
Africa needs more tech incubators - OoTheNigerian
http://thenextweb.com/africa/2011/04/12/africa-needs-more-tech-incubators-but-more-importantly-more-technically-sound-entrepreneurs/
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brudgers
The venture capital model will be much less effective in places where it is
difficult to enforce contracts, where regulatory frameworks are inconsistently
applied and political stability is uncertain. Because these factors create
substantially higher risk, the rewards must be substantially higher as well -
and in places where overall purchasing power is low such higher returns are
harder to obtain.

What works in South Africa is not necessarily scalable to other sub-Saharan
nations because of the degree to which the risks in South Africa can be
assessed and the relative stability of its political institutions - not to
mention its economic power relative to many of its neighbors.

The article is somewhat analogous to using Manhattan as a model for a theater
district in Des Moines.

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grillermo
I think this idea makes the mistake of thinking that people in third world
countries have the entrepreneurship drive that exists in the US, in other
words its making the mistake of thinking "everybody thinks like us Americans
because we rock so much, so lets help them be more like us!" We'll see how
this experiment turns out.

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tellify
I don't think entrepreneurship drive as a trait is exclusively "American." It
is quite presumptuous to assume that and smacks of "oh Americans are so cool,
we have the most entrepreneurial drive of all countries in the world. No one
has drive like we do." Slightly ridiculous, don't you think? Africa with its
large informal economy made up of mostly small and medium scale businesses
could certainly do with more incubators and venture funding opportunities.

