Entrepreneurs in Africa

Historically, entrepreneurs have always played a central role in the development of nation states (Marsden 1990, 1992). Aside from rentier states, which depend extensively on the availability of mineral resource rents, most economically prosperous nations in the world have strong, innovative and competitive business enterprises and entrepreneurs as the bedrock of their economic development and prosperity. In other words, there is a positive correlation between the presence of strong and competitive business enterprises and the economic development of nations. This is not surprising, especially given the definition and characteristics of entrepreneurship, which has been highlighted above. It is therefore logical to expect countries that have a dearth of entrepreneurial skills to exhibit plenty of missed opportunities for economic enterprise and thus curtailed economic development.

Based on the above, it is not surprising that competitive and innovative business enterprises are not widespread in Africa. Although foreign multinationals have successful operations across the African landscape, this has not changed the fact that entrepreneurial skills remain thinly spread across the continent. There is thus a dearth of successful indigenous business enterprises in the continent. It is such characteristics that have also led some to conclude that “the development of large-scale industrialisation in Africa appears to be a remote possibility at least in the short to intermediate run” (Cader and Norman 2006).

Reasons that have been adduced for the entrepreneurial deficiency in Africa include the dearth of finance and management skills. Along the above lines, it has been argued that “African entrepreneurs experience serious difficulties in developing and sustaining effective organiszational arrangements” (Kiggundu 2002). Iliffe also argued that “capital was more easily available than competent entrepreneurs” and that “the quality of management was the most important reason for […] [African business] failure” (1983: 68–70). Several other studies have also raised similar concerns about African entrepreneurship (Cf: Harris and Rowe 1966; Steele 1975: 18; Heilman and Lucas 1997: 141). The above entrepreneurial deficiencies are responsible for the relatively short lifespans of many of the businesses started by African entrepreneurs (Cf. Forrest 1994: 328; Leap Africa 2014).

The above dynamics have no doubt negatively affected the balance of the entrepreneurship discourse in the continent. Few, for instance, dispute the old conclusion that “much that has been written about entrepreneurship in Africa makes gloomy reading” (Elkan 1988: 171). The above scenario simply sugge sts that Africans have, at least in general terms, been unable to understand and exploit the abundant economic opportunities in their local environment. Specifically, it was the dearth of entrepreneurial skills and the resultant enormous economic and business opportunities in Africa that encouraged foreign adventurers, explorers and entrepreneurs to push for the colonisation of the continent. In this regard, it has been rightly noted that the whole idea of colonial rule, at least in British Africa, was promoted by British commercial interests in the continent (Cain and Hopkins 1980; Tignor 1987; Hopkins 1968). This explains the close relationship between foreign businesses and the state throughout the colonial era.

The above relationship also explains why foreign entrepreneurs were not trusted by Africans during the decolonisation era, African countries were thus almost unanimous in concluding that political independence without economic independence was nothing but an empty shell (Cf. Tignor 1998). This also explains the post-independence rush by many African states to nationalise foreign business interests. The result was that, between 1960 and 1974, the African continent witnessed more expropriations of foreign business interests than any other region in the world (Uche 2012; Rood 1976; Akinsanya 1981). Since most Africans at the time neither had the finance, nor entrepreneurial skills to run such nationalised foreign businesses, African governments had no choice but to play a major role in the nationalisation process. State ownership of nationalised foreign firms was therefore rampant. State investments in diverse economic sectors also blossomed during the period.

Over time, however, the inefficiencies of the above system became apparent. Racketeering, corruption and rent seeking blossomed. The subsequent economic crisis faced by many African countries in the 1980s forced many of them to jettison the idea of state-led industrialisation and economic growth. Most of the concerned states approached the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (imf) for financial assistance. Both organisations demanded the adoption of structural adjustment policies by such African countries. This essentially meant reducing state involvement and intervention in economic activities and allowing market forces to reign in all spheres of economic activity.

