When I'm discussing Africa with others who are not familiar with African affairs, many wonder how and what kind of business opportunities there are in Africa? Sometimes I feel that I'm an advocate for African business in general. Many times I here, "oh I know so and so working for this NGO". I think to myself, that is nice, is that all you think of Africa one big begging pot looking for hand outs?
It's unfortunate that the media focuses on negative events. It's therefore up to us Africans, and bloggers of Africa to spread the message and let the world know that Africa is vibrant and alive with ingenuity, passion and investment opportunities. For the next couple of weeks I am going to focus on meso financing opportunities in Africa and it's positive spin-off with other sectors of the economy.
You see there are really only two things I'm interested in when it comes to development.
1.) How do we get SME's to make a sustainable living.
2.) How do we get more SME's to hire and train workers to do a particular task.
Obviously there is more, but I'm being very simplistic here because I'm going to make a point. SME's that are sustainable and hire workers have a profound impact with a market economy. Workers that earn disposable from their jobs are able to spend money to improve their health, send their kids to school, and boost the overall economy.
To me this is the tipping point of development, getting SME's to make sustainable money and hire more workers who can earn disposable income. Technoserve is a great NGO, that shows SME's how to write business plans and establish a business. Technoserve with the help of Google foundation have a program called, believe begin become. Believe begin become is a Business Plan Competition developed by TechnoServe to support and grow new businesses. It is an incentivized, practical training and business development program to help entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into fundable and implementable business plans.
There is a proverb out there that says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". Technoserve is leading and teaching entrepreneurs to Fish through believe begin become.
To learn more about this author, visit Nii Simmonds's Website.
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Nii Simmonds
(Visit Nii's Website)
Nii Simmonds is founder of NAFRICOM, a
non-profit trade association for IT
Software and Technology Services industry
for Africa and a blogger on African
development. Mr. Simmonds is also a
Co-founder of EmergingictGroup, a global
ICT research, training, and
advisory/consultancy. Under Mr. Simmonds
leadership, his organization NAFRICOM
organized the 1st annual 2003 Ghana
Outsourcing Conference.
Through his experience working with many
African oriented organizations in the
field of Information Technology,
development, and globalization, Mr.
Simmonds has become a leading speaker and
presenter on African development, ICT
policies, outsourcing/BPO market in Africa
and other emerging markets, social
entrepreneurship, technology education,
and Globalization. Professionally Mr.
Simmonds is a consultant specializing in
corporate finance, globalization, business
strategy, and outsourcing.
Mr. Simmonds has been acknowledged for his
research in globalization and offshore
market by Mckinsey, IBM Global Services,
AT Kearney, Keane, Wharton School,
Harvard, Government of Ghana, Ghana
embassy, Smeal College of Business,
Harvard Business School NeoIT, ITESA,
Summit Circuit, Bloomberg News, Wall
Street Journal, Avaya, Affiliated Computer
Services (ACS), Data Management
International and many others.
Mr. Simmonds got his B.S. in
Management/Finance from Smeal College of
Business at Pennsylvania State University
and a minor in Information Systems and
Statistical Analysis. Mr. Simmonds holds a
Business Process Outsourcing Master
Certificate from the Wharton School.
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