Experts Gather to Discuss Entrepreneurship

NAIROBI….. Renowned entrepreneurs, Industrialists, business leaders and policy makers joined a group of researchers and academicians to jump start conversations on the role of entrepreneurship in economic development in a master class facilitated by Prof. Richard Harrison, an entrepreneurship guru and professor at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Speaking at the forum, Dr.  Manu Chandaria noted that there is a great need to harness entrepreneurship especially among the youth in Africa by improving the business environment. He lauded the work Trickle Out Africa is doing in especially jumpstarting or encouraging entrepreneurship research in Africa.

Prof. Richard Harrison, the master trainer could not emphasise more that entrepreneurship underpins economic growth and is the source of innovation and changes that catalysis’s improvements in productivity and in economic competitiveness.

The Master Class is preceded by a two day workshop for 25 researchers and academicians who will discuss aspects of entrepreneurship research from an African context. Entrepreneurship research in Africa is significantly underrepresented in the academic community, with a study finding only 1 per cent of academic journal papers considering entrepreneurship in emerging economies, of which over 75 per cent were based on BRIC, not African, countries.

The project launched a Directory of Social and environmental enterprises, cooperatives, and support agencies in 2011 and now has over 3500 organizations listed in over 19 countries.

The Directory also showcases examples of a wide range of social and environmental businesses. Dr Holt  of the TOA project stated:

“We hope that in some small way our project will help showcase the innovative, home- grown, truly transformative business models that form the bedrock of modern Kenya and other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. We hope that Trickle Out helps us understand more about the potential benefits of these businesses and the relationships they form. In addition we also hope that it offers a way for customers, potential partners, potential donors and civil society to find, and learn more, about these organisations”.

Participants of the workshop are drawn from Kenya, Zambia, S. Africa and the UK.