Cultural problems affect entrepreneurial success in Africa – Christoph Pleitgen

Ismail Akwei

The Managing Director of Westerwelle Foundation, Christoph Pleitgen has attributed some entrepreneurial failures in Africa to cultural issues which involve people being modest about their accomplishment.

He said on The Qonversation that “if you are interacting with the investor community, if you’re interacting with markets, sometimes you need to say, Hey, here I am. These are my accomplishments. This is what I stand for. And my observation has been that people sometimes, you know, for all the right reasons, tend to shy away from that a little bit”.

“It isn’t for lack of creativity. It is for lack of a tenacity, of wanting to succeed, of having all the right motivations. But it is something that struck me. And again, focusing on the positive, I think this is eminently fixable. Right. This is something where working with a mentor, working with a trainer, working with a team of advisers, these are things you could quite easily overcome. I’d be much more concerned if I’d observed a lack of creative business ideas. Right. And there is absolutely no sign of that,” he added.

Christoph Pleitgen identified other factors that are challenges to the success of young African entrepreneurs which include skills and knowing the investors’ language; legal and security systems; access to a wider market; and finding investors.

Watch this exciting episode of The Qonversation hosted by Ismail Akwei.