Africans more likely to be entrepreneurs

Robert Johnson founded cable channel BET

Africans, or people of African descent, living in Western countries are five times more likely to start their own businesses than their white counterparts, new statistics show.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor also found that Asian immigrants in Western countries were twice as likely as white people to be entrepreneurs.

And people from the Caribbean were three times as likely to start their own firms.

The figures suggest that these communities are playing a far more important role than had been thought.

Leading the way

Nearly half a million people across 37 countries were interviewed for the study.

GEM Definition of entrepreneurship

Any attempt at new business or new venture creation, such as self-employment, a new business organisation, or the expansion of an existing business by an individual, teams of individuals, or established businesses

Rebecca Harding, chief economist at the Work Foundation which sponsored the report, said fear of failure seemed to be key to a community's attitude to entrepreneurship.

"These ethnic non-white communities are actually far more resilient to the fear of failure," she said.

"In fact, if they do fear failure they'll still go ahead and set up businesses anyway."

Raising finance

There has been criticism of the support frameworks for black businesses.

In Britain, for example, the banking system has been accused of being inadequate in its support of black businesses.

A report commissioned by the British Bankers' Association in September said it was more difficult for black entrepreneurs to raise start-up finance from banks than their white or Asian counterparts.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found 97% of financing for ethnic communities came from personal or family sources.

And ethnic companies create nine more jobs, on average, per start-up than white businesses.