Read: The rankings are in for

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 27: Affluent black business people attend a gala dinner organized by the Black Management Forum on June 27, 2008, at Emperors, a posh casino hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Zuma, the possible future president of South Africa, was the keynote speaker at the event. A rapidly growing class of rich black entrepreneurs can be found in private businesses rewarded by contracts in government departments and in private business. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Read: The rankings are in for “most entrepreneurial” nations

How are our local entrepreneurs fairing?

Read: The rankings are in for

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 27: Affluent black business people attend a gala dinner organized by the Black Management Forum on June 27, 2008, at Emperors, a posh casino hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Zuma, the possible future president of South Africa, was the keynote speaker at the event. A rapidly growing class of rich black entrepreneurs can be found in private businesses rewarded by contracts in government departments and in private business. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Are South African entrepreneurs succeeding? Do they even have the platform to succeed in our country? These are only a few of a multitude of questions, latest studies show that there is some good news for South African entrepreneurs.

A report from the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute shows that entrepreneurs here at home are overcoming various negative influences. The report shows that when it comes to entrepreneurship, South Africa is on par with other middle-income countries. The report ranks South Africa second on the African content. (behind Botswana) Internationally, we sit unsurprisingly in the bottom half of the table, 55th out of 137 countries.

So who did the report say we beat out on a global scale? Any surprises?

When compared to other countries with a higher per capita GDP, the report found that South Africa has better conditions for entrepreneurship than Mexico, Brazil, Russia and China.  That means we surprisingly beat out two of our BRICS partners.

The report was commissioned by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation as well as South African Breweries (SAB), the local companies say they asked for the report in order to “better understand the role that entrepreneurship is playing in the country.”

But what are some of the hurdles that our entrepreneurs are overcoming? Structural factors it seems, such as the country’s slow GDP growth rate together with the number of large firms dominating the local business market.  Allan Gray CEO Anthony Farr is happy with the report’s findings.

“The report confirms South Africa’s position as an entrepreneurial leader on the continent and provides an insightful road map for us to focus in on those areas that will provide the greatest leverage for accelerating our entrepreneurial ecosystem even further.”

So is this a glimmer of good news coming out of our country at the moment? The report says for entrepreneurs to get the assistance they truly need, access to digital and mobile banking needs to be greatly improved. For now though, it seems we’re going in the right direction.