A report released Monday (Jan. 17) highlights the trials and tribulations of being a Black entrepreneur in Alberta, according to the CBC.

Published by the Africa Centre and the Pan African Collaboration for Excellence (PACE) at the University of Alberta, the report — The State of Black Entrepreneurs in Alberta — outlined systemic inequities, a lack of access to market research and support, and access to credit and loans as key barriers that Black entrepreneurs face.

Moreover, it urged organizations supporting Black entrepreneurs to provide or lead them to financial education courses and training programs that boost technical and soft skills.

“Almost all Black entrepreneurs face resource acquisition and mobilization challenges in their entrepreneurial journey,” the report reads. “Black community organizations interested in fostering entrepreneurship must help build upon such a network of professional entrepreneurial linkages to build a communal sense of social trust as well as put sufficient mechanisms in place to offer workshops and training programs to provide the relevant business skills.”

Dr. Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika, director of PACE, said that while the Canadian government has actively embraced the promotion of entrepreneurship as a creator of jobs and a path to regional development, Black communities, a fast-growing segment of marginalized populations, “fall outside its vision.”

“Entrepreneurship could offer a myriad of opportunities to climb the ladder of economic success. Yet, Blacks face daunting barriers to accessing self-employment and their rates of entrepreneurial activity fall way below that of Canada’s general population,” she said in the report.

Financial support, building networking hubs imperative

In the first research stage for the report, 12 people were interviewed; in the second stage, 256 participants were given a questionnaire to fill out. Eighty-eight per cent of participants were either immigrants from Africa or descendants of African immigrants.

Participants launched companies in a range of sectors, including retail and agriculture. Manufacturing (17.2 per cent) was the most often reported industry, followed by services (16.8 per cent) and then construction (12.9 per cent), according to the report.

Generational and family wealth were the most common reasons for starting a business. However, the report suggested Black entrepreneurs experienced difficulties getting loans from banks, making the road to success arduous.

“From our own personal savings that we used … we depleted everything,” says an entrepreneur who detailed their experience in the report.

Many said they don't bother going to the banks for money because they don't believe they'll be successful in getting funding from banks that, in the past, have had racist undertones toward Black entrepreneurs in Alberta, according to the report.

Data in the report shows nearly 50.9 per cent used personal savings to start a business, while 46.6 per cent relied on family savings and 39.2 per cent took to credit cards.

“That is not acceptable. That is not going to lead to actually making your business prosper,” Okeke-Ihejirika told CBC.

The report also invoked the notion, according to Okeke-Ihejirika, that Black entrepreneurs have little access to social capital networks to launch enterprises.

“People who start businesses in our communities do not have a grandfather or grandmother who has left some wealth with them,” she told CBC.

More training and education needed for business owners

The report made several recommendations, one of which was that Black community organizations assisting Black entrepreneurs should urge them to enrol in courses on financial literacy before launching their enterprises.

According to the report, only 22 per cent of participants claimed to have completed business-related training or education.

“We need a real education system starting in the high schools and even junior high-level junior achievers. I was a member of that as a young person. One of the only Black people in there, I didn’t see Black people,” the report reads.

It also called on organizations of all backgrounds to provide training that allows businesses to grow and expand their customer base beyond their curated communities.

Only 51 per cent of respondents named the broader public as their audience, while other companies only catered to Black customers, according to the research.

“Black community organizations interested in fostering entrepreneurship must help build upon such a network of professional, entrepreneurial linkages to build a communal sense of social trust as well as put sufficient mechanisms in place to offer workshops and training programs to provide the relevant business skills,” the report reads.