Supporting social enterprises and startups by allowing them tax breaks aside from strengthening them the advantages that accrue from this action would go a long way in supporting them to grow and employ more people, so stressed entrepreneurs.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald Co-founder of Bake and Brew Coffee Shop Business and owner of Rala Media Advertising Agency, Caleb Meakins said that one of the platforms our company developed is called Mella. It is brought into life with the purpose of fuelling entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. Social enterprise is growing now more than ever. It is not easy here to set up a company let alone a social enterprise but it feels like change is crystalizing.
“People are waking up to the fact that jobs are needed and socially minded businesses are the ones to create these jobs. So creating a business environment that makes it easier for them to flourish is crucial,” he added. As to him, there are a number of challenges, among which access to reliable information is a formidable one. More often than not it is not clear what the rules, policies and guidelines are or how and when they have changed. The other thing is access to finance. That means loans are expensive and many wealthy individuals do not want to take a risk on a start up with no proven track record.
Adding he said that when it comes to paying back loans in Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia have proven to be more reliable than men. The continued reliability should be rewarded with further funding and training for scaling up their businesses.
He further noted that social enterprise does not only provide jobs, it facilitates things for major problems to be solved in sustainable ways. Every person must be entrepreneurially minded, even if it does not look like starting a business. What that means is, every person is looking to play their part in solving all our biggest social and economic problems. We must be the solution, do not wait for others. That is what it means to be entrepreneurial.
Board Chair-person of Ethiopia Social Enterprise Association and founding member of Social Enterprise Ethiopia, Bruktawit Tigabu on her part said that social enterprise should not be seen current phenomena for Ethiopia and Africa in general. It was a practice that had been there as it was practiced by our ancestors. Social enterprise is a tool to solve social problems in a creative manner.
As to her, here in Ethiopia, citizens have been practicing social enterprise activities in the informal social institutions or self-help associations such as Edir and Equib. We are trying to promote the scientific way of social entrepreneurship taking into account home-grown problem solving enterprises.
She indicated that social enterprise is a way of neither generation innovative idea that neither business oriented nor dependent with subsiding fund of donors. Socio-economic under-development of the country is forced us to actively engage into social entrepreneurship. We have to adopt social business to solve the problem besetting fellow Ethiopians.
“According to the study paper of the British Council, there are about 50, 000 social enterprises registered in the country. There are limited numbers of social enterprises that fulfill the prerequisites and criteria of social business,” she pointed out.
Adding she noted that in our context, the problems we are facing create the opportunity to engage in social entrepreneurship activities. Social problem by itself creates open space for the entrepreneurs to look for solutions for the societal difficulties necessitating solving the problems using technology, homogenous knowledge and wisdoms. As the saying goes all the problems of the country create the great opportunities to enroll in social entrepreneurship.
She further indicated that gap in capacity building, inconvenient business environment and wrong assumption of government officials & NGOs’s professionals toward social business are the main hurdles for the social entrepreneurship to be progressive and portray satisfactory outcomes for the society.
According to her, there is also some misunderstanding in the eyes of decision makers that the impact of social business on the guardian of green economy and conserves the environment from chemical intoxication emanates from factories and companies. So, Africa, particularly, Ethiopia should draw a lesson from other advanced countries that showcased change harnessing social entrepreneurship.
“We have to adopt and use extensively social enterprise platform to set the country free from dependency syndrome of donation and charity. Social enterprises are the necessary tools to solve the social problems of the country. In course of time, impact industry may risk for the survivor of social enterprises. Therefore, we are determined to enhance the activity of social enterprises throughout the country,” she remarked.
As to her, financial support and capacity building are instrumental to boost social business for the genuine contribution of the society at large scale. The government should expresses its readiness to explore the opportunity of social enterprises for the socio-economic development of the country.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition, December 22/2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
