entrepreneurship in ghana

1
entrepreneurship in ghana

• Mark Davies
• BusyInternet
• 7th June 2006
• Washington DC

2
five key issues

• Protection from by government
• Access to money
• Access to markets
• Attitude
• Operations

3
protection from by government

• Formal vs. informal sectors
• Biz can become a target for revenue
• Unfair competition (GT)
• Lack of clear policies regulations

options

• Build lobbying capacity among stakeholders
• advocacy from Bank and others
• Simplify policy objectives within gov
• Comparative studies (voip, sms, india)

4
access to money

• Banks angels MIA
• No credit options
• few plausible exit options
• Gap between 50 gt 500,000

options

• Local proxies to reduce investment costs
• Startup loans new bank instruments
• New models (african stock exchange)(convertible
  notes)
• Simple grants for RD

5
access to markets

• Difficult question to answer!
• Obvious tariff/subsidy issues (internal,external,r
  eg)
• Perceptions bush business
• Lack of gov support for local suppliers

options

• Advocacy visibility (marketing outlets/tools)
• Brand recognition campaign (proudly african!)
• local sourcing partnering rules
• Global partnering program (sister companies)

6
attitude

• Frustration cost around running biz
• Cultural context (upbringing education)
• Little exposure to Corporate culture
• Manager drain retention issues

options

• Research discussion
• Examples role models
• Peering (intl attachments 2 way!)

7
operations

• Extremely costly to do business
• Supplies, spare parts, shipping, duties
• service culture only just beginning
• Infrastructure a problem for most

options

• Business clusters, incubators, parks
• Education awareness (purchasing)
• Review of tariffs cost process
• retail resource centers

8
Thanks!

• Mark Davies
• mark_at_busyinternet.com