Bernard Lama Ngota, Elroy Eugene Smith, Ayanda Pamella Deliwe

Abstract

The importance of African immigrant entrepreneurial skills acquisition is understudied both globally and in South Africa. Hence, the current study aimed at investigating how African immigrant entrepreneurs learned entrepreneurial skills that prepare them for entrepreneurship in their host country, such as South Africa, using a qualitative research approach. An exploratory research design was used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 African immigrant entrepreneurs who were specifically chosen to take part in the study. Content analysis was used to analyse the collected data. Entrepreneurial skills from family business, entrepreneurial knowledge from traineeship/apprenticeship, entrepreneurial knowledge from school, and entrepreneurial skills from business space emerged as four broad sub-themes. Aside from the themes that emerged, the demographic information of the African immigrant entrepreneur was also examined. The findings revealed that African immigrant entrepreneurs acquired entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and experience from family business, from apprenticeship, from school, and learning directly from the business environment. Based on the empirical findings, recommendations were made to help make African immigrant entrepreneurship more appealing, as this could benefit indigenous people through skill transfer.