It was on the basis of the above philosophy that a 1989 World Bank Report declared that entrepreneurs will play a central role in transforming African economies (World Bank 1989). The report went on to argue that achieving sustainable growth in the continent “will depend on the capacity of people from all levels of African society to respond flexibly as new market and technical opportunities emerge.” The report also predicted that since the African population was bound to increase by over 100 per cent by 2020. “Africa’s entrepreneurs must create these jobs. Only their initiative can ensure that the long-term demand for low-cost products and services will be met” (World Bank 1989: 155, quoted in Cader and Norman 2006: 279). More recently, a report published by the Harvard Business Review has also expressed similar optimism (Cf. Ekekwe 2016).

So what is the situation in the mid-2010s? Who are the leading African entrepreneurs? The us-based business intelligence company Forbes makes lists of the most wealthy entrepreneurs on earth, and they have a specific list for Africa: ¹ “Africa’s 50 richest”. For the year 2015, they presented these 50 richest African entrepreneurs, with some personal information and some information about their sources of wealth. We will summarise this information based on countries, gender and racial background (as this still matters a lot in debates about colonialism and postcolonialism) See: www.forbes.com/africa-billionaires.

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Among the 50 wealthiest entrepreneurs there are two (black) women (Isabel dos Santos from Angola, and Folorunsho Alakija from Nigeria), and it is interesting to note that in racial categories there are now as many “black” entrepreneurs as there are “white” entrepreneurs (if we exclude the category of North Africans). It is also clear that four countries dominate the list. South Africa is still number one in numbers, but close to losing the number one position in total accumulated wealth of its richest entrepreneurs, a total of us$28.6 billion in 2015. Nigeria follows with ten entrepreneurs and an accumulated total wealth of those ten of us$27.4 billion. Egypt and Morocco are number three and four, with seven entrepreneurs and us$16 billion for Egypt and eight entrepreneurs and us$12.8 billion for Morocco. In total, Forbes gives an accumulated wealth of close to us$100 billion for Africa’s top-50 wealthiest entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurs in the four leading countries share 85 per cent of that wealth.

The wealthiest African entrepreneur (Aliko Dangote from Nigeria, see elsewhere in this book) had an estimated wealth of us$16.7 billion and was supposed to be the 67th richest person on earth. Twenty-four of the 50 richest African entrepreneurs had an accumulated estimated wealth of more than a billion us dollars. Number 50 on the list still had a respectable us$300 million. Forbes also gives information about the economic sectors in which the most wealthy Africans are engaged. Banking and financial services are mentioned most (8 times), followed by oil and gas (7), telecom (4), cement (3), real estate (3), and insurance (3), although 11 people had a “diversified portfolio”, or just did “investments”. In larger categories, among the 50 leading entrepreneurs, nine are mostly active in mining, ten in manufacturing, five mainly in trade, and the others either have a diversified portfolio or are mostly active in the service sector (banking, insurance, media, real estate). Not on the list yet are the most wealthy religious entrepreneurs. According to an interesting website about the most wealthy religious leaders in the world, ² two in the top ten are from Nigeria, David Oyedepo (the world’s number three and worth us$150 million) and Chris Oyakhilome (the world’s number 10, with us$50 million). ³ But also in the entertainment industry people can earn fortunes. The best paid African sportsman is Cameroonian soccer player Samuel Eto´o, worth us$98 million. ⁴ And it can also help to be a successful political entrepreneur. ⁵ The list of richest African Presidents has Angola’s President Dos Santos on top with an estimated wealth of us$20 billion (which is more than Africa´s richest economic businessman), followed by King Mohammed vi of Morocco (who has been included in Forbes’ list of Africa´s top 50 of economic entrepreneurs with an accumulated wealth of us$5.7 billion in 2015). Other African Presidents have not made it to the list of billionaires in us dollars, but are on their way: Equatorial Guinea’s Nguema (600 million), Kenya´s Kenyatta (500 million), Cameroon´s Biya (200 million), Swaziland´s King Mswati (100 million), Chad´s Deby (50 million) and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe (10 million).

