Lebanon’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Saved by Resilience
The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Lebanon is striving with the diligence and efforts of the Lebanese entrepreneurs amid the country’s crisis. Lebanon left its mark in the world of entrepreneurship for years, despite all the continuing difficulties. However, startups are struggling to outpace growth, thus undermining their access to money and resilience.
According to the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Index, Lebanon ranks 59 worldwide in its entrepreneurial activity status. On the other hand, Lebanon’s startups have increased by 2016, in an analysis done by the World Bank in collaboration with the United Nations. It showed that the country’s investments led Lebanon to higher ranks among the Arab region and globally.
On top of everything, education has helped the entrepreneur life in Lebanon to learn the skills and understand how to grow their businesses. For instance, the Lebanese American University (LAU) launched the “LAU Institute of Family and Entrepreneurial Business” and the American University of Beirut has the “Center for Research and Innovation” at a university level. Many institutions and academic incubators have supported entrepreneurs.
In an article stated to “Wamda”, the Circular 331 decree that Banque of Lebanon initiated to support financially startups in Lebanon is unclear. The venture capital is steadily decreasing in the past few years and foreign investors might not think of investing in Lebanon in the meantime. In this case, this becomes more challenging for Lebanese entrepreneurs and it affects negatively the entrepreneurship ecosystem here.
Some entrepreneurs will consider traveling to a more stable market and fewer pressure conditions, especially that till now the infrastructure is the main problem with the absence of government support.
“Our dreams are forgotten for them, and rather it does not matter to them,” says Joseph Berberian, co-founder of Vexposure, a startup that works on digital currencies and marketing services, referring to the government’s support for entrepreneurs’ ideas and projects. “There is no support and assistance, and if it is available, it will be within the framework of working with the corrupt Lebanese system through mediation,” he adds with regret.
Berberian’s dreams are the same dreams that many Lebanese innovators were excited about, and they carried out remarkable careers, especially in the fields of technology and innovation.
Still, Berberian sees that the most difficult problem these days is creating a clear infrastructure for entrepreneurship, indicating that there is a slowdown in the legal system in Lebanon.
“The law will not protect small businesses in such a situation when you sign a contract and the customer does not pay,” he explains.
Despite that, Lebanon has achieved many accomplishments and turned Beirut into an innovative hub for entrepreneurs, according to MIT Enterprise Forum’s Arab Startup Competition. Also, Lebanon is one of the top countries in the MENA region that have family entrepreneurs and established businesses ones which produce innovative products, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2020.
Many Lebanese entrepreneurs are currently looking for clients outside Lebanon to provide services within their companies that can be performed remotely. Ultimately, Lebanon will need entrepreneurs due to the lack of vacancies, and the graduates will start thinking about starting a business rather than wasting time to find a job or leave the country, and the hope remains for a better tomorrow.
