Rural Entrepreneurship in African Countries: A Synthesis of Related Literature

Abstract

The paper focuses on rural entrepreneurship and its implication for the practice of entrepreneurship as anarea of study and practice in Africa. The paper surveys the entrepreneurship literature using the case study approach. The authors in their synthesis of the related literature found out that the field of rural entrepreneurship is an emerging theme in African economic development. In addition, most that exist have varying themes, focus, epistemological view and different units of analysis. The paper concludes that such diversity may have contributed to the lack of success in the rural development polices implemented by most governments in Africa and the inability of most governments to focus and develop rural entrepreneurship. Thus, it is recommended that researchers should, in the future, identify common themes that will help proffer solutions for the development of entrepreneurial enterprises in rural Africa