Taking Stock of African Enterpreneurs

There's a very nice post at the New York Time's Freakanomics blog on three African entrepreneurs and what they are doing to create value.

Magatte Wade, founder of Adina for Life, a beverage company, is profiled. She is highly critical of traditional foreign aid in Africa but highly supportive of the notion that African entrepreneurs can build sustainable, viable businesses by appealing to cultural, creative consumers in the US and elsewhere.

Jon Gosier is helping to support African technology companies with venture capital he supplies. He's hoping to launch a number of technology start-ups in Uganda. Interesting, local technology firms have to overcome something of a bias, an idea that they aren't to be trusted--trust is a vital component of a thriving commercial society.

And finally, Ketty Opoka runs an NGO called Meeting Point to support people in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS. She's the social entrepreneur of the group and her mission, while a bit different from those of Magatte and Jon, shares this with them: all three are responding to needs and desires of others creatively and spontaneously and, in the process, helping to build stronger communities.

- Karol