"The full entrepreneurship potential is often unfulfilled, explained in 2016 Jean-Michel SEVERINO and Jérémy HAJDENBERG in their book 'Entreprenante Afrique' (Enterprising Africa). This is due to the existence of numerous constraints that jeopardize the private sector's development. Such as policies, unfavorable legislative framework, a lack of infrastructures, development services, limited access to fundings, and expertise..."
To bring that situation to an end, the Rwandanese government called into action the i4Policy foundation to write a supportive legislative framework for entrepreneurship. The foundation draws on the history of the juridical framework everywhere in Africa since the 80's and Ghana, which developed, at this time, the first laws to help its small and middle-size companies. It will be followed by almost 20 countries, until Tunisia, in 2018, launched the first legislative framework specially dedicated to startups, followed by Mali and Senegal.
What can Rwanda expect?
For the i4Policy foundation, there are seven political reform branches to support the startup ecosystem:
- the governance (licensing, bankruptcy, intellectual property, the fulfillment of contracts...),
- the fundings (before starting, from banks, with risks),
- the infrastructures,
- the market,
- the support (for growth, operational, R&D),
- the human capital (training, labor market)
- and the culture (network, personal development).
The new law framework hoped by the Rwandanese government should cover all these sectors. A daunting but necessary work, such as the Senegalese startup Act, which led to the reform of the entire legislation around business taxation. Because the aim is to create a coherent whole, between institutions and actors, politics and private. "Governments often face disordered and without coordination measures, administrated by different actors from the entrepreneurial world," explain the foundation in a report about the actual African legislations. The foundation also values the participation, during the writing process, of the entrepreneurs themselves with the political world, firstly to present an authentic vision of the situation to better focus actions, and also to reinforce discussion between public and private sectors. Nevertheless, the foundation is aware of the fact that "public policies can't always solve by themselves all problematics related to entrepreneurship."
Ideas for other countries
Those juridical frameworks are real assets. And the Tunisian success, especially, is a source of envy for its neighbors. At the beginning of the year, Algeria announced the creation of laws addressed explicitly to startups and a 10 million euros funding for the "Algerian champions able to conquest new markets in Africa and the world." In order not to miss the innovation train, Ghana, Ivorian Coast, DRC should also get this kind of legislation in the next months. However, the African sector's heavyweights don't really care about it. South Africa, Kenya, or Nigeria already have tools that are working. And even if numerous actors in those three countries call for creating startup Act, their governments don't seem to want to shake their legislation to get possibly not useful enough results.
