Community and village polytechnics be set up to educate those who cannot make to the universities, for acquiring technical and business skills. - File photo

The constraints that young entrepreneurs face range across a number of issues. Frequently encountered obstacles in starting a business include bureaucratic hassles and corruption in the relevant government offices, both of which increase the cost of doing business.

The situation is made worse by shortage of infrastructure while its costs are becoming prohibitive.

But the biggest hurdle for entrepreneurs is the lack of a culture that appreciates entrepreneurship’s role in economic development. The unemployment among the youth, many of them skilled and educated, is a growing problem.

Entrepreneurship is the key to increase youth employment and income levels.

With this in mind, it would be prudent to see how entrepreneurship can be promoted among the people.

The education system has to be reformed to give individuals a good combination of specialist and generalist skills. The main doctrine of entrepreneurship should be a required course for all students so as to equip them with business skills, like writing a business plan, preparing proposals for investors including steps necessary to register a company, general accounting expertise etc.

Measures should put in place which foster human capital mobility between universities and the private sector, to transfer knowledge and ideas, facilitate the entry of new participants with innovative ideas and foster a culture that would encourage risk-taking and accept failure as a permissible social and individual norm. Productive entrepreneurship should be suitably rewarded.

Furthermore, the governments should increase use of technology for efficient service delivery, by computerising most of the processes for approvals to start a business and establishing a one-stop-shop for registering a company, in order to cut red tape. Women entrepreneurs should be supported. Community and village polytechnics be set up to educate those who cannot make to the universities, for acquiring technical and business skills.

An important avenue for introducing entrepreneurial culture is agriculture. It is a source of supply of raw materials for many industries whereas at the same time it provides a major market for some major segments of industries.

Many people have indigenous knowledge/skills which needs to be documented. In this context, our farmers, young agrarians and female counterparts, should be encouraged to prove their skills. The government should come forward to support their budding business activities whereas private sector should extend a helping hand by offering contracts and services.

Entrepreneurial culture has the potential to bring about a revolution.