Covid-19 has hit small businesses hardest and around the world, many are either still struggling or they have already shut down almost two years after the pandemic started.

The pandemic has caused large-scale loss of life and severe human suffering globally and as the largest public health crisis in our time, the pandemic has also generated a major economic crisis. 2020 saw a halt in production in affected countries, a collapse in consumption and confidence, and stock exchanges responding negatively to heightened uncertainties.

In Africa, things are no different and despite the hit by the pandemic, a June 2021 African Development Bank (AfDB) White Paper, Entrepreneurship and Free Trade: Africa’s Catalysts for a New Era of Economic Prosperity, states that entrepreneurship must be at the heart of efforts to transform Africa’s economic prospects.

Read: Why Kenya’s small businesses are choking

The Covid-19 crisis has triggered shifts that open up …

Kenya’s national carrier Kenya Airways has launched a centre which it says will be used to mentor the youth.

In a statement, the company says the centre, dubbed ‘Fahari Innovation Hub’, will act as a springboard for new ideas and data-driven innovations to accelerate impact-driven solutions that address some of the societal and business challenges.

Kenya Airways Chief Executive Officer, Allan Kilavuka said the Fahari Innovation Hub has already been operating virtually for about one year.

He added that with the setting of a physical workspace, the hub will provide a centre for strategic innovation management offering opportunities for co-creation, collaboration, networking, research, and learning.

“At the pace at which change accelerates, especially now in the middle of a global pandemic, we have become increasingly aware of the need to be innovative as we position the business as a resilient, forward-looking and sustainable company with a deliberate inclusive agenda of …

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a new deal that will help businesses in the private sector forge their way to recovery. 

CMA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) to support market deepening and leveraging capital market products to catalyze growth in the sector.

The partners say the move is line with the Big 4 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.

Through the MoU, CMA and KEPSA say they will be seeking avenues for private and public sector finance and investment necessary to support Kenya’s economic growth and complement development funding gaps.

The two institutions will also seek to collaborate in the development of policy and regulatory interventions to create a conducive business environment that will support a robust, resilient, and inclusive financial sector through the growth of the capital markets.

The CMA Chief Executive, Wyckliffe Shamiah said the partnership is expected …

Women-owned and led SMEs (WSMEs) in Kenya face structural barriers that limit their ability to secure contracts with large companies for growth.

This is according to an IFC study published today that recommends ways banks and large businesses can better support female entrepreneurs.

The study was commissioned as part of IFC’s wider efforts to connect women entrepreneurs to new markets and is titled Sourcing2Equal Kenya: Barriers and Approaches to Increase Access to Markets for Women-Owned Businesses.

It found that women-owned businesses face challenges accessing finance, business networks, and market information, hence limiting their ability to take on large contracts.

The study found that there is a 9 percent gender gap in the participation of SMEs supplying directly to corporate Buyers, commonly known as tier 1 suppliers, with WSMEs receiving fewer contracts among the SME respondents in this study.

However the survey indicates that there is 13 percent more WSMEs than …

In the last century, the fashionable and accepted route to success for young Africans was to complete their education and join the corporate world. A few university students aspired to become entrepreneurs; most educational institutions did not offer entrepreneurial programs. With few exceptions, African families used to guide their children to join a leading multi-national or work for a state institution, hoping they would climb the corporate ladder to become CEOs or at least senior management. That was prestigious until the paradigm shifted to tech entrepreneurship with the emergence of the computer, mobile and Internet industry in the latter part of the 20^th century. Whilst a lot of African families have built successful entrepreneurial ventures in the past, this essay emphasis the growing move of corporates to tech entrepreneurship.

The likes of Dr. Nii Narku Quaynor who started Network Computer Systems (NCS) in 1988 and played a key role …

Africa’s tech habitude is on the rise. Internet usage has risen significantly on the continent. On top of that, the advent of the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the prospect of growth in the digital sphere. E-commerce is one such opportunity that affords businesses access to broader market opportunities in every arena. According to McKinsey, a worldwide consulting firm, the e-commerce industry in Africa is expected to grow to a $75 billion industry by 2025.

E-commerce is growing. It is accelerated by a growing and youthful population that is increasingly exposed and has an appetite for greater efficiency and improvement of business to first-world standards. The African diaspora has also contributed to this growing demand as people have become more exposed to what is going on around the world. Technology itself dissolves existing borders and opens up trade regionally and internationally.…