Why Most African Businesses Don’t Go Beyond The First Generation

Posted on November 10, 2013 Updated on November 11, 2013

95% of the most successful business people in Africa today are people who are operating in the first generation of their business. That’s to mean these people are the founders.

People who were considered to be wealthy many years ago have lost their names in the list of the world’s Billionaires. Why is this happening to Africans? Why do Business owners in Africa find it difficult taking their businesses beyond the first generation? And why do most businesses fail in the first 5 or 6 years of starting? These and more are what I will be sharing with us in today’s article.

Whether you are an African or not, this is a challenge facing us all. The Human resource of Africa must be developed to match with the available Natural resource for the benefit of us ALL.

My intention for writing this article is for the problem not to repeat itself after my generation is gone. Take a look at Ford Motors, Procter and Gamble and so many other companies that are still waxing strong after the founders are gone. Can’t we replicate that in Africa? Yes! We can.

These are some of the reasons from what we observed why businesses don’t go beyond the first generation;

Refusal to Raise Leaders

In every facet of life it takes leaders to make things happen. An effective leadership is the one with the potential to make every follower a leader.

These first generation business owners hardly think of delegating responsibilities, they are self-centred and always full of insecurities.