Building the Africa We Want

By Muriel Gill

Research has proven that SMEs are an effective way of creating jobs and strengthening entrepreneurship is an excellent strategy to develop and grow the economy.

We want Africa that can create enough jobs for her population. An employed population with a livelihood can reduce poverty, afford medical treatment and prolong the lifespan, afford decent home structures and give people their dignity.

Is strengthening the private sector of our economies the answer? What is the role of ordinary citizens in this quest and vision?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beach Books Publishing House
• Release date: Feb 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005943097

Muriel Gill

Muriel Gill was born and grew up in the small village of Taung in the North West Province of South Africa; she is a village girl. Her current place of residence is in Cape Town. She has registered two businesses in South Africa and is looking to register an NGO that will help the many survivalist unregistered businesses across Africa make a transition into registered growing businesses. She obtained a Master’s of Commerce in Entrepreneurship from the University of South Africa.Being proudly South African and African, Muriel enjoys watching documentaries and anything to do with wildlife.

Book preview

BUILDING THE AFRICA WE WANT

With 55 thriving economies

There is a role the local private sector can play in job creation and economic development of every African country. The local private sector needs to be strengthened. More local African people need to get involved!

Published by Muriel Kgomotso Gill

Copyright © 2021 Muriel Kgomotso Gill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BUILDING THE AFRICA WE WANT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DISCOVER OTHER TITLES BY MURIEL KGOMOTSO GILL

CONNECT WITH ME

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

Africa has for a long time been associated with poverty and lack of economic opportunities despite the enormous resources she is endowed with. Isn’t it obvious that without employment opportunities the people will be without salaries and wages, which enable them to buy their families their daily needs and sustenance? So, it appears that job creation through entrepreneurship, and primarily manufacturing of goods and services, is what Africa needs to provide her growing populace with meaningful decent jobs.

African Development Bank has stated that entrepreneurship needs to be at the heart of efforts for Africa to transform its economies. Entrepreneurship is an activity undertaken by individuals. Yes, there will be state-owned enterprises, but it is not entirely up to governments to create and provide jobs. We, the population need to get involved in creating enterprises and jobs. It is our duty to contribute and transform our economies and to economic development and societal transformation. We need to strengthen the economic private sector in Africa. Yes, the general population may need support from the government as it is a public-private partnership.

Africans, we need to realise this and join the bandwagon of responsibility to develop our Africa. We cannot be mere spectators, nor can we be suppliers of labour only. We need to be active participants in the creation of enterprises that will create jobs and develop our countries’ economies. This is not to say that African economies do not have a place for big multinational businesses. Foreign investment is always needed, as all countries do, but not at the exclusion of local people taking meaningful participation in the economic development of their countries.

Some authors are predicting that in the next 25 years, 86% of the world’s poor people will be from Africa. These predictions are based on the current rate of entrepreneurial activity on the continent, with entrepreneurial activity loosely defined as the number of existing and new enterprises that are started less the number of businesses that are closing down. These predictions cannot be right. Africa cannot always be associated with poverty. We, the people of Africa, are the ones who need to change these predictions.

If entrepreneurship is to be at the heart of Africa’s economic development and transformation, we the people of Africa must then begin to think very seriously about meaningful entrepreneurship. Enabling us to contribute to economic development and ensure that many are saved from the predicted poverty. We cannot sit back and expect someone else to change our economies and our continent. No one is going to do it for us, we must do it ourselves.

I used the phrase ‘meaningful entrepreneurship’ to denote enterprises that will contribute to job creation, economic development and growth on the continent. The truth is that it is not that there is no economic activity on the continent; there is. In fact, women in sub-Sahara are said to be more economically active than their counterparts in other parts of the world. But their economic activities are too small, and they are mere survivalists. They lack growth due to several reasons. The owners are barely making it. They are struggling to make a decent living from their economic activities.

In all the countries of the world, 90 to 99% of businesses are small and medium enterprises, owned by the local people. Africa needs to increase the number of locally owned small and medium businesses. Struggling survivalist businesses need help in the form of capital injection, business skills upgrading, formalisation and sometimes access to markets. Most of the survivalists are operating in the overtraded retail sector. It could be beneficial to help some of them to migrate into small manufacturing. Africa is to a large degree a consumer and a net importer of goods. Manufacturing and industrialisation are needed to create wealth and improve the GDPs of various African countries, particularly per capita GDPs.

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Small businesses around the world

Entrepreneurship is widely regarded by many governments as the panacea for growing unemployment, particularly among the youth. Africa has a youthful population. Nearly 60% of Africa’s population is below the age of 25, according to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Statista quotes youth unemployment in Africa at 55.75%. This percentage is very high indeed and relates to more than half of the youth in Africa as unemployed.

Small businesses play a pivotal role in most economies around the world. On average collectively employing approximately 40% of the workforce. However, there is no universal definition of a small business. A small business may be defined by the capital outlay, annual revenues and the number of employees.

In Australia, a small business employs less than 20 people, while in the UK it does not employ more than 50 people. In the EU a small business employs less than 250 people but in the USA a business that employs less than 500 people is classified as a small business.

In South Africa, a small business employs less than 200 people, in Kenya up to 99 people and in Ghana less than 10 people. There is no universal definition of a small business, but whatever the definition, small businesses are very important in every economy. They provide employment and a livelihood to entrepreneurs and their employees; they contribute to the nations’ gross domestic product (GDP) and they pay taxes.

International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that 90% of global businesses can be classified as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with the majority of them being