The Forbes list of wealthiest African entrepreneurs also allows us to look at the geographical distribution of the economic activities of these businessmen and women, thanks to the brief profiles of their economic biographies. Let us look at the top ten entrepreneurs. Africa’s leading businessman, Aliko Dangote (again: see later in this book), can truly be seen now as a pan-African entrepreneur, with activities in 15 different African countries, from a strong base in Nigeria. Nicky Oppenheimer, number 2 on the Forbes list, and (although he recently sold his De Beers shares to multinational mining giant Anglo American) active in the diamond trade. He was/is mainly active in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa and has a link with an investment firm in Singapore. Number 3 on the list, Christopher Wiese is one of the continent’s leading retailers, with stakes in Shoprite, a supermarket chain active in 15 African countries now. But he clearly connects his African business empire with many activities in Europe. Tobacco and luxury goods giant Johann Rupert (number 4 on the list), although based in South Africa, mainly has a European portfolio. King Mohammed vi’s (number 5) wealth is primarily in Morocco. Egypt’s leading businessman, Nassef Sawiris (number 6), is mainly active in Egypt itself, but spreads his fortune by also investing in shares in multinational companies like Adidas and through a connection with the Euronext stock market in Amsterdam. He also connects to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Mike Adenuga (number 7) combines oil wealth in his homeland Nigeria, with growing telecom activities in Nigeria, but also in Ghana and Benin. Isabel dos Santos (number 8 and the only woman among the top ten) made her fortune in Angola and Portugal, and combines activities in oil, telecom, banking and electricity. Algerian Issad Rebrab (number 9) owns a big company active in food production in Algeria, but has also become active in France as an investor. And finally, number 10, Egyptian Naguib Sawiris, is mainly active in Egypt’s telecom business, but also in Lebanon, Pakistan, and (interestingly) North Korea, and he recently started investing in Europe. So if we look at this top ten, the two Nigerians and one of the South Africans can be seen as becoming “pan-African” entrepreneurs, but the others mainly connect their activities in their home country with investment activities in Europe, and/or the Middle East. It would be good, though, to keep a sharp eye on the emergence of “multinational companies”, originating from Africa (Kaynak 2014, focusing on Ghana), and on the interesting issue of African companies going global or African entrepreneurs investing outside the continent, which already seems to be the rule, and not the exception.

Of course, we should not only focus on the most wealthy entrepreneurs. Numerous less wealthy entrepreneurs are active in Africa, and it is probably good to say that many poor and middle-class Africans would never have survived without an entrepreneurial spirit, often in dire circumstances; but, between 2000 and 2015 there was a chance to use the opportunities of an expanding economy and a more liberal political environment. The flip-side of the success stories are the enormous inequalities in opportunities, and in income and wealth levels. Half of Africa’s population can still be regarded as being part of or close to the “bottom billion” in the world (Collier 2008), and Africa can now be regarded as the continent with the most severe economic disparities between the haves and the have-nots. The measure for economic inequality that is often used, the Gini coefficient, is really extreme in countries like South Africa (63.4 in 2012 ⁶ ). Many small-scale (or micro) entrepreneurs are feeling blocked by political, economic, and sometimes also cultural barriers and are not able to expand. Policies meant to “upscale” successful enterprises are often failing, despite the attention for micro-credit or micro-finance programmes (e.g. Buckley 1997; Akoten et al. 2006) for “frugal innovation” (e.g. Peša 2015; Knorringa et al. 2016), “social entrepreneurship” (Urban 2008) and “black empowerment” (Tangri and Southal 2008).

