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NOVAFRICA News

NOVAFRICA Seminar:
“Short-term Impacts of Entrepreneurship Skills Development”

On Wednesday, March 9th, at 2.30pm, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Francisco Campos, from the World Bank to present his work on different entrepreneurship training schemes to improve productivity of micro-entrepreneurs in Togo.

Author:
Francisco Campos

Abstract:
A significant part of the labor force in Africa is engaged in small-scale entrepreneurship. Differences in managerial capacity and practices have been identified to be important in explaining gaps in productivity for these firms. In this context, policy makers have been supporting small-scale entrepreneurship, most notably through business training to entrepreneurs. However, the impacts of managerial training on business performance have been at best mixed. We test through a randomized controlled trial in Togo two alternative interventions to develop the skills of existing entrepreneurs: a) a core managerial training program coupled with mentoring; and a b) personal initiative training that focuses on non-cognitive skills. We find the first type of training to change business practices and investment, but had no short-term impacts on business performance. However, the personal initiative training resulted in significant short-term impacts on access to finance, innovation, business practices, investment, and profits.

Please find further information about this seminar here.