Bayt.com Survey: Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa 2020

Entrepreneurs play a vital role in the MENA region’s economies. They boost growth, create jobs, and drive innovation. Entrepreneurship continues to be a growing trend in MENA. Despite the given challenges of setting up a business, many entrepreneurs are looking to grow their startups.

How difficult is it set up a company in MENA? What exactly do you need if you want to start a business? What are the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs? All these questions and more are answered in this survey.

Key findings:

• 73% of MENA professionals prefer to be self-employed.
• Personal fulfillment (51%), freedom to choose work-life balance (42%) and ability to give back to the community (42%) emerge as the top reasons for preferring to be self-employed.
• Commerce, IT, and Consumer Goods are among the most appealing industries for entrepreneurship.
• 64% of those who are employed are currently thinking of starting a business
• MENA respondents perceive entrepreneurs to be opportunity-driven (83%) and they help in creating new jobs (82%).

Data for the Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Survey was collected online from January 29, 2020 to February 26, 2020. Results are based on a sample of 1,818 respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan and others.