Did you know that Africa has the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world?
Well, the World Bank reports that 22% of Africa’s working age population are starting a business.
Female entrepreneurship rate in Africa stands at 27%, again, the highest rate in the world. This translates to African women being twice as likely to start a business as women elsewhere in the world.
All looks great and glamorous until you realize that Sub-Saharan Africa also has the highest rate of small business discontinuous standing at a rate of 8.4%.
Looking at Kenya for instance, 60-80% of the new business do not leave long to celebrate their third anniversary. Now, what could be the problem resulting in such a high rate of business failure?
Our guest Dr Olufunso Somorin might have the right answer. He is the Regional Principal Officer at the African Development Bank. He leads the Bank’s work on climate change and green growth in 13 African countries. Beside his engagement at the Bank, Dr Somorin is a Director at Profectus Capital Group, a boutique investment firm providing financial and advisory services to SMEs in key sectors and industries in Africa.
Dr Somorin holds a PhD in International Environmental Policy from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles on climate policy, natural resources management and sustainable development in many leading scientific journals.