The African continent is seeing its strongest economic growth since the 1970s. In 2008, 15 African countries entered a
second decade in which they posted strong annual economic growth rates of 5.3 percent. Despite strong economic
performance, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only region not on track for achieving the Millennium Development Goals
by 2015.
In some Sub-Saharan countries, poverty rates still exceed 70%. According to the World Bank Doing Business Report
2008, Africa fell from third place to fifth in ranking by region on the pace of business regulation reforms. Recent estimates
place Sub-Saharan Africa as the region with the second highest rate of unemployment, at 9.1%. Almost half of the world's
unemployed are young people aged 15 to 24. African policymakers increasingly view business incubation as an important
tool to unleash human ingenuity, enable competitive enterprises and create sustainable jobs. Business incubators can
also be instrumental in developing new economic sectors. Business incubators in Africa provide support for small
enterprises to overcome business skills, infrastructure, market linkage, financing and “people connectivity” constraints,
and expose entrepreneurs to information and communication technologies (ICTs) that help increase the productivity and
market reach of enterprises across sectors.
Business Incubation in Sub-Saharan Africa
"The idea is to unleash the power of entrepreneurship, community and capital by bringing people and business together. It gives entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Africa hope to start their own business. With a growing population of innovators and entrepreneurs, business incubation is seen as an important facilitator of small enterprise development.” H.E. Albert Butare, State Minister of Energy and Communications of Rwanda
JOB CREATION & ENTERPRISE
DEVELOPMENT
infoDev’s Business Incubator
Network in Africa has:
2,900 currently incubated client
companies
14,500 employees in currently
incubated companies
670 companies that graduated
from the incubator since beginning
of operations
43,200 current employees in
graduated companies
infoDev provides financial and technical support to 24
business incubators in 10 African countries, with sub-
regions in South, East and West Africa. Initiated by
infoDev and launched in Ghana in 2006, the African
Incubator Network (AIN) is a peer-to-peer network for
African incubators managers. AIN is currently coordinated
by one of AIN’s members, Softstart BTI in South Africa,
and receives financial support from infoDev as well as the
Small Enterprise Development Authority (SEDA) of South
Africa. infoDev also supports training and capacity-building
sessions for incubator managers. Within the Africa
Incubator Network, business incubators primarily focus on
developing women and young people’s entrepreneurship
skills and opportunities, as well as high growth business
development.
2121 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20433 Phone 202 473 9631 Fax 202 522 3186 www.infodev.org
www.idisc.net
NETWORK KEY AREAS OF FOCUS
Increase capacity building,
especially training for incubator professionals and the sharing of
expertise between peers and other experts.
Increase advocacy and
stakeholder linkage development in an effort to
increase incubation reach and effectiveness, and more
concretely position incubation as a facilitator of government support policies for enterprise
development.
Foster the broad promotion and marketing of incubation
initiatives and their impact through case studies,
brochures, media participation and the further development of
knowledge repositories.
MEMBERS
Angola Ghana Kenya
Mauritius Mozambique
Namibia Nigeria Rwanda Senegal
South Africa Tanzania Uganda
South Africa
South Africa's has over 20 incubators supporting entrepreneurs in sectors as diverse as horticulture, construction,
chemicals, ICT, biotechnology, metal fabrication, furniture manufacturing and platinum beneficiation. While there are a few
private sector-led incubators, most are supported by the national government and to a lesser extent by provincial and local
governments. The South African Business and Technology Incubator Association (SABTIA) was formed by incubator
professionals and has since become an organization representing incubators in southern Africa
Ghana
BusyInternet, an urban business incubator founded around an internet café, provides business services and office space
rentals to local entrepreneurs. In a country where business premises require a three-year up-front rental payment,
BusyInternet enables entrepreneurs to start businesses with minimal financial resources and reduced risk. Access to
facilities, connectivity, and support services, as well as the possibility to interact with other entrepreneurs, are some of the
basic obstacles that business incubators help fledgling entrepreneurs overcome.
Angola Initiated in 2005 by the National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (INEFOP), the incubator serves as a one-
stop business service center with offerings such as training workshop in entrepreneurship, business advisory and
consulting services, credit facilitation, linkage and referrals. This incubator focuses particularly on youth in the context of a
post-conflict environment.
Rwanda
Established by the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, the Technology and Business Incubation Facility (TBIF)
provides office space, shared resources and a seed-financing scheme to 20 incubatees, many of whom are young students
from its academic community. The overall objective of TBIF is to integrate ICT across incubator and incubatee business
processes in order to enhance the outcomes, impact and outreach of TBIF to the target community of graduates from
Business Incubation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Feature Business Incubators
African Incubator Network
Initiatived by infodev and launched in 2006, the goal of AIN is to develop a
collaborative network of African incubators and other business
development service providers, and to facilitate the provision of
appropriate knowledge to support the development of innovative small
enterprises
Members of AIN are active members of the infoDev Global Network of
Business Incubators, which is a virtual networking and knowledge-sharing
platform (www.idisc.net) for infoDev‘s regional incubation networks that
members can use to showcase their activities, use online learning
materials, share success stories and best practices, as well as connect
with like-minded incubation practitioners and experts.
www.africanincubator.net
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