Fledgling steps for Africa's Entrepreneurs

Two stories which speak to challenges and opportunities faced by African businesses as they spread their wings. The first one in the Economist talks about how an "African entrepreneur struggles for recognition in rich-country markets":

It used to be a badge of pride that we were the only African coffee brand in British supermarkets. Now I see it as shameful,” says Andrew Rugasira, the founder of Good African. He is bemoaning the fact that other African firms—in coffee and many other lines of business—have struggled to follow the trail blazed by Good African since it was founded in 2003.

While the WSJ profiles the blossoming of home-grown companies:

Foreign consumer-goods companies including Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé SA and Unilever PLC have been in Africa for decades without much competition from local players. Now, home-grown companies are expanding aggressively across the continent, eager to accommodate a growing middle-class among the billion-person population.
Among the most prominent of these consumer upstarts: African retailers such as Nakumatt Holdings Ltd. of Kenya, the top supermarket chain in East Africa, MTN Group Ltd., Africa's largest cellphone provider, and South African restaurant chain Spur Corp. Nakumatt has expanded into three neighboring countries while 348-restaurant chain Spur has opened in seven other African countries...[continue reading]

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