In a research conducted to examine the state of entrepreneurship around the world, Namibia has emerged first among African countries and 42nd in the world, ahead of other prominent African markets, such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa at the 2016 inaugural Ashish J Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index.
The Global Entrepreneurship Index research which was conducted by Mara Foundation and Opinium Research measured entrepreneurial environments around the world and assessed each of its 85 countries against a set of 5 criteria that spans policy, infrastructure, education, entrepreneurial environment and finance.
In a press statement signed by Mara Foundation and made available to CEOAfrica, the results of the research showed that out of 85 countries, Singapore emerged the best environment for entrepreneurs and of the African nations, Namibia ranked first and 42nd overall, Rwanda ranked 43rd, Botswana ranked 44th and South Africa ranked 46th – all of which performed well on the ‘Policy’ pillar but have some way to go to improve on their infrastructure and education in particular.
According to the statement, of the top three African countries in the Index, Namibia and Botswana are stronger on the education pillar because of comparatively higher levels of literacy and quality in education. Both countries have made education central to their development.
Rwanda scored highly on the Policy and Finance Pillars driven by government initiatives to increase the ease of doing business. Credit is easily available and business transparency is high. Zambia scored particularly well on the Finance Pillar (72), primarily because of the availability of credit and a low total tax rate. Zambia, South Africa and Rwanda, the top 3 countries in Africa on the Finance pillar, stood head and shoulders above their peers, with scores of 72, 66 and 65 respectively. This placed Zambia in the top 10 of all countries globally on the Finance Pillar, just behind the USA (78).
The statement also noted that significant challenges exist in terms of Africa’s political stability, underdeveloped infrastructure, poor education and under-diversified economies. Comparatively lower scores for infrastructure are primarily driven by a lack of electrical access and the technology that comes with reliable access to energy, such as telecommunications and internet access. Lower scores for education are due to the overall quality of education and lower literacy rates. Boosting opportunities for a quality education is imperative for increasing the region’s quality of entrepreneurs and start-ups and providing a suitable workforce.
The Founder, Mara Group and Mara Foundation, Ashish J Thakkar, said “Through the work of Mara Group over the past 20 years, I have come to recognise the immense contribution that entrepreneurs make to economies and societies around the world – particularly in relation to job creation. In recent years, however, it has become more and more apparent that governments and the private sector are simply not doing enough to support entrepreneurs in their endeavours. With the creation of this Index, we hope to provide some solid policy recommendations that will help guide discussions and improve entrepreneurial environments globally.”
The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina priased the research process, saying, “I commend Ashish J. Thakkar and the Mara Foundation for creating this timely index. It provides useful insights on how Africa can unlock the potential of its youth and boost entrepreneurship. As populations are aging rapidly in much of the rest of the world, Africa can reap the economic dividends of its growing labour force. Africa is poised to become the next centre for entrepreneurship, but we must provide Africa’s youth with the required skills and create an environment that will enable them to become the business leaders of tomorrow.”
Mo Ibrahim, the Founding Chairman of Satya Capital Limited, Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation also stated that “Entrepreneurs are a great engine for development. In Africa, you need to encourage and create the right environment for their success. I really wish to congratulate The Mara Foundation for developing its important index which is a useful tool for all of us.”
In his opinion, the Founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, said “The Mara Foundation has done some great work supporting entrepreneurs all over the world. I’m delighted to see their new entrepreneurship index that will help identify opportunities for business, not-for-profits and Government to work together to create the right environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and to create jobs.”
The Ashish J Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index assessed 85 countries and is based on 5 broad pillars – Policy, Infrastructure, Education, Entrepreneurial Environment and Finance. Each of these pillars contains between three and seven sub-indices. These sub-indices were collated from a variety of sources such as UN and WTO statistics. The 5 pillars aim to give a balance of physical barriers to entrepreneurship such as poor infrastructure, government policies preventing entrepreneurship and also assessing the entrepreneurial environment.