Untapped Opportunities

ICT Business Incubation Centers¿ were established in Ethiopia as part and parcel of poverty reduction strategy for the country in generating employment opportunities and self-employment of young youth university graduates within the country. On top of this, promoting of the private sector through support of entrepreneurial skill development has been another strategy to exploit the sector¿s benefit. For the country, supporting the establishment of ICT BICs is a recent beginning as the sector itself has not yet developed. The rationale of this study was to assess the challenges and prospects of ICT BICs established in four regional national states, Ethiopia. In this study the emphasis has been given to BICs, Tenant-companies, company members, and Service users of the companies. The analysis and discussions were mainly focused on contribution of BICs, the current status, sustainability and factors affecting it, and exploring satisfaction of service users. Furthermore, the analysis of the study has incorporated the ideas, and opinions of interviewees at different level including the informant interviewees, and feedback from group discussions.