Keynote: State of the Ecosystem for Youth Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – under the Youth Co:Lab initiative co-led by UNDP and Citi Foundation – the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Startup Bangladesh Limited produced this first-of-its-kind study named State of the Ecosystem for Youth Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh to provide data-driven recommendations to strengthen the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and amplify the potential of youth-led enterprises. LightCastle Partners conducted and consolidated the research for this paper in an effort to provide an overview of the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem of our country.

Check out some key insights from the Keynote presentation by Bijon Islam, Co-founder & CEO of LightCastle Partners, at the report launch of State of the Ecosystem for Youth Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

Key Findings

• Bangladesh has a demographic dividend of young individuals. Evidently, 36 percent of the population is youth translating to 57 million individuals.
• As of 2020, the unemployment rate stood at 5.3 percent, while the unemployment rate among educated youth was 38 percent.
• Bangladesh has a high-density dividend, with a population concentration of 39 percent in urban areas. High urban migration causes a population density of 1265 people per square kilometre. This obviously results in a consumer market that largely contributes to economic growth.
• Rural young people especially look towards expanding their livelihoods and careers to urban centres as hubs of opportunity.
• Bangladesh HIES 2016 estimates about 14.5 percent of the surveyed households relied on business as their main income source. So, almost 9.45 million individuals rely on entrepreneurial activity as their primary source of income.
• Approximately 36.2 percent of the population falls into the youth category. Assuming similar representation in the workforce, there are 3.8 million young entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
• According to the BBS Economic Census (2013), there were 7.8 million CMSMEs. Surprisingly, 71 percent of those enterprises are in rural areas (5.6 million enterprises).
• Women’s participation in youth entrepreneurship is low in comparison to their male counterparts. Bangladesh stands 65th out of 156 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index. Cultural and social barriers, access to finance and the work-life balance explicitly affect female entrepreneurship.