[발췌: Holly Young] Youth entrepreneurship: your stories (Guardian, Apr 2014)

출처: Guardian, 30 April 2014.


※ 발췌 (excerpt):

From bringing live sports to a Nairobi slum to setting up an IT firm Dhaka, we share some of the stories submitted to our latest witness assignment.

Youth entrepreneurship is in vogue. Business leaders and policymakers are getting on board, and it frequently pops up as a topic on the conference circuit. But when we look past the excitement, does it stand up as an effective solution to the mounting youth unemployment crisis? What is the reality for young people trying to start, and build, business in the global south?

To find out, our recent Witness assignment called on young entrepreneurs to share their experiences. What drove them towards a DIY approach to job creation? Who helped them along the way and what were the key challenges? And is it really a silver bullet for the job crisis in the global south?

Here are a few picks from your contributions:

( ... ... )

'The only thing holding back Ugandan entrepreneurs is access to capital', Farooq Kiryowa in Kampala, Uganda.

My name is Farooq Kiryowa, Together with my business partner Sula Abdul I co-own Energy Uganda Foundation, a business based in Kawempe on the outskirts of Kampala providing efficient and safe cookstoves.

The business began in 2006 with a start-up cost of UGX 1.5m(￡398). At the time, the team comprised four full-time employees, including myself. The main challenge that our business was finding the right source of capital. This is especially hard if you are a small-scale business owner in the developing world.

In Uganda where there is a very large informal economy, very few banks are prepared to offer loans without solid collaterals, salary slips, well-documented financial records or a number of guarantors. ( ... ... )

For us, the turning point was enrolling into a loan guarantee programme in 2009, run by the NGO GVEP International. The programme targeted small energy enterprise that would otherwise struggle to obtain a bank loan.

Eight years later, our company offers employment to 48 permanent staff.

Our story shows the typical problems faced by start-up business. The only thing holding back Ugandan entrepreneurs is access to capital. People are not lacking in motivation or skills, they just simply don't have the means to finance their ideas. ( ... ... )


'My business allows me to pay two employees and cover my basic needs', Charles Kaindi, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, I often had to borrow money from friends and family to pay my bills every month.

I have now founded an entertainment business called the Sao Paolo Stadium in Kibera, Nairobi. The business offers services like a PlayStation, DVD movies and live football matches on television to residents in the Kibera slum in Nairobi. ( ... ... ) I was helped along the way by the support of the Kenya Youth Business Trust.

( ... ... )