CHAPTER 4
Industrial Clusters and Business Performance of Micro and Small Enterprises in Africa Can industrial clusters provide an environment for micro and small enterprises to improve their businesses? In collaboration with researchers affiliated with the African Economic Research Consortium, the World Bank team conducted case studies of select industrial clusters in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa—Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Rwanda—and collected quantitative and qualitative data from those clusters.1 These five countries were selected based on knowledge about the existence of industrial clusters as well as income, geographic, and linguistic variations among countries. In total, 15 clusters were covered from these five countries. Those 15 clusters are presented in table 4.1.2 Following the definition of industrial clusters discussed in chapter 3, the clusters covered by the case studies were chosen on the basis of geographic concentration of the same or related industrial or commercial activities, with a focus on spontaneously grown natural industrial clusters. The decision of how narrowly to define geographic concentration varies depending on the geographic setting of the country as well as the industry. In Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda, all clusters in manufacturing sectors are visible physical concentrations of enterprises located in relatively narrowly defined geographic areas, such as blocks, streets, and
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