Written by Marthe van der Wolf | From Voice of America

Young Ethiopians are eager to benefit from the economic growth of the last few years.  And since the market has so many opportunities, everyone seems to be working on a startup idea in the hopes of “making it.”

Around the capital city Addis Ababa, young people sit with their laptops in any hotel lobby that offers free wifi.  Many of them will tell you they are working on their latest startup idea.

With a large population of young adults and one of the fastest growing economies on the African continent, many Ethiopians are trying to figure out how they can start their own business and benefit financially.

IceAddis is an innovation hub that supports tech start-ups.  Co-founder Marcos Lemma says that young entrepeneurship is big in East Africa, but relatively new to Ethiopia.

“Our basic requirements for start-ups is, the first one is that we check if it’s an innovative idea for Ethiopia,” said Marcos. “And second one is if that idea is sellable so that the start-ups will get enough market to sell it in the country or outside.  Most of the start-ups we are supporting they are fourth year students or recently graduating.”

But since the idea is relatively new to Ethiopia, start-ups face a lot of problems, among them a lack of financing, the absence of tax breaks, and a poor telecom sector.  Marcos says that is not all.

“There is also some licensing problem, if you start something really innovative, it’s a very long process.”

Read more at Voice of America