BUJUMBURA February 28th (ABP) – The entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to develop in Burundi. Young people are aware that they should, at all costs, create jobs. However, it faces many challenges because the training acquired on the school bench does not allow young people to get started, create or innovate. Even if entrepreneurship is starting to rise to a certain level, entrepreneurs testify that there is still a long way to go and that they must, moreover, take the bull by the horns. They deplore being confronted with several constraints when they decide to embrace the entrepreneurial path. In the era of Covid-19, the whole world has resorted to digital entrepreneurship, another form of entrepreneurship which has considerably facilitated continental, regional and sub-regional exchanges.
An economics expert Me Kervin Ndihokubwayo indicates, during an interview he gave to the check by ABP Monday, February 21, 2022 in Bujumbura, that in Burundi this entrepreneurship faces many constraints related mainly to the rate of access to electricity and the internet which is still weak and which constitute, in themselves, a barrier to this digital entrepreneurship. That expert pointed out that digital entrepreneurship is a concept brought about by the emergence of new information and communication technologies. It indicates, moreover, that in economy information is a good whose cost turns out to be important, hence the new information and communication technologies have become an opportunity for business related to the accessibility of information. which have, therefore, changed the passage of the trading environment.
In Burundi when they talk about digital entrepreneurship, he mentioned, we have to understand, in a way, digital commerce which is an opportunity that has revealed itself and known its peak during these last two years where the world is facing covid-19, a period during which the outbreak of commerce sites and marketing agencies has been observed. The Digital Entrepreneur initiates the creation of a company, from an idea that he brings to life on a digital platform. Its business model is based on digital tools and is deployed thanks to the various technical and marketing levers put in place, he added.
Dr. Léonard Bizimana, an expert in entrepreneurship, defines digital entrepreneurship as a form of entrepreneurship that consists of seizing opportunities on the Internet through digital technologies for the creation of electronic business. He was speaking on Saturday February 26, 2022 during an interview with the check by ABP.
That doctor in entrepreneurship makes it known that in Burundi digital entrepreneurship is an opportunity not yet exploited to its fair value given that there are still brakes in this case the internet which is not of good quality, the problem related to electricity, but also and above all the lack of knowledge of this area by entrepreneurs. Dr. Bizimana recognizes, all the same, the presence of this entrepreneurial opportunity in Burundi but at a still low level. “I will not say that it is absent business in Burundi because there are entrepreneurs who have embarked on that sector but this one is still virgin”, he noted.
The world is currently facing the Covid-19 most entrepreneurs around the world have resorted to entrepreneurship as a mode of response. But in Burundi, explains the expert, Covid-19 was not a motivation to raise digital entrepreneurship to another level even though there were certain conditions that favored its expansion. In addition, this doctor in entrepreneurship recognizes some progress to be made: “With Covid-19, a few digital-oriented entrepreneurial projects have emerged because it is a business that the entrepreneur does from being at home without having to travel and with opportunities to reach a large number of customers,” he noted.
Making a comparison between traditional entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship, Dr. Bizimana points out that digital has more advantages compared to traditional. “Digital entrepreneurship is an economic lever, like any other entrepreneurship, which is done exclusively on the internet, but what differentiates it from other entrepreneurial opportunities is that you can reach a large world in a short period of time” , he pointed out. Thus, he launches a vibrant appeal to Burundian youth haunted by unemployment in relation to this digital entrepreneurship: “It is enough for these young people to change their attitude. Young people believe that without having the costume of the wage labor life no longer has any meaning, which is dramatic, he lamented. Young people must dare to walk to the rhythm of the times and detect current opportunities, these digital innovations in order to be able to change their way of life,” he warned.
According to the information site www.okaydoc.fr through an article entitled “Entrepreneurship in the digital age”, digital technology is at the heart of the major societal changes of the 21st century and shapes new work practices (despatialization of the work, preponderant role of digital platforms, applications, start-ups, agile methods, etc.). Digitization, i.e. the adoption and application of digital technologies, thus generates new value creation opportunities for companies. The world of digital entrepreneurship has reached one of its high points with the emergence of the pandemic (Covid-19). Entrepreneurs had to learn in an accelerated way a set of digital tools that were not essential before, we always read through this article.
According to the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD), the digital economy has the potential to improve productivity, incomes and social well-being. It creates job opportunities in new markets and increases employment in some existing occupations.
The challenges related to access to electricity and the internet which constitute, according to experts, a barrier to digital entrepreneurship were discussed during the national forum on the Development of Burundi organized, in Bujumbura, from November 18 to 19, 2021 Indeed, for the year 2021 the rate of access to electricity amounts to 11.1% for Burundi while that of Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya amounts successively to 37.7%, 38 .8%, 41.3%, and 69.7%. The internet penetration rate stands at 13% for Burundi.
