Investing at the BoP
Entry Africa
What we do

What We Do

How do we help investing in Africa?



Frontier Experiences

Our volunteers gain a unique insight into the very heart of doing business in Africa. During our summer trips we organize visits to local shops and factories, meeting with the owners and learning about how local businesses perform operations on a daily basis. We also do research on emerging industries, studying exports and imports, as well as local laws, to gain a better understanding of future patterns that are emerging in this area.

Investment Advising

Entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid often lack business know-how and capital. EntryAfrica can help local entrepreneurs and foreign investors identify investment opportunities and make them work. Our specialties are mentoring local entrepreneurs and providing them with seed capital; performing market studies; and helping companies to draft corporate social responsibility strategies and locate opportunities in Ethiopia to develop those strategies while raising awareness of development issues among company employees and clients.

Boosting Development

Countries cannot develop without a strong foundation of health and education services and a basic infrastructure. Knowing the importance of this, we are always alert to opportunities to donate or seek capital for projects that would strengthen this foundation for the local community. The IE Foundation and other private institutions cooperate in funding projects with the greatest poverty alleviation impact.

Volunteer

See what we are doing in Ethiopia

Volunteers perform a very useful task, which is to teach English to youngsters in summer programs in poor areas. The classes are basically free and give children a chance to pursue further education in a country where teaching (at least in theory) is conducted in English in public schools, in some areas as early as primary school, and in all cases in university. Volunteers need a good level of English and a positive attitude to children, whose enthusiasm, warmth and irrepressible humor quickly win the hearts of nearly every visitor.

The nuns who organize the English school provide volunteers with lodging and food. In a country where water can be scarce, volunteers have unlimited access to filtered water and showers. Rooms have mosquito nets and the compound is protected. Male and female volunteers sleep in separate quarters and do not leave the compound after 8 pm except in very unusual cases. The nuns are welcoming, tolerant and grateful for the help for “their” children, but volunteers must be willing to accept their rules and live as respectful guests in the mission.

Provided:

  • Lodging
  • Meals
  • Pick up and Drop off at Airport

Required:

  • Visas
  • Appropriate shots
  • Malaria medication

Investment Advising

Learn what it's like investing at the BoP

EntryAfrica has been taking MBA students to Ethiopia since 2013 so that they can learn firsthand what it is like to do business in one of the poorest and most populous countries in Africa. In visits to local enterprises, students have visited and interviewed owners and managers at the world´s largest rose farm, at a European winery in the Rift Valley, and at numerous small local operations such as internet cafés, a fish freezing and distribution center, a fast-food restaurant aspiring to become a nationwide chain, textile operations and other local businesses.
EntryAfrica's passion is to be a catalyst for fostering business activity at the base of the pyramid. We can offer potential investors local

contacts in African countries who can serve as interpreters, orient investors to local laws, customs and practices, and help them to make the connections they need. We also offer expert groups who can carry out surveys and perform market studies, analyze distribution networks and generally evaluate the potential of local markets for any kind and size of​ investment. We also have experience in developing corporate social responsibility strategies for companies and helping them to implement them, with positive implications for the company´s image, ro the company volunteers who join the trips and participate, and for the development of Ethiopia.

Internet Cafe

Sewing Factory

Fish Distribution

Wine Production

Aloe Vera

Flower Farming

Our Story

How Entry Africa went from an idea to a reality.

  • 2012

    An Idea is Born

    The IE´s involvement with Ethiopia began in 2012, when new IMBA student Benedict Faber approached Economics professor and Africa expert Gayle Allard with a proposal: to take a group of IMBA students as volunteers to Ethiopia. Ben explained that he had volunteered there as a university student, it had changed his life, and he wanted to share the experience with others. Dr. Allard jumped at the chance.

  • 2013

    The First Volunteers

    In August 2013, the first group of IE volunteers traveled to Dilla, in southern Ethiopia, to help teach English to girls in the summer program run by the Salesian sisters in that town. The volunteers, who lived in the convent and spent half of their time working on a research project besides the volunteering, agreed that the experience had been one of, if not the best, experience of their MBA studies.

  • 2014 - 2015

    Zway

    In August 2014 a second group traveled to Zway, Ethiopia for a similar project. They also taught English and lived at the convent, while developing business plans for two possible ventures in the area and designing a microfinance scheme for the mission.

  • 2015 - Present

    The Idea Grows

    In August 2015 a group of MBA students and other volunteers traveled to Adwa, in northern Ethiopia, to help in a summer school for girls and design a corporate social responsibility strategy for a major European company. The project will be implemented, in Ethiopia and in the company, in 2016.

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Our Team

The IE in Ethiopia project was founded and continues to be maintained by:

Gayle Allard

Professor of Economics at IE University

Gayle Allard is a PhD economist (UC Davis) who has taught MBAs Managerial Economics and African studies at the IE since 2002. Though a native of California, she has lived and worked in Europe most of her adult life. She is a regular commentator on international economic events in the global media, and she has a passion for Africa and its development.

Benedict Faber

Lead Marketer

Benedict founded Limitless during his MBA at IE Business School. He has been involved with organizing field work in Ethiopia since 2009. His vision is to bring more know-how and FDI into developing regions like Ethiopia by utilizing his MBA network.

Contact

If you would like to volunteer for the IE in Ethiopia project, email us!