SMEs and entrepreneurs in Africa

Guest post by: Dr. Rob Smorfitt
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SMEs and entrepreneurs in Africa - By Dr. Rob Smorfitt

South Africa has an enormous economy and you would think they would therefore be generating/creating the largest number of entrepreneurs, particularly in the hi-tech field. And yet they are not. The market appears to be dominated by the Kenyans. As a South African if I said that South Africa had the best education you would think i am biased. Anyway we know that we have one of the worst education systems in Africa.

However, in my opinion the country that had the best education system was undoubtedly Zimbabwe, with Kenya a close second. I am excluding the Francophone countries for now as they never seem to come up on the radar, but I have enormous respect for them and their French education. Is there a country among them which has also excelled and if so why?

So why is Kenya dominating the mobile application sphere. There economy is small and insignificant when compared to countries like Nigeria and South Africa. So why are they so good and so hot? MPESA was originally developed in South Africa and yet the Kenyans got it right (apologies to Wizzit Bank in South Africa).

So I would love to know what the triggers were for this Kenyan success. It is worth knowing and understanding, especially if we wish to replicate this success elsewhere.

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SMEs and entrepreneurs in Africa - By Dr. Rob Smorfitt

About the Author: Dr. Rob Smorfitt

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Have an MBA and a PhD in entrepreneurship. Three key areas of ongoing research are entrepreneurship and innovation in large business strategy, the impact of legislation on SME development and SME finance. Run my own SME blog at http://sme-smb-smme.blogspot.com as well as an entrepreneurship and innovation for large businesses blog at http://innoveur.blogspot.com. I have been self-employed since 1982. I have started or purchased in excess of 50 businesses since then. Most were sold again and a few were shut down because of a lack of profitability. Many were run by staff or family while I worked full time in my bigger businesses. Author of 6 books. Written articles for various magazines, newspapers and websites. Experienced in research within developing countries.
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