Despite the continent’s economic challenges, young African entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly upbeat about the future, says a new report by the Anzisha Prize

Africa has the youngest population in the world, with an estimated 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the African Economic Outlook report. But despite fast economic growth over the past decade, many young people struggle to find productive employment, according to a new survey. Unless these young people can be put to meaningful work, the demographic dividend can easily turn into mass frustration and unrest. Entrepreneurship has an important role to play in creating employment, say the authors of the 2016 Anzisha Youth Enterprise Survey.

The goal of the survey, produced by the Anzisha Prize and the African Leadership Academy in collaboration with Maritz Africa Intelligence, is to provide a snapshot of the realities facing young entrepreneurs in Africa. It focuses on five areas of operating a business, namely (1) Growth, (2) Sales and marketing, (3) Human resources, (4) Funding and (5) Support. With a relatively small sample size of 101 young entrepreneurs aged between 15 and 25 located across Africa, the survey does not purport to be a scientific study but, say the authors, the results can be seen as indicative of broader trends and attitudes and stakeholders such as policy makers, support organisations, and entrepreneurs themselves will benefit from these insights.

"There is a large deficiency of knowledge and insights on young African entrepreneurs," says Koffi Assouan, Program Manager at The MasterCard Foundation, one of the partners of the Anzisha Prize. "This report provides critical data that can drive programs and strategies to support youth entrepreneurship and spark a much needed conversation among practitioners and stakeholders in this space."

The entrepreneurs who participated in the survey are overwhelmingly upbeat about the future of their companies despite the challenges of falling commodity prices, tight global financial conditions and a strong US dollar. Some 79% indicated they are "very positive" while the remainder said they are "somewhat positive". None expressed any negative sentiments.

"The entrepreneurs who participated in the survey are over-whelmingly upbeat about the future of their companies despite the challenges."

When it comes to marketing their businesses, young entrepreneurs invest in paid-for advertisements on social media networks (58%), as well as exhibitions and events (50%). However, word-of-mouth (83%) is by far the most popular marketing medium. Relatively few make use of more expensive channels such as television (10%), outdoor (17%) and radio (18%).

In their responses, 56% of respondents use face-to-face client visits as their primary sales channel, followed by online (24%), walk-ins (11%), direct customer enquiries (7%) and telephone sales (2%).

Almost three quarters (73%) indicated they don’t employ customer relationship management (CRM) software, highlighting an opportunity to operate more efficiently by utilising technology.

Word-of-mouth (83%) is by far the most popular marketing medium. As could be expected, given the relatively small size of the business­es surveyed, more expensive marketing channels such as television (10%), outdoor (17%) and radio (18%) are less utilised. These young entrepreneurs do, however, make use of paid-for advertisements on social media platforms (57%) as well as exhibitions and events (50%).

In terms of human resources, the bulk of respondents employ relatively few people - 56% have one to five employees, while 19% hire six to 10 people. Some 16% have no employees. employee cost (43%) is the biggest challenge facing young entrepreneurs, followed by a lack of adequately-skilled talent (20%), motivating staff (12%) and attracting talent (10%).

Young CEOs reward and incentivise their employees in a variety of ways, with training programmes (51%),bonuses (47%) and gifts/days off (43%) being the most popular. A large percentage also allows their employees to participate in the success of the business through profit share (37%) and equity stakes (22%). Over 50% of respondents indicated they do have a partner in the busi­ness and in many cases more than one. The top reason cited for not having a business partner is: “I haven’t been able to find someone suitable” (46%).