In Africa, enormous technological advancements, corruption, mismanagement of natural resources and population growth have consistently limited job prospects. Entrepreneurship and education have emerged as activities that younger Africans demand. While jobs are limited, entrepreneurship has been considered the most significant career option.

There is no doubt that entrepreneurship is significantly contributing to economic growth in most African countries while generating various job perspectives. Hence, intellectuals constantly encourage and motivate young minds to establish a business of their own. 

Whether the dream is a big tech start-up or a plan to take over a family-owned venture, becoming a business owner is a goal to which many would-be entrepreneurs aspire. Just as there are hundreds of types of businesses to own, so are many paths to getting there.

While there are stereotypes of entrepreneurs, there is no significant demographic profile required for launching a successful venture. So, anyone can efficiently succeed as an entrepreneur irrespective of gender, caste, creed, or race. However, there is the need to possess certain business traits and skills, and these including:

• Confidence
• Financial literacy
• Networking
• Knowledge of accepting and acting on feedback
• A growing mindset
• Efficient skills of strategic thinking

Build your entrepreneurial competency — a way of thinking about problem-solving that can be applied across every industry and every type of organization

Therefore, degrees and certificates in Entrepreneurship Skills should aim to develop the business owner’s understanding of the concept and underlying required skill set that sets apart a person as an entrepreneur. The business owner must be able to understand in detail the financial, human, and leadership side of an entrepreneur so that the business owner can garner the ideas and adopt the required skills to become a successful entrepreneur.

Many business owners also provide the services sold in their business. For instance, a doctor may own their clinic and similarly, a mechanical engineer may also own an auto repair shop as well. While it is common for business owners to be involved in their businesses, it is not a mandatory requirement for entrepreneurship. For this reason, there are no set educational requirements that an owner must meet. Being financially and legally responsible for a business does not require a degree certificate from any university or be certified by a licensing agency—in most cases. Having the business skills to own a medical clinic or auto repair shop does not mean that the entrepreneur will provide the services personally. That said, countries often require business owners to be licensed to perform work in specific professions, which may include everything from health professions to agriculture and hairdressing. 

Entrepreneurs aim to start, develop, finance, manage, and harvest new ventures with high growth potential and to explore the development of innovative thinking and venture appraisal that could, ultimately, lead to a new business venture. They start by developing a business plan, examining how to formulate practical business ideas, selecting a suitable location, selecting a legal form of organization, locating financing sources, assessing the market, developing a human resource management system, and establishing budgets for control. It is indeed right to say that nobody is truly rich until

From the above analysis of the relationship between entrepreneurship and business ventures, the role of degrees and certificates is limited to facts, and knowledge devoid of understanding and application. The use of knowledge and facts is tied to abilities to seize opportunities and take risks with knowledge and facts to serve humanity. Certificates and degrees prepare graduates to look for jobs rather than opening their eyes to life-changing opportunities. People are not poor because they don’t have a job; they are poor because they are not seeing and seizing opportunities. Being poor is simply passing over opportunities Repeatedly! What keeps people ahead in life is not their education or degrees, it is simply the opportunity that they seized. Jobs may be scarce but not opportunities.

As long as there is a problem to be solved, there will always be opportunities. It is a waste of education, exposure, and experiences if after graduating from school, all we are doing is searching for a job. An enlightened and educated mind should be able to see and seize opportunities and develop a business venture that can efficiently become a successful enterprise while tackling future adversities.