5 Business Opportunities for African Entrepreneurs

Becoming an African Entrepreneur is taking part in solving Africa’s social problems with a business approach.

There are many business opportunities for African entrepreneurs to unlock the rich potentials of the continent. Africa is the richest continent in the World in terms of natural resources, but the poorest in the economic scene.  African entrepreneurs are always looking for avenues and opportunities to reverse this picture.

In this article we will share with you, 5 business opportunities for African Entrepreneurs.

1. Internet entertainment service, is our number one on the list of opportunities for Africa entrepreneurs

Africa media contents are highly solicited in the world today. New music albums and movies are shot every day around the continent, but the commercialization of this contents is seemingly difficult. Big players in the sector like  Netflix, have started acquiring original content from Africa, showing you the potentials available in this market.

This is a business opportunity for African entrepreneurs, to start investing in web-based platform that provide paid-for movies and music on demand.  Irokotv is already playing a great role, but the opportunities available are still enormous.  Atalaku is one other web platform that is coming up strongly to put the African Movie and Film industry online.

 2. Solar Energy Solutions, is next on our list of opportunities for African entrepreneurs

Africa has adopted this renewable energy source and it has a great acceptance rate within Africa. This is due to the continents, vast solar potentials, giving its global location.

Electricity is essential for communications and extremely useful for educational as well as medical Institutions. Electricity supports IT networks, which is of utmost importance to the African market.

Solar energy is a great option for Africa.

Smallstarter describes solar  Solar energy as “Africa’s next big thing!“

Schools, hospitals and other institutions are already creating their own solar generation systems in off-grid areas.

What you need:

• Solar energy panel to collect the energy,
• Energy storage facility,
• Electrical equipment.

However affordable and easy to use and easy-to assemble solar kits are highly solicited in the market. This provides a great Business opportunity for African entrepreneurs.

3. Mobile Phones Solutions also features on our list of opportunities for African entrepreneurs

Mobile phones are very common throughout Africa. This article on allafrica.com, describes cell penetration rates as high as 50%.  Africans use phones, for communication, banking and access to local and global financial information. They need easy ways to keep their phones charged.

As an African entrepreneur, you could consider investing in portable solar chargers or battery-based chargers that provide affordable charging services.

Also you can start thinking of providing mobile phone solutions that are tailored to solve specific needs. This article on bbc.com, indicates a difficulty that you can think of solving.

4. Water wheels & dams, is also a good opportunity for African Entrepreneurs

This is a good source of, off-grid electricity generation and sequestering water for irrigation systems. Creating simple water wheels, dam components and dam designs will enable the rapid creation of small electricity networks. Read more on Homemade Water Wheel Electric Generator

You can build a business to distribute and build small installations to serve irrigation and electricity needs.

5. FinTech is one of the fastest growing opportunity for African entrepreneurs.

Born out of Africa’s challenges, FinTech involves the use of technology to support banking and financial services. FinTech facilitates the ease, rapidity and cost of reaching-out to Africa’s under-served population’s, demand for financial services.

With the success of mobile money solutions in Africa, many African start-ups are developing financial applications that could be applied to Africa and other parts of the world.

In this article, “African financial technology startups move beyond payment services,”  we can clearly see that, mobile money was the first phase in the development of digital finance in Africa, the next phase of digital financial services is moving towards lending, insurance and wealth management.

Fintech is the main language  in Africa’s financial market today. This is due to the fact that this sector, is greatly under-served. This is a good businesses opportunity for African entrepreneurs.

In this article we’ve been able to bring out, 5 business opportunities for African entrepreneurs However, there are dozens of business ideas available, that you can start investing in today. Pick-up one, and you’ll be part of the solution to some of Africa’s greatest problems.

Also read, our article on 12 Passive Income Opportunities and 18 Business ideas to consider as a student.