A focus on successful entrepreneurship in Africa needs a focus on institutional arrangements. Frequently, the first thing that comes to mind is the role of the state. In comparative studies about the success of emerging economies in, for instance, East and Southeast Asia and Africa (often described as ´lagging behind´) a lot of emphasis is given to a combination of sound and dependable macro-economic policies, and dedicated policy implementation by the state for poverty alleviation, and economic support to small-scale entrepreneurs (e.g. in the Tracking Development project, see Berendsen et al. 2013, and Henley 2015), or the Developmental Regimes in Africa project (Booth et al. 2015). However, it is probably wise not to focus too much on the state, and to look at institutional arrangements beyond the state, or where the state agencies are only one of the partners (Booth and Unsworth 2014; McDade & Spring 2005; Rogerson 2001). This was also a strong suggestion in an earlier edition of African Dynamics (Akinyoade et al. 2014) with an emphasis on agricultural ´pockets of effectiveness´ in Africa, and the need to study private and public support institutions, and the way these interact with entrepreneurs. These institutions deal with self-organisation, like Chambers of Commerce, or Associations of Manufacturers, but also with transport and other physical infrastructure (and its maintenance), credit facilities, innovation incubators, training, education and research agencies, and so many other things that can make or break an entrepreneur (e.g. Robson et al. 2009). This book puts African entrepreneurs centre stage, and tries to look at their perspectives and networks. It is a pioneering book due to the fact that little is known about this subject in academic circles. A lot of information has recently become available through journalistic media and think tanks, like http://africabusiness.com/, venturesafrica.com, africanbusinessmagazine.com, africanbusinesscentral.com, http://ayeonline.org/, http://allafrica.com/business/, and the daily memoranda published by Fernando Matos Rosa (linked to the European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean; www.ebcam.eu; also see www.nabc.nl for its member in the Netherlands, the Netherlands-African Business Council ⁷ ).

Various authors of the chapters in this book have made important contributions that will help enhance our understanding of the theory, structure and practice of entrepreneurship in Africa from an academic perspective.

Summary of Contributions

Following the introductory chapter, contributions in this book are in three broad sections. The first section is an examination of related theories and innovations. Firstly, is Emiel Eijdenberg’s examination of methodological challenges of entrepreneurship research in East African Least Developed Countries. This is based on the contention that “an underestimation has been observed concerning the influence of the individual’s external factors, like those from the small business owner, and an overestimation on important internal factors of the individual.” And as there is a growing interest to involve the context in which economic behaviour, like starting a small business as a form of entrepreneurship, occurs, it is imperative to answer the important question of “How to contextualise entrepreneurship?” by focusing on situational and temporal boundaries. Using extensive qualitative and quantitative data collections among entrepreneurship experts, and small business owners in the formal and informal economies in a number of East African observations, it is observed in Uganda that push- and pull factors are not mutually exclusive in understanding entrepreneurial motivation. However, pull factors dominate the push factors as the small business owners’ entrepreneurial motivation. In Rwanda, small business growth is primarily predicted by two groups of entrepreneurial motivations: one group with a mix of motivations, and one group with predominantly opportunity motivation. In Burundi, while effectuation-oriented small business owners perceive more uncertainty, both effectuation and causation orientations have more or less no effect on the growth of the small businesses. And in Tanzania, entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial orientation do not play an important role as predictors for small business growth. The development of personal wealth is partly determined by the subsistence entrepreneur’s age. Eijdenberg concluded that future research should go beyond the sample limitations of the studies in East Africa, because the collection of data at a different time or for other types of businesses might produce different findings.

Kenneth Amaeshi and Uwafiokun Idemudia systematically explore the concept of Africapitalism as a management idea for business in Africa. This term, coined by a Nigerian banker and economist – Mr Tony Elumelu (31st richest person in Africa) ⁸ – is an economic philosophy that embodies private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through investments that generate both economic prosperity and social wealth. Amaeshi and Idemudia linked Africapitalism to the broader literature on business and society, and critically interrogated the concept as a possible management idea for business in Africa in response to the onslaught of global capitalism. It is noted that the literature on the role of business in society often takes context for granted (as Eijdenberg earlier pointed out). This chapter first provides enlightenment on the prospects, problems and paradoxes of global capitalism, and thereafter looks at Africapitalism as an imaginative moral-linguistic project. It is concluded that Africapitalism, as “capitalism by Africa-oriented entrepreneurs for Africa, allows for a space to re-appropriate the discourse of capitalism in a manner that puts Africa, its culture and people front and centre of any possibility of capitalist development in the region.” It is a creative way of unmasking the good face of capitalism, a novel way of domesticating and unleashing the power of capitalism, and a concept that can easily unbridle the emotive imagination of Africans and refocus their minds on what it means to be African entrepreneurs in Africa. While the concept is a creative push back on the disadvantages of globalisation, the authors caution that “Africapitalism without a strong philosophy behind it runs the risk of being hollow and ungrounded.” Despite being an expression of economic patriotism continentally, Africapitalism can only thrive in a politically stable and environmentally sustainable Africa.

