Ethiopia had an estimated 55,000 social enterprises, most founded since 2010, according to a British Council survey highlighted in August 2019 ahead of the Social Enterprise World Forum in Addis Ababa.
Buildings in Addis Ababa, photographed on March 21, 2013. (UK Department for International Development / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) [file photo]
Social enterprises are businesses that pursue social or environmental goals and reinvest their profits in that work. The British Council said its survey, funded by the European Union, drew on 212 organizations in Addis Ababa and regional cities in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and the Southern region between September and November 2016.
About 75 percent of the social enterprises had been set up since 2010, and 48 percent of their leaders were aged 25 to 34, the report found. Women led 28 percent of social enterprises, compared with 4.5 percent of mainstream Ethiopian businesses, Grit Daily reported.
Most social enterprises worked at the regional level (77 percent), while 20 percent operated nationally and 3 percent internationally, according to the British Council. Fifty-eight percent said they needed more access to capital or equity, and a third said a lack of suitable premises was holding them back, Grit Daily reported.
The British Council and Social Enterprise Ethiopia hosted the 12th Social Enterprise World Forum at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa on Oct. 23–25, 2019, the first time the event was held in a developing economy. Organizers counted 1,312 delegates from 71 countries and territories, 30 percent of them from Ethiopia.
Sources: Grit Daily, British Council: The state of social enterprise in Ethiopia (PDF), Social Enterprise World Forum: Addis Ababa 2019, Pioneers Post