Lack of capital failing youth and women in jumpstarting businesses

Kenyan youth have cited lack of funding and information on markets as the biggest challenges facing their businesses.

This is according to a new survey released by GeoPoll, a global mobile survey company with 200 million users in Africa and Asia. The survey was carried out in collaboration with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) and the US State Department.

The entrepreneurs also cited shortage of highly skilled workers.

“Kenyan and South African respondents mentioned a lack of information on markets significantly more than respondents in any of the other markets,” GeoPoll said.

The survey, which polled 1,000 entrepreneurs from across Africa about entrepreneurship in their countries, sampled views of 200 entrepreneurs per country in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

Equally, in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria, funding was most often mentioned by respondents as a way to encourage youth and female entrepreneurs.

Asked what sort of support would help the most to increase the number of entrepreneurs, Nigerian and Ghanaian respondents were more likely to want government support, while South Africans are more likely to want public support.

Younger respondents cited the need for increased government support as opposed to their older counterparts. The older respondents were more likely to mention the need for more financial resources as key to the success of their enterprises.

Those in favour of government support to enable them start new businesses cited interventions in areas such as provision of training programmes and improvement in the business environment and regulations.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

Sixty-one per cent of the respondents also cited government’s intervention by introducing entrepreneurship courses in schools. Social media was found to be the most popular online tool for supporting business growth.

“The introduction of entrepreneurship courses in school programmes was the clear preference across all countries, except in the DRC where respondents prefered an engagement with the private sector,” the survey indicated.

Interestingly, older respondents were less interested in either business courses or mentorships compared to their younger counterparts.

The older ones were more likely to select networking and least likely to select trade events as activities that they find useful in supporting their business.

Of the respondents, 57 per cent were male while 43 per cent were female between the ages of 19 and 44.

“As policymakers explore smart and sophisticated steps to develop healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems across the continent, the voice of the entrepreneur must remain in the foreground. Being able to hear directly from the entrepreneurs helps guide our conversations at the Summit and beyond,” said Mr Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

At the pre-GES meeting held on Thursday, young entreprenuers urged commercial banks to relax conditions for accessing loans to enable them fund their businesses. They blamed banks for enforcing huge credit demands, locking many of them out of the credit access market.

The GeoPoll survey was conducted ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi.

GeoPoll conducts surveys through the mobile phone and provides results in real time, giving users ability to make data driven decisions. The firm provides insights on aspects from food security to brand preference.