Blue Economy Entrepreneurs

Given the range of economic sectors, industries and stakeholders that make up the blue economy in Seychelles, an important challenge for stakeholders lies in understanding and better managing the entrepreneurship aspect related to economic diversification, shared prosperity and oceanic sustainability.

This project sought to understand the local blue entrepreneurial landscape and identify opportunities to unlock the blue economy’s potential whilst prioritising conservation and inclusive prosperity.

By incorporating a set of methodologies, including literature reviews, quantitative and qualitative surveys, as well as conducting specialised sessions with stakeholders, the project produced a comprehensive entrepreneurship ecosystem on the blue economy in Seychelles.  This entrepreneurship ecosystem summarised the landscape of the blue economy sector in Seychelles by identifying relevant stakeholders.

The surveys provided great insight into the perception of entrepreneurship within the blue economy sector. There were 198 participants who participated in the surveys, and 18 stakeholder members took part in one-to-one qualitative interviews. The results were that 44% of the participants found that starting a new business was a desirable career choice. 40 % found that it takes too long to complete the administrative actions required to start a business. Only 25% had seen coverage of local entrepreneurs and businesses in the local media and 75% found regulations and licensing to be an issue when founding a new business.