Addisu Lashitew and Rob van Tulder interrogate the priorities, strategies and challenges of Inclusive Business in Africa. Inclusive business strategies exemplify how the private sector could contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. Little is known about inclusive businesses in Africa, specifically regarding the social issues private organisations prioritise, the strategies they use, and the challenges they encounter. Using primary data obtained in six East African countries on African and Dutch private organisations operating therein, the authors discovered that the level of emphasis given to inclusive business practices is generally high, although ngos give greater weight to inclusiveness than businesses do. Notable differences are revealed across organisations in the extent to which inclusiveness is integrated with their core operations, and the most important strategies of inclusiveness include providing affordable products for low-income customers and value chain development. The chapter concludes with a reflection on potential policy interventions for addressing internal and external challenges to inclusiveness.

Miguel Heilbron, André Leliveld and Peter Knorringa’s chapter on innovation as a key to success was studied in a backdrop of the impression that African economies have been lagging behind when it comes to innovation, bolstered by indices such as the Global Innovation Index in which the majority of African countries can be found at the lower end of the ranking. But these authors argue that African economies have always been sources of creativity and innovation, manifested mostly from the informal sector and have remained largely “below the radar” in official statistics and reports. And that the innovation landscape is changing dramatically in many African countries, as it is changing worldwide. Moreover, new developments in ict have been picked up rapidly by innovative entrepreneurs in many African economies, for example in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Senegal and Morocco, the ict sector contributes more than 10 per cent to respective gdp. This chapter contributes a more nuanced picture on innovation and (successful) entrepreneurship in Africa by systematically examining some cases of innovative entrepreneurs, particularly innovative start-ups in Kenya and Nigeria, which are exemplary for a new generation of companies started and managed by African entrepreneurs. Determinants of success of the presented firms in which innovation has played a major role were presented.

Jaap Voeten based his examination of innovation in manufacturing smes in Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania on a grounded view of research and policy issues. In this chapter, a selection of three concrete (typical) successful examples of innovation in manufacturing smes, which are initiated and owned by African entrepreneurs are examined, on the basis of three overall research questions: what and how do innovations materialise within manufacturing smes? What are the firms’ strong and weak internal capabilities? How does the external business and institutional context play a supporting or hampering role in the innovation process? Systematic analyses of these cases confirm the picture that smes, the “missing middle”, are weak in both Ghana and Kenya because of challenging business conditions: poor infrastructure, inefficient legal systems, inadequate financial systems and unattractive tax regimes. The companies see promising market opportunities on the one hand, but a harsh institutional context on the other, which makes business operations, innovation and development problematic. Before considering explicit innovation policies, addressing this hostile institutional environment as a first step could already bring significant benefit.

The second broad section of this book focuses on country studies of entrepreneurship development. Here, Abel Ezeoha and Afam Ituma employ Institutional Theory to discuss some key factors that shape and constrain entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Their chapter highlights the context-specific nature of entrepreneurship and attempts to reveal the influence of various factors and variables on entrepreneurship development. Institutional influence on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria is examined in three ways: firstly, the regulative institutional pillar, followed by the normative (social) context, and then the Cognitive (cultural) pillar. The authors argue conclusively that individuals and firms do not always take rational decisions, rather decisions and behaviour are framed by certain presupposed expectations. Thus, entrepreneurship development should not be thought of as primarily driven by individual free choice, but wider contextual factors that create opportunities and barriers for individual career development need to be considered. Importantly, scholars are scientifically persuaded to give greater attention to the interactions among the institutional pillars and the simultaneous influence of these pillars on aggregate entrepreneurship.

