ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the realities of challenges in operating businesses, with a focus on COVID-19. It explains the already existing challenges that confront businesses and entrepreneurship in Africa, with COVID-19 presenting new dynamics of challenges, highlighting micro-entrepreneurs and sports entrepreneurs as the hardest hit. The book discusses the challenges that informal entrepreneurs and business owners are confronted with and suggests appropriate strategies that can keep them in business. It utilizes a case study from Nigeria to give an empirical lens to the challenges that rural businesses encounter in the quest to go beyond local borders. The book provides an understanding of the dynamics that exists as well as the complexities that play out in the transition. It focuses on how gender dynamics interacts with business development and entrepreneurial growth.
