The choice of Austin Okere to give the keynote address for the 2012 graduating class at the fourth Executive MBA graduation ceremony of the China Europe International Business School’s Africa Programme at Accra mid-July came as no surprise.
Okere, founder and CEO of the highly successful Computer Warehouse Group, in addition to being a shining example of entrepreneurial success in Africa, has left significant academic footprints in his trial.
He was quite recently appointed as an Entrepreneur in Residence by Columbia Business School, New York.
Okere, guest lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston as well as the Lagos Business School in Nigeria and the United States International University in Kenya.
He has also facilitated the Lean Launch Pad Block Week with serial entrepreneurs Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, co-authors of the bestselling Start-up Owner’s Manual.
The China Europe International business School, established in 1994 as a non-profit joint venture between the European Commission and the Chinese Government has risen to become one of the best Business Schools in the world today, having made the Financial Times Top 30 worldwide for eight consecutive years.
Professor Pedro Nueno, President of CEIBS, who gave the opening remarks, has also been instrumental to setting up five other Business Schools including IESE in Spain, IAE in Argentina, AESE in Portugal, and IPADE in Mexico.
Over the last few decades, Western business schools have increasingly turned their sights on Africa, with dozens of leading schools launching faculty-exchange programs, sending classes on tours of sub-Saharan Africa, and forging partnerships with local schools.
Now a handful of European, Asian, and U.S. schools are taking their involvement in the African management education scene a step further, setting up their own campuses, helping the continent’s emerging economies develop executive MBA and other degree programs, and setting up academic research centers.
The efforts come at a time when the management education scene in Africa has started to heat up, spurred by a growing middle class that is demanding a more Western-style business school experience, said Guy Pfefferman, chief executive officer of the Global Business School Network, a nonprofit formed by the International Finance Corp. to improve the quality of business education in emerging markets.
Making his remarks, Professor Kwaku Atuahene-Gima executive director of the CEIBS Africa Programme noted that CEIBS opened its Ghana program in 2009, conferring a CEIBS degree with no local academic partner, a distinction he claims sets it apart from most Western schools that have entered Africa.
The first executive MBA class enrolled in March of 2009, with 30 students from Ghana and 10 from Nigeria. This fourth cohort graduated 28 students.
The two-year program costs students around $30,000 dollars, about half of what the same degree would cost outside the continent, Atuahene-Gima said.
There are clearly other advantages of pursuing a local Executive MBA degree; for a start, there is no requirement for a long leave of absence where a return to the job may not be guaranteed.
Moreover, Executive MBA students on the continent maintain the local context in the course of their business study, as well as build the necessary network of contacts that may well be relatively more relevant in the course of their careers.
The rash of business schools into Africa is not without its skeptics though.
According to Walter Baets, Director of the University Of Cape Town Graduate School Of Business, it seems Africa, must brace itself for another wave of colonisation.
This time he contends, it is “western-style” business schools that, after ignoring Africa for decades, are now flocking to its shores with enthusiasm.
Almost without exception, these incoming schools talk about bringing pre-existing European/US models to Africa as if this will be the answer to all of the continent’s problems.
None, it seems, has paused to consider whether Africa really will benefit from what they are offering, or if they are missing an opportunity to create something better. We can achieve more by working together and respecting multiple perspectives than we can by merely replicating past models in new contexts Mr. Baets contended.
There are currently no business schools in sub-Saharan Africa that are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), one of the leading accreditation agencies, said Jerry Trapnell, AACSB’s vice-president and chief accreditation officer. In West Africa, only two Business Schools have international accreditations: CEIBS through EQUIS and the Lagos Business School through IESE.
Okere’s key message, aptly titled‘this is our time’, highlighted entrepreneurship opportunities in Africa and the need to urgently equip ourselves to take full advantage.
According to Okere “It is better to have a thousand millionaires than ten billionaires. It is better still to have a million people with access to a hundred thousand dollars, if they can be taught how to nurture and grow it through entrepreneurial endeavor”. He continued, “I like to put the story of the Computer Warehouse Group out there because such success stories contribute immensely to the attraction of capital to the region, which combined with the entrepreneurial acumen and the youthful population unleashes waves of economic boom”.
According to him, Africa has a rapidly growing young population, which could bring a democratic dividend if optimally tapped, or constitute a source of social unrest, if millions of Africans continue to enter the labour market without any hope of employment. Entrepreneurship, he declared, is the catalyst for economic growth as it provides the most viable vehicle for job creation.
His passion for entrepreneurial advocacy he says stems from his desire to see the Human Capital gainfully engaged through sustainable Start Ups rather than chasing non-existent jobs.
To buttress his point, Okere cited a survey of 3,692 MIT alumni who graduated between 1987 and 2007.
The survey results showed that 40% of respondents have started their own companies, with 70% doing so within five years of graduation. 41% of PhD alumni have a patent or invention.
In his view, this could not have been possible without the strong entrepreneurship education and encouragement that America offers.
He charged the fresh MBA Graduates to go out there and leave their footprints in the sands of time, having received the crucial empowerment.
Other Speakers included Mr. Gong Jianzhong, Chinese ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Mary Brown, deputy managing director of Prudential Bank/CEIBS Alumni representative, and Dr Marisa Del Pozo, Professor at Complutense University.