By The Hustle Team
In Kenya, the effects of unemployment have already infiltrated all spheres of life. High crime rates among other social ills, can all be traced back to unemployment. Indeed, Kenya has the dubious reputation of having one of the highest unemployment rates in East Africa, if not Africa. The statistics are grim.United Nation Human Development Report Index of 2017, Kenya’s unemployment rate stands at 39.1%.
As it stands, unemployment is a waiting time-bomb. Fortunately, there’s a way out. For years, experts, academicians, and economists have all pointed to entrepreneurship as a panacea to unemployment. Because of the obvious mismatch between the education system and the job market, many are the times when graduates fall short of expectations at the job market.
Over and above other solutions, entrepreneurship looks like the most promising, In fact, most of its proponents are seasoned entrepreneurs who have weathered storms to make it in business. If anything, they should be enough motivation for the youth, to lure them into starting and running businesses. Ideally, one enterprise creates a job opportunity for the owner but when it grows, it can employ tens or hundreds of others. The multiplicity of these ideas is what makes researchers bullish on the endless possibilities that entrepreneurship brings.
However, time and again, history has shown that entrepreneurship is not for the fainthearted. Take the ever refreshing story of China’s richest man, Jack Ma. The chairman of Alibaba Group, an e-commerce giant, Ma, has surmounted great odds on his way to success. In his formative years, he failed his primary school examinations twice. This was followed by three more failures as he struggled through middle school. After completing his secondary school exams, Ma tried to apply for universities, but he failed the entrance examinations thrice. Not one to give up easily, Ma applied to join Harvard, writing a total of ten application letters which were rejected. His schooling life was marked by failure. Even after completing his bachelor’s degree at the Hangzhou Normal University, he struggled to get any job. In fact, for a record 30 times, he failed to get a single job.
Failure, which had become part of his life, did not deter him from becoming a successful entrepreneur. He is now among the world’s richest men, with a net worth of $25 billion.
Another entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of social media platform Facebook, started from the bottom before striking his entrepreneurship nirvana. Before launching Facebook, Zuckerberg had called five of his friends to fine-tune his idea. Only three turned up. However, after launching the social network, it went on to become one of the largest, most profitable businesses in the world.
Locally, outstanding entrepreneurs have weathered great storms to succeed. Most have tasted defeat many times, others have made personal sacrifices in pursuit of entrepreneurial success.
One of these is Devki Steel Mills founder Narendra Raval. Mr. Raval started as a Brahmin priest before trying his hand in business. With no money to start a proper business, he settled for a small hardware shop in Nairobi’s Gikomba market. However, after years of hard work, he managed to make some profits which he ploughed back to the business. Before long, he was making good profits, but there was a problem. First, he was getting large orders for construction materials but he could only source the materials from manufacturers, thus minimizing his profits. Unsettled, he decided to start manufacturing iron sheets and that is where his star started shining.
Mr. Raval grew his Devki brand slowly but surely, overcoming great obstacles like cash flow problems and inadequate funds to grow the business.. At some point, he says, his firm almost went bankrupt, yet he was able to convince his employees to support him. Regardless of the challenges, Devki is now one of the biggest steel manufactures in East and Central Africa. Devki’s brands include Maisha Mabati and Simba Cement.
Mr. Raval’s entrepreneurship story is laced with lessons that upcoming and aspiring entrepreneurs can use to kick-start their businesses.
What makes entrepreneurs stand out? “Positive thoughts and persistence in whatever you do,” says Narendra Raval. Murori Kiunga, a business trainer concurs. He adds that persistence is a key quality in entrepreneurship, as it helps entrepreneurs overcome any obstacle they find on their way to achieving their goals.
Dr. Manu Chandaria, a wealthy businessman and industrialist says that success in business can only be achieved through “hard work, vision and persistence.”His sentiments are shared by Dr. James Mwangi, the CEO and Managing Director of Equity Bank.
He says that super entrepreneurs are innovative and disruptive. “They are always passionate about their businesses. They are in business for the long haul,” says the one time EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
However, possessing such traits does not make you an overnight super entrepreneur.At the start-up stage, they have to battle challenges like inadequate funds to sustainably run the businesses. And this is the bane of local entrepreneurship.
An Intellecap entrepreneur says that it is difficult for local startups to access capital. Dr. Moka Lantum, who runs iSikCure, a drug distribution firm, says that compared to developed countries where the startup ecosystem is supportive, local entrepreneurs do not simply have such backing, the reason they struggle to grow and sustain their businesses. “Crowdfunding is a concept that works very well in developed countries like America. It’s easy to raise capital from friends and family in those countries than it is locally.” He says that’s the main reason local start-ups rely on investors, who again demand so much from them, sometimes making it hard (for entrepreneurs) to actually access any form of funding. The general lack of local investor support, according to experts, could be the reason why entrepreneurs shy off from venturing into business.
Conclusion
There are many challenges facing start-ups in Kenya, the reason most of them do not see their fifth birthday;. But all hope is not lost. Successful entrepreneurs have shown that it is doable. It just takes the right mindset to succeed in business. However, while entrepreneurship is touted as a potential solution for unemployment and stagnated economic growth. The youth hesitate to embrace it. Many are the times when most experts lay the blame on the education system. Some say that the system advocates for white collar jobs and does little to prepare students for a career in entrepreneurship.
“Education system has no direct relationship with entrepreneurship. Unless it’s combined with experience, it can only arm students with soft skills,’ says Prof. Peter Wanderi, Director of Quality Assurance at Mount Kenya University. He says that successful entrepreneurs are more street smart than book smart.
Given the huge number of successful entrepreneurs who never went to school, opinion is divided over whether education plays an important role in molding entrepreneurs.
Dr. James Mwangi says that instincts and gut feelings, which help entrepreneurs to make the right decisions for their businesses, cannot be taught in schools. However, he says that education is an important ingredient for entrepreneurship, but only if the entrepreneurs themselves turn the knowledge they get in schools into analytical skills.
