Go to Part 1: Introduction To Entrepreneurship

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The strong economies in the world have been built by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs don’t only create jobs for themselves but for others. If there are no jobs, no innovation, no problem-solving techniques, education and many others, then the economies will remain weak.

Entrepreneurs therefore have a very big role in wealth creation in a country. Our economy (Cameroon) has been dependent on the government and few companies for jobs for so long. The government or these few corporations or companies cannot employ everybody. The only solution to such a problem is for us to acquire skills that will make us become self-employed.

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Entrepreneur & Problem-solving Skills

An entrepreneur is someone who uses his skills or talents to solve community problems. They see the problems faced by the community as an opportunity to make money by looking for solutions. When such problems are identified, they look for solutions, put in financial and other resources together (be it from them or investors) and sell their solutions to earn profits.

The economy of Cameroon has been in crisis for way too long and one of the solutions to this is by encouraging the youths to be entrepreneurial. In spite of all the natural resources that Cameroon has, the level of poverty and underdevelopment of both human and economic resources is really high.

For a country to generate wealth, there is the need to develop highly skilled entrepreneurs. This can be done by opening up avenues where entrepreneurs can strive. In order to establish a business, entrepreneurs put in their own resources or get capital from investors, lenders and the public. With such resources mobilized, the community can then benefit from the success of the entrepreneurs and their business. What role then do entrepreneurs play in generating wealth in the country? Below are some of the roles:

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1. Employment creation

Unemployment is one of the most prominent problems entrepreneurs solve directly or indirectly by starting up a venture. Most business venture need extra hands for it to function well. Once an entrepreneur, the economy gets one less job seeker. Once you employ others, many more job seekers are taken off the street. Imagine then what will happen when we have more entrepreneurs in the economy. So entrepreneurs help create jobs and augment the standard of living of the of the people. The government of Cameroon has provided some tax exemptions to promote youth employment in Cameroon.

2. Redistribution of wealth and balanced development

When new businesses are created by entrepreneurs, wealth changes hands. The investors as well as the entrepreneur gets a percentage of what has been made as profit. One positive thing is the money remains within the economy. Imagine the entrepreneur had to import the product or service to resell. That will mean our currency will go out of the country.

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Most of these entrepreneurs will prefer to set up their businesses away from where there aren’t existing competitors. Once growth is realized especially in less developed areas, they may see a lot of infrastructural changes coming in. The government of Cameroon for instance has provided some tax incentives to small businesses that are relocated in areas to where infrastructural developments are lacking. Any new business that is located in less developed area comes in with direct and indirect jobs for the locals. This helps a lot in increasing the standard of living of the people.

3. Training and education

With limited resources, most entrepreneurs find it difficult to employ skilled hands. So this brings the need for training unskilled individuals to carry out what the skill workers would have done. Training unskilled labor to skilled labor will help increase the number of skilled workers in the country who can carry out projects.

Once an entrepreneur sets up in a place, the inhabitants of the community see the need to educate themselves to benefit from the activities of the business. Many people will learn skills that maybe necessary to work in such businesses. Others will learn skills to provide services that such businesses may need. You can see the multiplier effect of what a single entrepreneur starting a business can do. From the problems they face, other smart entrepreneurs can look for a solution and sell their products or services.

4. Community development

It is common to see people leave rural areas for urban areas in search of jobs. Once entrepreneurs create a business in an area, this will reduce the number of those moving out for a better life. This will reduce the population pressure on cities that we all know bring housing problems and pressure on social amenities. With the activities of entrepreneurs, both skilled and unskilled labor may want to remain bringing about more development in the community.

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Secondly, if the business depends on local raw materials, the locals therefore have a market for their products. The rural areas in Cameroon usually depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Most of the time, the lack of farm to market roads make it impossible for them to sell their products. This tends out to force the population to leave the locality for greener pastures. With such an entrepreneurial activity going on, there will be a market available, hence pushing those who may have left to stay and benefit from it.

In creating wealth within a community, the entrepreneur has therefore

– Created a business that brings in wealth to both investors and the entrepreneur

– Employed skilled and/or unskilled labor improving their standard or living

– Trained unskilled labor if skilled labor is not available

– Created more wealth by serving as a buyer for local raw materials

– Reduced over-population in urban areas

– Created wealth in the community where it is located thereby automatic wealth creation in the country

– Helped in the creation of other entrepreneurial activities that may depend on the business or the business may depend on and many other positive things

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