The Role of Finance and Microentrepreneurship in the Informal Economy

On June 20 2016 I defended successfully my thesis at the University of Agder in Norway. Since then I am affiliated with the Stockholm School of Economics, where I do research, supervise students and teach in courses related to entrepreneurship both in the Executive MBA program and also in the Master program. I also hold a position as an Associate Professor at Hauge School of Management at NLA Høgskole in Oslo, currently teaching a bachelor course in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. My focus area is on financing of entrepreneurship. Building on the learnings from my thesis, I  founded MTI Investment AS together with my supervisor, Professor Trond Randøy, and two fellow PhDs from Tanzania, Dr. Neema Mori and Dr. Gibson Munisi. It is my firm belief, that while financing microentrepreneurs in the informal economy do help people make more money, and also stay away from criminal activity, informal societies and developing countries need more small and medium sized businesses. We seem to be fixated with this romanticized idea that all people are entrepreneurs, but if we were to go back 100 years in time and look at Norway and Sweden from a distance – would we have suggested microfinance as the solution to get people out of poverty. While it is helpful, why shy away from financing the real job creators in an economy, the small and medium-sized firms.