Entrepreneurship development in Africa: insights from Nigeria's and Zimbabwe's telecoms

This chapter highlights the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship development in two sub-Saharan African (ssa) contexts. The chapter is developed from a cross-national comparative analysis Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and using the telecommunications (henceforth telecoms) sector, as its point of departure. In the main, the chapter highlights some of the pertinent issues that shape the current, and future, trends in enterprise development in ssa, as championed by an arguably ‘new generation of African entrepreneurs.’ Both case illustrations signpost emerging issues in enterprise development 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. Finally, a drilling down from the country level evaluation, the enterprises and their founders are profiled with a view to generating areas for future research exploration. Specifically, Nigeria’s Globacom, founded by Mike Adenuga, and Econet Wireless, founded by Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa, contribute, we hope, to current discourse on a “new generation” - and perhaps learning from the “old guard” - of enterprise development in ssa. This chapter would make for a good class discussion/ debate for academics teaching on entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business subject areas – and especially those in African universities or those outside the region, but also delivering courses related to that discipline.