Small business in Sub-Saharan Africa Research Paper

Small business in Sub-Saharan Africa - Research Paper Example Nonetheless, like in other developed and developing countries, small businesses continue to play a vital role in the country’s economic and social development. The benefits of small business development in Ethiopia are numerous and varied. At the very basic level, small businesses provide competition and employment (Anonymous 2009). Innovation is another product of small business evolution (Anonymous 2009). Job creation and the development of a competitive business sector are all due to the development of small businesses (Anonymous 2009). Therefore, it is essential that Ethiopian authorities invest material and non-material resources to encourage small business development in the country. This paper provides a brief evaluation of the small business climate in Ethiopia. The paper includes recent news and changes in Ethiopia’s small business climate. A discussion of the conditions and factors affecting economic and business development in Ethiopia is provided. The paper also includes a detailed discussion of barriers to creating a sustainable small business atmosphere in the country. The goal of the paper is to create a clearer picture of the conditions and barriers to small business in Ethiopia. This information will create a basis for developing and implementing a set of recommendations to improve the small business climate in Ethiopia. ... Providing Microsoft’s Security Essentials program is merely a part of a broader initiative aimed at supporting small businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Insignificant at first glance, the event has far-reaching implications for understanding the current state of small business development in Ethiopia. On the one hand, it is clear that other countries and companies want to support small businesses in their way to organizational and performance excellence. On the other hand, that Microsoft provides Ethiopian businesses with access to free antivirus software implies that not all businesses in Ethiopia can afford purchasing this software legally. Simultaneously, IBM is one of those which realize the importance of small business for every country’s development. Tadesse (2011) writes that small and midsized businesses are responsible for employing 90 percent of the global workforce. Small and medium enterprises also account for nearly one half of global GDP (Tadesse 2011). It i s no wonder that small business development remains one of the top policy priorities in the developed world. Unfortunately, not all countries are equally successful in meeting their policy objectives. Ethiopia: economic and social conditions and their implications for small businesses Ethiopia falls within the definition of a developing country which, nonetheless, strives to meet the main Millennium Development Goals (Stevenson & St-Onge 2005). Unfortunately, most, if not all, economic policy initiatives lead to poor results, as the bigger half of the national population leaves below the poverty line (Stevenson & St-Onge 2005). The country is faced with a serious challenge of poverty but persistently fails to reduce it (Stevenson &