The African Development Bank said 22 percent of Africa's working-age population are starting businesses, and this is the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world. Small and Medium Enterprises are now the biggest formal employers in Sub-Saharan Africa and will undoubtedly be key in creating the 54 million jobs that Africa is expected to create by 2022.
The numbers look great until one realizes that Sub-Saharan Africa also has the highest small business discontinuance rate of 8.4%. While the job creation potential is promising, it is a far cry from the demands - Africa will need 122 million new jobs by 2022. Further, only 20 percent of African entrepreneurs are introducing new products and services. Africa has a lot of survival entrepreneurs who were pushed into entrepreneurship by unemployment.
Vital Sounouvou holds a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications and Software Engineering from the UIT de Calais in France, and a Business certificate from the University of Texas at Austin. Listed on Forbes Africa's 30 under 30 lists of 2016. His professional life spans from the Annual Investment Meeting of the United Arab Emirates government where he managed African relations, to the Corporate Council on Africa in Washington D.C, and Microsoft’s Johannesburg offices. Fellow of President Obama’s Initiative for Young African Leaders (YALI), of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, Ashoka, Techstars, and Stanford SEED.
Vital has extensive experience doing trade between sub-Saharan Africa, the United States of America, and the Middle East, through trade representation deals with manufacturing companies.