Botswana has been ranked seventh in the world among countries with the highest levels of entrepreneurship. This was according to a research study carried out by UK-based business networking group, Approved Index.
Entrepreneurship in this case is the percentage of the adult population that owns or co-owns a new business and has paid salaries or wages for three or more months.
Three other African countries that made it on to the top ten of the entrepreneurship list include: Angola, Cameroon and Uganda with women in all these African countries pioneering the entrepreneurial space. Uganda was the biggest winner as it was ranked first globally. This is a great achievement considering decades of dictatorship that Uganda went through.
Possibly surprising to many is that the US ranks 41st in the world, with Britain being ranked 37th. The report suggests that 11.1 percent of the population in Botswana are entrepreneurs, setting up swaths of stalls to bring in personal business. Botswana is currently experiencing high levels of unemployment.
Some people within the business fraternity believe Botswana is making headway towards entrepreneurship because of the failure by government to create jobs. This has resulted in more people venturing into entrepreneurship as a necessity than a dream. The report also reveals that women in Botswana outperform men in the entrepreneurial space and developing nations breed far more entrepreneurs than the west.