The NileView
On the occasion of Africa Day, how can business schools help transform the future of the continent?
Today Africa is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Africa Day. On 25 May 1963, delegates from 30 African nations met in Addis Ababa to establish the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to commemorate Africa’s independence. In 2001, OAU became the African Union (AU).
Africa is the world’s oldest and second-largest continent, with a population of 1.3 billion people. The continent is home to 54 countries and over 2,000 languages and dialects. The population of Africa is one of the fastest growing in the world, with no less than 80 percent living in urban areas over the next few decades. By 2030, 20 percent of the world’s population will be African; by 2040, 90 cities in Africa will have at least 1 million people, and by 2050, the continent’s population will double, reaching 2.5 billion people who will represent 25 percent of the world’s population, of which 60 percent will be under the age of 25 and 30 percent of the world’s children will be in Africa. The United Nations expects the population to reach 4.5 billion people by 2100.
This massive young population will require a variety of needs, but on top of all, timely and relevant quality education, lifelong learning, and capacity building that constantly adapt to changes taking place to allow them to level up to their potential and make a difference and an impact to society, whether working in traditional economic sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, and service or the fast-evolving digital environments and green industries.
As the world moves closer to halfway into the third decade of the 21st century, Africa remains the continent with the most challenges, with many divides between and within regions as well as between and within countries, and yet with the most untapped prospects. While the challenges include but are not limited to poverty, hunger, corruption, insecurity, water scarcity, biodiversity, desertification, energy crisis, food crisis, health security, social and economic stability, and climate change implications, the opportunities remain diverse and promising, including natural resources, infrastructure development, human capital investment, agriculture, tourism, digital transformation, investing in value-chains and much more.
The question is how can education in general, from K-12 to higher education institutions and business schools in specific, help in Africa’s development journey and prepare––through quality, relevant, and current business and management education––the next generation of African leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and change agents to transform the continent’s future and impact lives and livelihoods?
Business schools can play a key role in elevating the level of education in Africa and, consequently, societal development and economic wealth. Business schools can help African economies establish more enterprises and create more future-ready jobs, which will have direct implications on employment coupled with more career choices and opportunities.
Business schools have the potential to have an effective and impactful impact on societies and help positively change the future of Africa and Africans through their academic triangle of offerings: teaching and learning, research and service, including advocacy, capacity building, and community development activities. However, a critical differentiating factor would be the ability of business schools to customize their business and management education offerings to the context, nature, values, challenges, and prospects in Africa. More importantly, these offerings should be accessible and affordable to demonstrate societal equity and inclusion.
In addition to the traditional academic degrees in disciplines such as business, finance, marketing, accounting, and information technology, business schools must integrate throughout their offerings competencies and traits that can shape the minds of future generations, such as digital skills and capacities, adaptability, flexibility, agility, compassion, creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, critical thinking, complex problem solving, design and creative thinking, communication, leadership, family business, responsible business, civic engagement, governance, and ethics. Business schools should prepare leaders who are better educated, skilled, resilient, curious, responsible, and engaged with a global mindset to navigate today’s complex and uncertain environment.
Business schools constitute one of Africa’s fastest-growing higher education institutions, responding to a growing demand for academic degrees and capacity-building programs. The question is—Does Africa have today enough business schools offering the quality of education that can help transform the future of the continent? Does Africa need more business schools? Do business schools in Africa collaborate and partner with each other? Do they learn from each other? Are they accredited? What should they do differently to maximize their impact? How can they approach the growing challenges and contribute to socioeconomic development? How can they prepare next-generation leaders through an agile, flexible, and adaptive learning approach?
Africa needs many more business schools in all regions, in the north, east, west, and sub-Saharan Africa. To improve and scale up the impact, each country should have—depending on multiple factors including the population size and available resources—no less than three or even four good and accredited business schools. However, it is not just the number of business schools that will make the difference; it is the quality of the programs offered, the relevance of the curriculum, the adaptation to the local context, and the exposure to global issues, trends, and directions. Furthermore, business schools in Africa should be driven by excellence in education and lifelong learning, preparing home-grown faculty talent, and developing Africa-centric content and case studies, reflecting their values, traditions, and how they do business.
Business schools in Africa can potentially have a more strategic and influential role. Given the relative similarity in some of their challenges, they need to collaborate more and learn from each other. They should embrace digitalization with its potential to reconfigure businesses, economic growth, and the future of work. With the right policies and well-trained capacities, digitalization can boost sustainable development, especially in African economies. Digitalization could be a game changer in youth engagement and women’s empowerment. However, this calls for more connectivity, less digital fragmentation, more bridges than digital and societal divides, and fewer barriers. Through community development activities and capacity-building programs in collaboration with civil society and the private sector, business schools could play a significant role in society's readiness for the digital economy.
The future of Africa will be shaped by its young population, which is increasingly becoming tech-savvy and overwhelmingly composed of digital natives supported by 500+ digital hubs, primarily in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia and leading to an exponential growth in the use of software applications, cloud computing, and internet services. How can business schools transform their offerings by embracing digitalization? Are they offering certificates to help reskill and upskill their students and learners? Are they preparing their graduates for the emerging innovative future of work trends?
Furthermore, many Africans are passionate about the prospects of entrepreneurship and innovation. Therefore, business schools play an invaluable role in scaling up their entrepreneurship and innovation programs and activities, which are increasingly demanded across the continent. Many African entrepreneurs need capacity building—offering an opportunity for business schools to become an integral part of each nation’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as their educational partners. Such youthful demographics could be a tremendous force that can help catalyze economic growth.
Other than business schools, there are institutions in the continent that support business and management education in Africa, including the African Academy of Management (AFAM), fostering research, teaching, and practice of management in Africa and among African scholars worldwide; the Association of African Business Schools (AABS), promoting excellence in business and management education through capacity building, collaboration, and quality improvement; and the African Management Institute offering practical business and management learning for Africa. Africa needs more, much more.
On the occasion of Africa Day, the future of the continent will be determined by how far African countries will go in investing in their human capital through lifelong learning and capacity building to prepare the next-gen of African leaders. The future of Africa can be changed by creating an enabling environment where higher education institutions, including business schools, can partner with different stakeholders in society––such as the government, the private sector, and civil society––to maximize their impact in addressing Africa’s challenges.
About the author: Sherif Kamel is a Professor of Management and Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo.
25 May 2023
Issue #30
Deep and enlightening
Very insightful