Angola posted the highest rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity of any economy tracked worldwide in 2025 more than half its adult population is starting or running a new business and yet it ranked dead last, 53rd out of 53 countries, in the same global assessment of how supportive its business environment actually is.
That contradiction, playing out across Africa’s most closely tracked economies, sits at the heart of the newly released Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2025/2026 Global Report, titled “From Uncertainty To Opportunity.”
The report, produced by the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association and published through London Business School, draws on survey data and expert assessments across 53 economies worldwide, including three African markets tracked in depth this cycle (Angola, South Africa and Morocco). Together, their results paint a picture of a continent where entrepreneurial appetite consistently outpaces the institutional infrastructure meant to sustain it.
Angola: World’s Highest Entrepreneurship Rate, Dead Last in Support
Angola’s numbers illustrate the extreme end of that gap. Nearly nine in 10 adults there intend to start a business within the next three years among the highest such rates recorded anywhere in this year’s GEM survey and 52.9% of adults are already starting or running a new business, the highest Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate of any GEM 2025 economy.
Entrepreneurial confidence runs equally high, over four in five adults know someone who has recently started a business and even more believe they personally have the skills to do the same.
Yet Angola’s National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) score, the report’s composite measure of how enabling a country’s entrepreneurial environment actually is, came in at just 3.1 out of 10, placing the country last among all 53 economies assessed.
All 13 of the report’s Framework Conditions, spanning finance access, infrastructure, education and government policy, scored below the sufficiency threshold in Angola, with Research and Development Transfers (1.9) and Ease of Access to Entrepreneurial Finance (2.0) ranking among the weakest in the entire study.
Survival Hustle or Growth Ambition? Both
The disconnect between ambition and infrastructure carries a harder economic edge. Nearly one in two Angolan adults reported their household income had fallen in 2025 and the report’s own analysis frames the country’s exceptional entrepreneurship rate partly as a survival response: “to earn a living because jobs are scarce” was the most widely agreed motivation among new entrepreneurs, cited by nine out of 10.
Still, the same entrepreneurs showed striking ambition beyond subsistence. Eight in 10 also agreed they were building businesses “to make a difference in the world” or “to build great wealth,” and an unmatched nine in 10 expected to expand their use of digital technology within six months, the highest such rate recorded across all 53 GEM economies this year.
Angola’s government has moved to respond. The newly created Angola Export and Trade Development Facility aims to boost exports and reinforce the country’s position in Africa’s trade and industrial development, while a dedicated legal framework for startups now offers three-year exemptions from industrial, property and customs taxes, plus a 75% reduction in capital investment tax for investors backing technological and creative ventures, measures aligned with the country’s National Development Plan 2023–2027.
South Africa: Progress Undercut by Trade Uncertainty
South Africa tells a more constrained but still improving story. Its NECI score rose slightly to 3.9 in 2025, moving the country up to 47th globally from 49th the previous year, though the report notes this still reflects “persistent challenges in infrastructure, policy support and access to finance.”
Of 13 Framework Conditions, national experts rated only one, Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics as sufficient, while Government Entrepreneurial Programmes, Ease of Entry: Burdens and Regulation and Government Policy: Support and Relevance all scored among the weakest globally.
The report’s policy roadmap for South Africa flags a specific geopolitical pressure point. The future of the country’s trade relationship with the United States remains uncertain following the expiration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in September 2025, compounded by a 30% reciprocal U.S. tariff imposed on a wide range of South African exports whose full effects have yet to unfold.
Domestically, the government has responded with the National Youth Development Agency’s R2.5 billion ($146.5 million) youth empowerment initiative launched in 2025 to extend loans and equity support to young entrepreneurs, alongside the National Small Enterprise Amendment Act, which took effect in July 2024 to strengthen financial and non-financial support for micro, small and medium enterprises.
The lived entrepreneurial experience in South Africa reflects real, if uneven, progress. The share of adults starting or running a new business rose to 15% in 2025 from 11% in 2023, even as those owning established businesses fell to just 4% from 6%, a pattern the report says “suggests a surge in early-stage activity, although with fewer businesses reaching maturity.”
Nearly three in 10 new entrepreneurs now report customers beyond South Africa’s borders, up from two in 10 in 2023, and more than one in three anticipate employing six or more people within five years, a sharp rise from one in five in 2023.
Morocco Shows What Policy-Driven Progress Can Look Like
Morocco’s trajectory shows the clearest signs of policy-driven improvement among the three. Its NECI score climbed to 4.2 in 2025 from 3.9 the previous year, placing it 40th globally, with three of 13 Framework Conditions, Physical Infrastructure, Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics and Commercial and Professional Infrastructure now rated sufficient, up from two the prior year.
The report credits Morocco’s new Investment Charter, expanded guarantee and financing mechanisms for micro-enterprises and continued digitalisation of business registration procedures, alongside the country’s deepening role as a regional trade hub through free trade agreements with the EU, the U.S. and African partners under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
A Rare Bright Spot on Gender and an Unexpected Sustainability Edge
Across all three countries, a shared pattern emerges around gender. The report highlights that established business ownership is largely male-dominated globally, with only six economies, including Angola, Poland, Luxembourg, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, having a gender gap of less than one percentage point.
This stands out against a global trend where men outnumber women in established business ownership by two-to-one or worse in 16 of the 48 economies surveyed.
Sustainability and digital adoption also stand out as unexpected strengths across the African economies studied.
Nine in 10 new Angolan entrepreneurs prioritize social or environmental impact over profitability, the highest among GEM 2025 economies. Meanwhile, awareness of the need for AI solutions in Morocco rose from 4.1 to 4.9 in 2024, indicating increased engagement with digital transformation despite limited AI adoption infrastructure.
Ambition Isn’t the Problem
Taken together, the three profiles reinforce a broader argument running through this year’s GEM report: across Sub-Saharan and North African economies alike, entrepreneurship is not being held back by a shortage of ambition, ideas or willingness to take risk.
It is being constrained by the systemic scaffolding,financing access, regulatory ease, physical infrastructure and research-to-market transfer mechanisms that determine whether entrepreneurial energy converts into durable, scalable businesses rather than survivalist, short-lived ventures.
For policymakers and investors weighing where catalytic capital and reform efforts could generate the greatest return, the report’s data suggests African markets may offer some of the sharpest gaps between demonstrated entrepreneurial demand and available institutional support anywhere in the world.
