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The debate that entrepreneurship is an engine of economic development has been a long-standing one. The higher the level of entrepreneurial activities, the higher the economic development. However, this literature is contradictory or elusive in Sub-Saharan Africa. Entrepreneurial activities are high in Africa, but economic development is not. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM, 2017) data, the chapter discusses some of the contradictory factors. Further data were collected from 60 businesses, 20 each from Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda for more clarification in 2019. The results show that the economic development is solely measured in economic terms. Entrepreneurship in Africa operates in an embedded context quite different from that of developed nations. Africans are often only making do with the environment in which they find themselves; thus, entrepreneurship in Africa should not be seen as unproductive considering the context and motives of the entrepreneurs.

Increasing evidence from high-income countries has revealed the positive impacts of creative entrepreneurship on the local economy, and these have attracted substantial attention in recent years. Creative industries are considered as the seedbeds for innovation; they are highly innovative and productive and are seen as drivers of economic development and social change. Creative industries are distinctive in that they have several transaction networks and income streams. Although creative industries are generating increasing interest in the minds of researchers and policy-makers in developed countries, the institutional and economic settings in Cameroon and other developing nations may not be so conducive to creative industries. The available evidence is insufficient to understand their performance and sustainability, let alone to estimate their contribution to the rest of the economy. This chapter demonstrates how the creative industries could contribute to the economic and social development of a nation. The chapter further explores the current situation of creative industries in Cameroon, with a focus on the artists of popular and folk music, the challenges they are facing, and provides ways forward.