Nnamdi Madichie, Knowledge Mpofu and Jerry Kolo use insights from Nigeria and Zimbabwe’s telecom companies to appraise the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship development in the aforementioned countries. Drawing from institutional theory, this cross national comparative analysis provides insights on the diverse and unique configuration of institutional logics that promote or constrain entrepreneurship development in these two sub-Saharan African (ssa) economies. The telecommunication sector is used to highlight the issues that shape current trends and implications for the future of entrepreneurship development championed by a “new generation of African entrepreneurs”. Both case studies provide critical analyses of emerging issues through compelling success stories of entrepreneurship initiatives despite infrastructure challenges and unstable economic and political landscapes experienced in the two ssa countries in recent years.

Entrepreneurship development in Sudan is evaluated by Yagoub Ali Gangi and Hesham Mohammed. It is noted that studies on entrepreneurship development are rare, and at the international level, Sudan is not even covered by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (gem) reports. Available studies tend to indicate that Sudan is entrepreneurially underdeveloped, hence the current study into the role of national factors on shaping and constraining the entrepreneurship state in Sudan. In the author’s examination of the state of entrepreneurship in Sudan, it is observed that while the Central Bureau of Statistics (cbs) in Sudan does not publish data on entrepreneurial activities, indirect sources of information can be sourced from “data on new business registered which was published by the Companies Registration Authority of the Ministry of Justice as an indicator for entrepreneurial activities.” The limitation of this source is that a considerable number of registered new firms might not have started-up their businesses. However, the registration of any new firm can be taken as an indicator for the procession of a new business idea. In addition, it is a useful indicator for the intention of the firm’s owner to transfer a business idea into actual business. Contextual factors for shaping entrepreneurship in Sudan examined by the authors include the mixed economic environment (macroeconomic stability, per capita income levels, and factors of production), financial systems and operations, political environment (including legal landscape – taxation policy, employment law, competition policy, patent law and regulation of financial markets), as well as cultural factors (power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation) all of which influence a Sudanese entrepreneur’s decision making.

Nsubili Isaga and Albogast Musabila’s chapter focuses on entrepreneurship development in Tanzania. This chapter is a qualitative investigation that relies on three case studies of Tanzanian smes. Findings indicate that motivation for owner-managers to start a business varied from need for independence, to make a living, to increasing personal income. Other success factors include the desire to fulfill family responsibilities, having more customers and trust. But, self-determination, creativity, passion and respect for business were least mentioned by all owner-managers interviewed as major driver for their success. For wood furniture enterprises in particular, lack of access to finance, international competition and cheap imports, poor power supply and inadequate infrastructure appear to be the major constraints to performance. And while some ngos have strived to promote smes, it was discovered that many of them are rather weak, and concentrated in urban areas, which leads to a call for linkages of the institutions supporting smes.

Françoise Okah-Efogo and Crescence Marie-France Okah-Atenga throw their searchlight on institutional and contextual factors that may constitute constraints to entrepreneurship in Cameroon, with a special focus on the country’s transport services sector. Documentary analysis of laws and regulations governing entrepreneurship in Cameroon’s transport sector was conducted and a case study of two companies is used to validate or challenge some theoretical assumptions. Their analyses yielded three results: firstly, regulatory institutions governing entrepreneurship in Cameroon is sufficiently dynamic to promote entrepreneurship in the nation’s transport sector; secondly, in order to encourage investors in the transport services sector there is a need to address contextual constraints. Therefore, thirdly, rehabilitation of roads and creation of new roads are important catalysts for the creation of new opportunities and expansion of the sector.

