I love how this article and organization addresses some of the problems that Africa is facing. Necessity entrepreneurship is playing a role in producing income for people, and knowledge is important to ensuring a sustainable business.
http://makambaonline.com/index.php/2017/01/27/21053/#.WMF3m00zWUk
KBA Africa changing the trends of entrepreneurship in Africa
Growing sustainable business models in Africa
January 27, 2017 1:59 pm
High unemployment is a challenge in most African countries, and the universities continue to produce a large number graduates who need a source of income to support themselves and their families.
With a majority of African nations diversifying from traditional sources of income, entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a key to income generation and economic growth. Despite the growth in the need for entrepreneurs, starting and running businesses is a challenge! Entrepreneurs find it difficult to access funding, structure their businesses and accessing investors to invest into their businesses.
In order to understand how entrepreneurs can be equipped with the knowledge and tools for sustainable growth, Makamba Online had a sit-down chat with Ms Agnes Chikukwa Hove, the founder of KBA Africa (Knowledge Based Action), and African entrepreneurship development organisation.
She said: “Youth unemployment is a growing African problem and the youth need to be given the necessary support and knowledge required to start and grow businesses.”
How does KBA Africa help entrepreneurs?
“KBA Africa was started with a vision to capacitate young African entrepreneurs with the skills and tools they need to allow them to build viable and sustainable businesses,” the founder of KBA Africa told Makamba Online.
KBA Africa gather information about entrepreneurs in Africa from the entrepreneurs themselves and they also scan the entrepreneurial ecosystem. With this gathered data, they develop programmes that help address deficiencies and shortcomings of African entrepreneurs. KBA Africa organizes capacity building through boot camps, invite celebrated entrepreneurs to motivate budding entrepreneurs and small businesses, present business opportunities and trends to entrepreneurs through research and help them in accessing funding.
Why you should attend KBA Africa’s programmes?
Ms Chikukwa Hove clarified on the benefits of being involved in the organisation’s programmes.
She said: “The benefits of entrepreneurial empowerment are far reaching. The individuals benefit by creating an enterprise that can support their financial needs and those of their families. They create jobs, which benefits the economy, they trade with other organisations, thus creating an ecosystem. They start to pay taxes, and so on.”
Entrepreneurial boot camps
Given the good work going on, we asked KBA Africa about the next boot camp.
“Everyone is invited for the next Bootcamp at the end of February, 2017. This one is specifically designed to cater for school leavers and university graduates who have not figured out what to do.
“Entrepreneurs get to network with industry experts, representatives from leading financial institution, and the relevant government departments. They take home a toolkit from the Bootcamp, but they also become part of the KBA Africa Business Circle, which is a networking forum. They also have access to our online trading platform TradEX. And they get mentored by our industry specific Advisory Panel,” Agnes said.
On all Bootcamps, there is a nominal fee that is charged for all business people who attend the event(s). The KBA Africa founder said: “We charge a nominal fee to the entrepreneurs, for them to invest in themselves. However, we are looking for sponsors for our subsequent Bootcamp which will allow our programmes to be sustainable.”
Challenges
“Access to funding has been our biggest challenge. To date, we have funded our own projects and programs, but in order for us to have a greater impact, we need funding partners,” says the founder of KBA Africa.
Sustainable business in Africa
She added that KBA Africa will continue to work with young African entrepreneurs, and its influence will grow with every entrepreneur it capacitates.
The general goal of KBA Africa is to see Africa flourishing with sustainable business and self-reliance. Kindly visit their website, KBA Africa.
Author: Gesture Chidhanguro