2017 Sub-Saharan African Countries Entrepreneurship Ranking

Botswana is the most entrepreneurial country in Sub-Saharan Africa

In a recent dubbed “Global Entrepreneurship Index 2017 report”, Botswana has been ranked as the best performer in Sub-Saharan Africa in entrepreneurship with a GEI score of 34.4, this ranks it 52nd among the 137 countries analyzed in the GEI ranking. South Africa is just behind Botswana, with its own distinct set of strengths and weaknesses.

At the bottom of the region is Chad, whose GEI score of 7.8 ranks it last among the GEI countries. A total of 27 out of the 30 Sub-Saharan countries are found in the bottom quartile of the global GEI ranking. Generally speaking, there is not much difference in the average performance of the region’s sub-indices, with Aspirations posting the lowest average score at 16.1 and Attitudes posting the highest average score at 19.1.

Countries that depart from the regional pattern include leader Botswana, whose Attitudes score is almost 50% higher than its other scores. This is a much larger difference than average, and is also visible in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Mauritania.

Other countries score highest in Abilities, differing from the regional tendency towards higher scores in Attitudes. These countries include Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, and Burundi.

Finally, some countries score highest in Aspirations – an uncommon pattern in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an uncommon phenomenon globally for lower income countries: South Africa, Gabon, Swaziland, Kenya, Angola and Chad. Thus, while the region has much catching up to do in all areas, different countries face distinctly different challenges.