Entrepreneurship without skills, limits your growth potential.
-We must turn our vast army of entrepreneurs, in Africa, into skills based, “enterprise builders”.
– Of the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, in the world, today, 90%, was created in the last 2 years, the digital age has finally arrived.
-Young African entrepreneurs, should focus, on acquiring as much skills, as possible, if they want to grow their businesses.
Econet Wireless founder, Strive Masiyiwa, commenting whilst on a trip to Nigeria, said the next generation of African entrepreneurs, should be “enterprise builders”, which can only happen, if they focus on businesses, that are skills based. “My mother was a trader, just like the mothers of many of you; that is because they did not have opportunities, to be electricians, builders, and mechanics. Otherwise, they would have been electrical contractors, builders, and auto dealers. When you go into business, arm yourself with a skill, so that you are not just trading goods.” Mr Masiyiwa, said Africa, needs more than entrepreneurs, ” we want entrepreneurs, who have a vision to build enterprises, because it gives us greater capacity to harness, more jobs and more wealth for our nations.”
Mr Masiyiwa, said that whilst the digital age, was ushering in a new age of “extraordinary opportunities in entrepreneurship.” He also urged young people across Africa, not to neglect some of the basic skills, such as plumbing, carpentry, farming, electricians, “these things may not look all that glamorous, but let me tell you, today you can be a billionaire, in Africa, if you are a good plumber, and know how to build an enterprise. Don’t neglect these classical trades. A school certificate, is not what feeds a family, it is when you use that certificate to get yourself a trade certificate, such as carpentry, or motor mechanics, or computing, that you learn to feed a family, and grow your nation.”
“When I see a young person at the street corner, chasing cars to sell something, I always wonder to myself, what would happen, if we armed that young entrepreneur, with a basic skill like carpentry, mechanics, plumbing, or farming skills. If we arm, these young entrepreneurs, (because this is what they are), with basic skills in both the traditional trades, as well as digital skills, we can double our growth rates, in Africa. If we can give our university graduates, the entrepreneurial zeal of our street traders, we will have an enterprise revolution, in Africa.”
