Corruption kills entrepreneurship

One of the biggest barriers to the growth and development of entrepreneurship in Africa is corruption. How often do you read in the newspapers or hear people talking about business owners being approached for a bribe by an official in order to get a contract. Such ethical issues are detrimental to the spirit behind entrepreneurship and ultimately have a widespread effect that at the end of the day reaches every facet of the community. When bribes are paid, it stands to reason that those additional costs will be passed on to consumers; or for those who don’t pay bribes, they will experience delays and inevitable frustrations in getting things done, translating into product and service supply challenges for the consumer. Corruption has far-reaching tentacles that keep the continent in a vicious cycle that hinders entrepreneurship and ultimately stunts growth. There is a quote by leading Rwandan education publishing entrepreneur, Lydie Hakizimana, that sums up the real cost of corruption on entrepreneurship, she says: “Corruption leads to a lot of missed opportunities, .... Corruption stops someone to think that he can be an entrepreneur. Corruption makes you fear to take the risk. When you have corruption in a country, people are just discouraged. There is no hope. They don’t see themselves successful in the long term.”