The East Africa chapter is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and covers Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The East Africa chapter is dedicated to fostering a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. It achieves this by leveraging local resources, promoting collaboration among key stakeholders, and addressing shared challenges through joint initiatives. The chapter also organizes workshops, roundtable discussions, and networking events to facilitate the exchange of best practices and explore partnership opportunities that support regional entrepreneurship.
The Uganda Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Initiative (UEEI) was a two-phase initiative aimed at bolstering entrepreneurship in two regions of Uganda. Phase I, launched in 2018, comprised an assessment of the environment in which SGBs operated in Kampala and Gulu, as well as the design of a strategy to strengthen those two entrepreneurial ecosystems. Phase II, which began in 2020, was a multiyear, multi-stakeholder initiative that sought to comprehensively address the binding constraints that had been identified in Phase I.
This focuses on expanding access to financing for early-stage enterprises in the Waste Management and Circular Economy sectors, helping to drive sustainable innovation and environmental impact.
Every entrepreneur operates within an ecosystem that determines the access to talent, finance, and markets that they need to grow their business. ANDE’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Maps serve as a tool for stakeholders to learn about the organizations providing support to small and growing businesses (SGBs) in a specific city, region, or country.
This mapping identified 140 organizations and nearly 170 distinct resources supporting entrepreneurs across Ethiopia. The online mapping provides a filterable directory of these organizations, categorized by sector, location, and support type. The mapping is complemented by a report analyzing the data and synthesizing key trends in the ecosystem.
"Let’s be honest here: Entrepreneurs will need financing to get through this economic downturn. However, most of the investors that we’ve asked said that due diligence has been slowed either due to travel restrictions, their focus on supporting their existing portfolio of entrepreneurs, or those which already had term sheets in place. So where is this financing going to come from?
Our perspective for this article is the investor side of the conversation. What are angel investors thinking about during this global crisis: Is now the perfect opportunity to invest? Is it a time to hold on to your cash and hide it under the bed?It can make sense to halt making any investments all together – and focus on supporting the existing portfolio – given that most angels invest out of pocket. However, this could be an uncommon opportunity to make investments which could generate very good returns..."
"This report presents a detailed analysis of impact investing activity in East Africa, examining the supply of global impact investment capital as well as the demand for investment resources from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), social enterprises, and others who aim to drive social and environmental impact through the private sector. The report covers five “focus countries” in depth: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Rwanda; and six additional countries in the region in less depth: Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia."
The initiative will update ecosystem maps, analyze critical data, and offer strategic tools to enhance support for small and growing businesses.
Guest post by ANDE member Enviu. No matter how bold our impact goals, if they can’t be measured, we’re building in the dark.
As ANDE continues to champion for an improved SGB ecosystem in Africa, it seeks to build consensus on the most pertinent advocacy issues and priorities, identify the best practices and strategies, and inspire collaboration to create a more resilient environment for SGBs, especially in the wake of COVID-19.
ANDE Action Labs convene members to ideate and prototype solutions to systemic challenges in the SGB sector. The key stages involved in the action lab include learn, image & ideate, create and test.
