Africa-Press – Angola. Taxes, lack of funding and regulation are the three main threats to the survival of Startups in Angola, according to the first study on the “Ecosystem of Entrepreneurship and Startups in Angola”, presented yesterday in Luanda.
The survey, carried out in 2022, also concluded that the main challenges for Startups in the country are based on the lack of specialized support to give them competence, product development capacity and money or liquidity.
On the other hand, the document points to the growth in the internet access rate, between 2019 and 2022, and, consequently, in the number of subscribers by around 48 percent as positive influencing factors for the growth of the digital ecosystem of Startups in Angola.
Another positive factor, identified as structural and influential in the digital world of Startup in the country, in that period (2019-2022), was the growth in access to mobile phones, which recorded an advance of 49 percent.
This growth, combined with the growth of the economically active population aged 15 or over, according to the survey, indicates that more people are having access to the internet which, as a consequence, provides the creation of a brand for digital businesses driven by Startups.
As for the age group of the actors in the Startups market, the study reveals that the average is under 31 years old and most have university training in the field of engineering.
It also indicates that 75 percent of Startups actors have university training and that entrepreneurship in this field is being developed by university students.
Regarding Angola’s position in the field of Startups at the CPLP and SADC level, the research indicates that it is not the best.
The document, prepared on the initiative of the National Institute of Support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (INAPEM) in partnership with UNITEL, interviewed hundreds of players in the digital ecosystem, considering that there are around 2,500 Startups in the country, according to the administrator of the INAPEM, Braulio Augusto.
On the sidelines of the launch act, the presenter of the study and INAPEM consultant, José Bukassa, referred that Angola is not well positioned in the “doing business” on Startups and that it is necessary to create laws on Startups.
In addition to laws, according to the interlocutor, “it is necessary, above all, to look at the market, understand its actual need and design policies that are adapted to the concrete reality, because it is up to the institution to the State to manage this ecosystem, without being an active and intervening actor, but creating beacons so that Startups, incubators and accelerators have space to develop the market”.
On the lack of funding for Startups, he justified that it is a fact that happens everywhere in the world, because they have a high level of risk, but it also depends on the stage they are in. “Obviously, they need to be viable and scale up. It is in this condition that a person will put money to invest”, she explained.
He stressed that a Startups law has significant advantages such as stratifying, defining in concrete what a startup is and what micro and small companies are, because today there are concrete barriers.
“Banking does not have financial products suited to the level of risk and maturity of the startup, which is why the law will define the rules of the game and encourage more people to join the ecosystem”.
The research on the “Ecosystem of Entrepreneurship of Startups in Angola” aimed to portray the main initiatives around entrepreneurship in the country, as well as to point out the different perspectives in relation to their impact and reach.
It also seeks to mark a new stage in terms of regular and periodical publications on this and other related topics, in ways that increasingly provide the country with data and statistical information, both from a primary and secondary point of view, to ensure that institutions public and private can better outline their actions to promote and support entrepreneurship in Angola.
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