneurs a way of bypassing its poor physical infrastructure, said the report. While Africa has caught up on some digital indices due to innovations like mobile Internet, it lagged behind and lacked certain professional services necessary for e-commerce to thrive. As a whole, the African continent scored the lowest on the Infrastructure Pillar (24), but although some of these countries may lack physical infrastructure, increased mobile phone adoption and accessibility of smartphones provided the opportunity for businesses to grow, the study added.
One of the main barriers to Africa's economies and entrepreneurs was the lack of access to electricity. "The answer however lies with 'Africa's most abundant natural resource - the sun'." The theoretical reserves of Africa's solar energy are estimated at 60 000 000 terawatt-hour-per-year, 40% of the global total, it noted.
The African Renewable Energy Initiative has set a goal of 300 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. "Investment in solar could lead to a cycle of ever greater returns for investors, entrepreneurs and communities," said the report. It would create a need for companies to service the solar infrastructure while opening up opportunities for other business and services to benefit from the power generated. However, achieving these goals would require leadership from governments - creating the policy and regulatory conditions and incentives to attract local entrepreneurs and outside investments, it concluded.
Share