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SME's - does protectionism help

Guest post by: Dr. Rob Smorfitt

Article Overview: Is protectionism necessary in the African context fro SME's

SME's - does protectionism help

African countries at times perceive that other African countries produce citizens who are more entrepreneurial than their own. However, do these three countries really produce more entrepreneurs than others? Is this based upon reality or sound research?

Not that I am aware of! I believe that these people as emigrants or economic refugees are perhaps just a little more desperate than the local communities. They also cannot fall back on the local government, so they have to create opportunities.

Africa on the whole tends to lack entrepreneurial spirit. The locals in every country resent other Africans, perceiving them to be better at entrepreneurial activities. I think it is closely linked to collectivism among all African people. Even comparing white Afrikaners to whites of British descent highlights this. The Afrikaners too have a strong collectivism within their culture, and they too lag the English whites in entrepreneurial drive. This is based upon my own anecdotal evidence and not solid research. Therefore a Nigerian, or any emigrant for that matter, in South Africa, tends to not be able to act in a collective manner as he is not part of the local collective and therefore is obliged to act in an individualist manner.

We need to drive the individualism approach within all our communities in order to break away from collectivism, and thereby hopefully create strong communities within which the entrepreneurs can flourish.

Rob Smorfitt

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Article Tags: Africa, culture, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, protectionism, SME, SMME, Smorfitt



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