In the third main section of this book, where the focus is on entrepreneurship and sectoral considerations or determinants, Akinyinka Akinyoade and Chibuike Uche explore the expansion of Dangote Cement into other African countries. Their chapter shows that although both ecowas and the African Union are supposed to help promote such intra- continental business expansion, the reality is more complex as diverse forces have affected the investment of Dangote in some of these African countries. On one hand, the advent of Dangote Cement into other African countries has helped promote competition; on the other hand, the company’s investments and business strategies in some of these African countries have been questioned. This chapter also further demonstrates that adverse economic developments in Dangote Cement’s home country is now beginning to affect the company’s Pan African expansionist bid.

Dwelling more on the cultural (cognitive) pillar angle, Jane Khayesi, Arthur Sserwanga and Rebecca Kiconco use available evidence to critically examine how cultural factors facilitate and/or constrain entrepreneurship development in Uganda. This is in view of the fact that “there remains ambivalence about the contribution of culture to entrepreneurship development in African countries. While on the one hand there are stories of successful entrepreneurial efforts, on the other hand, there are tales of failure attributed to cultural factors.” This chapter is based on case studies of culture-related opportunities and difficulties encountered by Ugandan entrepreneurs in the development of their businesses.

Miriam Siun´s, Akinyinka Akinyoade´s and Ewurabena Quaye’s chapter on African women large-scale entrepreneurs in Angola, Ghana and Nigeria is a critical examination of the road to prosperity for three African women entrepreneurs of large-scale businesses within male-dominated fields of portfolio-investments, oil production and construction. The three women are Angolan Isabel Dos Santos, Nigeria’s Folorunsho Alakija and Ghana’s Theresa Oppong-Beeko, who are highly ranked among the wealthiest women in Africa. The first two are positioned number 8 and number 13, respectively, in the African section of Forbes annual list of the world’s billionaires, in terms of personal wealth on the continent irrespective of gender (see above). Along with Ghana’s Dr. Theresa Oppong-Beeko, they have firmly established themselves and their companies in their respective industries, despite the challenges women face to enter these spheres. In some quarters, their individual trajectories to wealth calls meritocracy (for women) into question, as claims of patrimonialism and corruption is sometimes used to taint their accomplishments. This necessitates further studies on the obstacles for African women to becoming large-scale entrepreneurs without personal connections to influential people/high profile leadership. The chapter cautions against uncritical praise of success stories on the basis of gender.

Maria Lindvert’s chapter on financial barriers and how female entrepreneurs can overcome them in Tanzania focuses on resource acquisition among women entrepreneurs in a country where potential female entrepreneurs have almost no access to formal capital from the commercial bank sector. To a large extent, women entrepreneurs still rely on informal sources of capital, such as loans from family and friends. This study draws on institutional theory and qualitative data to discuss how formal and informal institutions create barriers and opportunities for women, and presents how women in Tanzania act in order to overcome financial barriers, as they start or develop their ventures.

The penultimate chapter by Ayodeji Olukoju “Gentlemanly capitalism and entrepreneurial management: Formation and rise of Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank, 1990–2002”, provides perspectives on transformations in Nigerian capitalism. This chapter reflects on a major problematique – the challenge of building credible and competitive financial institutions in colonial and post-independence Nigeria. The chapter draws upon an extensive collection of documentary evidence – previously inaccessible private papers and minutes of meetings of GTBank’s board of directors, and newspaper reports – and interviews with the promoters and foundation staff of the bank. Key to the bank’s success is the managerial entrepreneurship of its co-founders, whose duumvirate leadership model epitomised the innovativeness of their enterprise. The formation and rise of GTBank exemplify three connected aspects of entrepreneurship as identified by Stevenson and Jarillo (1990): “what happens when entrepreneurs act: why they act; and how they act.”

The final chapter of this book, by Chibuike Uche, critiques the rise of Nigerian multinational banks. This development is traced to 2004 when a dramatic increase in the minimum share capital requirement forced Nigerian banks to begin to aggressively explore the provision of cross border banking services. Arguably, that regulation has been the major factor in the emergence of Nigerian multinational banks. A related explanatory factor is the pursuit of business opportunities in host countries especially in Africa. The findings in this chapter appear to contradict a conventional hypothesis that multinational banks normally follow their customers abroad from home countries.