Africa needs more tech incubators

thenextweb.com

4 points·OoTheNigerian··3 comments

The venture capital model will be much less effective in places where it is difficult to enforce contracts, where regulatory frameworks are inconsistently applied and political stability is uncertain. Because these factors create substantially higher risk, the rewards must be substantially higher as well - and in places where overall purchasing power is low such higher returns are harder to obtain.

What works in South Africa is not necessarily scalable to other sub-Saharan nations because of the degree to which the risks in South Africa can be assessed and the relative stability of its political institutions - not to mention its economic power relative to many of its neighbors.

The article is somewhat analogous to using Manhattan as a model for a theater district in Des Moines.

I think this idea makes the mistake of thinking that people in third world countries have the entrepreneurship drive that exists in the US, in other words its making the mistake of thinking "everybody thinks like us Americans because we rock so much, so lets help them be more like us!" We'll see how this experiment turns out.

I don't think entrepreneurship drive as a trait is exclusively "American." It is quite presumptuous to assume that and smacks of "oh Americans are so cool, we have the most entrepreneurial drive of all countries in the world. No one has drive like we do." Slightly ridiculous, don't you think? Africa with its large informal economy made up of mostly small and medium scale businesses could certainly do with more incubators and venture funding opportunities.

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