Lady A.
11.1K posts
In our final year at the University of Ibadan, my girlfriend, Layomi, 20, and I, 21, discovered she was pregnant. At the time, I was Mr University of Ibadan, the face of the school. Layomi was equally well-regarded: responsible, respected, the only child of her family.
Africa has more entrepreneurs per capita than anywhere else in the world. It also has one of the lowest densities of large businesses globally. Of an estimated ~244 million businesses in Africa: 👤 94.8% are solo firms with 0 non-owner employees 👥 3.1% are micro-enterprises (1-4 employees) 📈 1.6% are small ventures (5-19 employees) 🏢 0.38% are medium ventures (20-100 employees) 🏭 0.05% are large businesses (100+ employees) In other words, 95% of businesses in Africa have zero hired employees. We celebrate entrepreneurship in Africa. And we should. But the vast majority today is survivalist or necessity-driven. People often talk about a "missing middle" in African business. But when 95% are solo operations, there's a missing everything else. What's clearly not missing: entrepreneurial energy. But converting that into jobs at scale requires an enabling environment. — Afridigest Intelligence — real intelligence & advisory to win in Africa's growth markets: afridigest.com/intelligence | Follow Afridigest on LinkedIn & Instagram
