African Businesses remain heavy importers of services than an exporter even though global export services grow by 7.7% per annum and valued at US$5.8 trillion.
That is according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
This phenomenon in the market has been attributed to the fear of risk-taking and innovation, and the failure of African economies and businesses to invest in knowledge-intensive products and services.
Delivering his professorial inaugural lecture on the topic “International Business, Why Care about Africa?” at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor of International Marketing and Strategy, Nathaniel Boso acknowledged the unfriendly business atmosphere in the continent but expressed confidence that strategic partnerships could change the narrative.
“In Africa’s extremely turbulent business environment where failure is highly likely to occur and yet is not welcomed, business success is a function of the extent to which business leaders learn to channel their experiences with failure into a positive new business venture creation opportunity. While this can be a lonely journey for many entrepreneurs on the continent, it is recommended that policy efforts should be made to de-stigmatize failure nationally and continentally to encourage entrepreneurs to pioneer major innovations to address the most challenging problems on the continent,” he said.
He added that “African countries should be thinking of building education powerhouse predicated on quality and global alignment targeted at regional educational markets. Available statistics indicate that educational services across Africa are severely limited, providing opportunities for strong regional providers to exploit. For example, Ghana has a strong positive country of origin perception, which can be leveraged to brand educational institutions for export.
In this respect, Ghana Export Promotion Authority could be mandated to liaise with higher education service providers to research into long-term market potential for their services. Subsequently, Ghana and other African countries can begin to produce, warehouse and export higher education professionals to regional markets where such services are most needed in exchange for export earnings. I would recommend a similar strategic orientation towards healthcare, tourism, and IT services.”
In a controversial remark, Prof. Boso encourages failure in businesses as a measure to promote success.
“Many societies in Africa do not accept failure. The educational system in many African countries is such that failure is punished and stigmatized. Business owners can end up in jail if their businesses fail. In some African societies, school children are likely to receive corporal punishment if they fail an exam. Parents are likely to scold their children for failing school exams.
As a result, African children grow up scared of the notion of failure. Yet, we know that approximately 65% new businesses fail during the first 10 years, and only 25% make it to 15 years or more. We also know that, on average, 50 to 90% of new products fail. Thus, a contention is that new business success and new product innovation are noted to be predicated on the propensity to take a risk and fail, and learn from the failure to do something better,” he said.
He is optimistic that to make Africa the next frontier of international business, there is the need to prioritize research quality in her educational institutions.
“Our research clearly shows that African businesses are ready to consume high quality research outputs to inform their decisions to take risk to pioneer new innovations. These businesses are desperate for answers on how to grow to become global giants and to count in the international business arena. Similarly, foreign businesses also need high quality research about African businesses and Africa’s business environment to make decisions on whether to investment on the continent.
“Africa’s position as the next frontier in international business and trade can only be boosted if quality of research on African businesses and environment are perceived to be at the same standard as research from other parts of the world. This, therefore, calls for national policy reorientation across the continent that prioritizes, finances and rewards high quality research and evidence-based decision-making in business organizations and public institutions,” he suggested.
Issah Zakariah/Akoma Fm/3news.com