What prevents more entrepreneurship on the African continent?
The third speaker at the inspiration stage at the 1%EVENT was Ben White from VC4Africa. He told us that in Africa there are more small entrepreneurs than anywhere in the world. But they are encountering many challenges. Ben asked himself: “What can we do to realize their ideas?”
Everywhere in the world young people with ideas face many problems to realize them, but in Africa these problems are are even bigger; lack of infrastructure, network, funding, coaching amongst others. “By sharing ideas and experiences these challenges can be overcome. People need to connect and help each-other!”, Ben said.
One of the places where people are sharing ideas are IT-Labs all over the continent. These co-working spaces are popping up all over Africa: In Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and even Madagascar. They are organized as Afrilabs, a network organization that seeks to build on this common vision and further promote the growth and development of the African technology sector.
When an entrepreneur comes up with a business plan, he or she realizes this is just the start. The main things they need are not just funding, but also mentoring and training, Ben explained. That is why he, together with Bill Zimmerman, started an online community called ‘Venture Capital for Africa’ on social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Last year they launched the platform www.vc4africa.biz where entrepreneurs can publish the basics of the business idea online. Currently there are 160 business ideas online from 25 African countries. The idea is to connect the entrepreneurs to people who can advise them and of course.. finance their ideas!
Visit the website of VC4Africa.
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