Can International Business and Entrepreneurship be the Catalysts for Economic Growth in Africa?

Innovative entrepreneurs are important actors in regional economies of Africa. There are enormous entrepreneurial opportunities in the global markets. The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects for 2023 indicates that the global growth has eased, but remains robust, and is projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2018. Overall, growth in global trade of goods and services combined is expected to moderate to 4.3 percent in 2018, down from a six-year high of 4.8 percent in 2017. This projection has been revised upwards due to stronger-than-expected intra-regional trade growth in Asia and Africa as well as import-demand from major advanced economies. Global trade in goods and services is projected to rise to $27 trillion in 2030 from $10.3 trillion in 2015. Trade as a share of the global economy will increase from 1/4 to 1/3. Roughly half of the increase is likely to come from developing countries that will supply over 65 % of manufactured imports to rich countries, compared with 40% today. Some developing countries are expected to have growth rate over 6%, much higher than developed countries. When trade expands, technologies will rapidly diffuse to developing countries. The dominance of globalization is transferring to China, India and Brazil. The challenge of entrepreneurship is immense in Africa. The entrepreneur’s needs differentiation of exporting and the continent has to create its own regional clusters so as to enhance the competitiveness of its enterprises. Africa may have all the possible comparative advantages in certain industries but what is required is entrepreneurial actions. International business and entrepreneurship appear to be the catalysts for much of the expected economic growth in Africa.