Over the years, one of the challenges we faced as we supported Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) in East Africa was consistently finding entrepreneurs that met our criteria.
This report is the first in a series of three reports, a result of Digging Deeper, an action research project that SHONA carried out at the end of 2019. The project led to learning more about how to better support the growth of SMEs in East Africa.
After running multiple programs and initiatives to support SMEs since 2014, one of the biggest challenges that we faced consistently was working with the right number of SMEs that met our target criteria, despite the reported high entrepreneurship rate in East Africa. With the generous support of our board, funders and partners, we launched the Digging Deeper action research to:
- Learn more about the profile of SMEs and Entrepreneurs in East Africa
- Understand the Business Development Services (BDS) Landscape and Market
- Understand the delivery of business development services in East Africa
This report is a summary of what we learned about the profiles of SMEs and Entrepreneurs in East Africa.
We are greatly indebted to everyone that shared with us their knowledge, insights and time in this research. We are also grateful to anyone that came before us, whose reports we greatly benefitted from.
This is just the beginning, if you’d like to learn more, or collaborate, reach us at RESEARCH@SHONA.CO
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Other reports in this series
- Read the second report > Understanding the BDS Market and Landscape in East Africa
- Read the third report > Delivering Business Development Services in East Africa