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