Location

The African FOSS Business Models for ICT-based SMEs context in which the 3C group is working is novel, challenging, but also very interesting. The important role of SMEs in Africa is linked to their relative importance in the overall economy as a major source of income, employment, and innovativebusiness practices. Therefore, SMEs can be strong vehicles for economic and sustainable development in Africa. However, ICT-based SMEs face a number of challenges which hamper their productivity: (i) access to credit, (ii) inadequate infrastructure, (iii) lack of a skilled labour force to serve products development, (iv) difficulty in winning government (major procurer of goods and services) contracts, (v), inability to resell proprietary solutions because of restrictions imposed by licenses, (vii) lack of professionalism in running business,poor marketing skills, etc.The technopreneurial spirit throughout Africa is very high and SMEs can benefit from cross-fertilisation of ideas with FOSS projects and communities. This includes benefits such as reducing software development cost, freedom from vendor/supplier lock-in, freedom to customise the software to suit the needs of local customers, benefiting from a diverse developer and tester communities, access to free-of-chargetraining and support materials, etc. Building businesses on and around FOSS is key to exploiting the potentials this type of software offers.

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