Entrepreneurship is driver for growth in Africa

CAIRO – 7 December 2017: "Entrepreneurs in Africa have to gain required skills to drive growth in Africa," founder and CEO of VC for Africa Ben White said during his speech at the second session of the Africa 2017 Forum.

"Building networks is the most important process in creating a start-up…my company for example is communicating with 60,000 members worldwide," White added in the session titled "Get Funded."

Speakers of the session included chairman of Egypt Ventures Shehab Marzban, senior investment officer of IFC Ventures Wale Ayeni and chairman of TechWadi in the U.S. Sharif el-Badawi.

"There is a big gap in capital venture investments and we need funds to boost the confidence of the ecosystem," Marzban said, highlighting the significance of angel investors and offering tax incentives for entrepreneurship investors.

Mazban also stressed on the need of building academic institutions to teach entrepreneurial skills and business growth.

Meanwhile, Badawi focused on the need to have unicorns in Africa, "there are many examples of unicorns from outside Silicon Valley and we will soon see them here in Africa," he said.