Part of planning your return to Africa, is to decide if you want to return and work for a company on the continent or if you want to create your own job in Africa and start your own business there. Today, I go through the different advantages and challenges of having a job vs being an entrepreneur in Africa
Advantages of having a job in Africa
Regular pay
As anywhere else in the world, having a job in Africa makes it more likely to have a regular salary — notice that, I did not write that it “guarantees” a regular pay. As an employee from a company, you receive a fixed salary — in Cote d’Ivoire, it’s usually monthly. This goes a long way to plan your expenses and your life.
Stability after moving across continents
Looking for a job in advance will ensure that you have the stability that you may be craving after your return to the continent. As a repatriate, after having moved your whole life across continents, it may be reassuring to know that you already have a job set up and waiting for you. There is less risk involved. Having a job also give you the possibility to have health insurance covered by your company.
Simplicity
Having a job means not having to deal with complex paperwork and endless administrative tasks that may come with creating your own company. If you haven’t been in your home country for a while, the prospect of figuring out how to create a new business may be overwhelming. By looking for a job and securing it, you avoid the headaches that come with being a new entrepreneur in a “new” country.
Colleagues
Having colleagues mean you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. You can bounce ideas to colleagues and get their feedback. You have a team supporting you. You can escalate potential problems to management. You have resources.
A job in Africa is a great way to learn work culture and customs
Let’s say, you left your home country as a student and returned as a worker. Working as an employee in a company allows you to (re)learn the work culture in your home country. It can give you the opportunity to identify gaps and business opportunities before starting your own business ventures.
Challenges of having a job in Africa
Every employee knows this: no place of work is perfect. So let’s see what some of the challenges of working as an employee in Africa are.
A job in Africa may expose you to a different workplace culture
If you’ve started to work abroad, you may be used to a more liberal workplace culture, especially if you’re a millennial or from a younger generation. While you expect to be treated as equal by your colleagues, based on your degrees and/or professional experience, you may encounter pushback in an African company where the younger are supposed to defer important decisions to the elder, obtain validation from the elder. More patriarchal, with all that it entails.
Management style
Management style may also be different. While more and more companies encourage a more “bottom-up” management style in the US. You may still experience top-bottom management style in many African companies.
Punctuality
Punctuality can be a challenge in the work environment in Africa — it’s definitely is in Cote d’Ivoire. While you‘re used to a culture where people are always on the go, working on strict deadlines and timelines, you may find difficult to adapt to a more relaxed culture, where meetings don’t always start on time, workers take a two hours lunch break and may or may not come back to work in the afternoon, deadlines are treated like suggestions.
Salaries for jobs in Africa are different for expats vs repats:
You will most likely get a lower salary than what you were making abroad. This is especially true if you come back as a repat — as opposed to an expat. So, you have to manage your expectations and be ready to negotiate if necessary.
Challenge of finding jobs if you don’t know the right persons
Sometimes it feels like it’s all about who you know to get things done and have doors opened. At least, it’s been my experience in Côte d’Ivoire, not necessarily to find a job but to get official documents made etc. Several friends who moved back have also experienced this asjob seekers.
Prevalence of nepotism in some workplaces
Similar to it’s all about who you know, you may face nepotism , with managers hiring people from their own families, whether or not they can deliver professionally and passing on potentially great employees, aka you!
Benefits of creating your own job in Africa
Being your own boss and being able to bring your vision to life
By creating your own business, you can enjoy more independence. You’re able to make the decisions you want and bring the vision you have for your business to life. You get to build and manage your business the way you want.
Flexibility at work
You get to design your work life to best fit you (and your family). You can have flexibility in your schedule. You can work as early or as late as you wish, as much or as little as you want. It all depends on your goals for your business and your personal life.
Higher income possible
When you work for yourself, the sky’s the limit in terms of income goals. Of course, the amount of work, strategy and time you put in a project will affect how much profits you can earn at the end. But in general, you still have more opportunities to earn a higher income than if you work as an employee in a company.
Challenges of being an entrepreneur in Africa
Creating a company is challenging
Creating a company can be challenging in many African countries – E.g Côte d’Ivoire. When in North America, it can be as easy as going online and registering your business in a few clicks. The process can be much more complex in Africa. Most likely you will have to physically go to register your company. And that’s just the beginning of the hoops you’ll have to jump through to make your project a reality.
Life work balance
Being an entrepreneur means the success of your company depends on you. So, it can be tempting to work non-stop, to ensure that success. This is especially true at the beginning, when you’re trying to get things started. You stay late to finish your task. You work at home. You work on weekends. It can be hard to find your balance at the beginning.
Risk and financial unpredictability
As an entrepreneur, you take risks, and the rewards aren’t always guaranteed. You invest your money —or other people’s money —, your time and your energy. You don’t always know if success is around the corner, or not.
You may have great months in terms of revenue or not so great ones. Things may take longer to pick up. Your business may fail — sorry for the tough love! So if you’re risk-adverse and you want stability above everything else, creating your own job in Africa may not be for you.
Working as an employee or creating your own job in Africa have both advantages and challenges. At the end, deciding which one is for you comes down to knowing yourself and your priorities. It will take a lot of self-searching and research.
That’s said, you could also do both: work for a company and start your own on the side.
The possibilities are endless! Let me know which one you’re thinking about by emailing me at backtotheotherland@gmail.com or sending me a DM on Instagram!
See you next time for a new post!
Picture: Lagos techie , Unsplash.
