Growing Africa from Within

Freidrich Nietzsche wrote: ‘What really raises one’s indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering’ Sadly, this is the reality of many Africans. The continent is strangulated not only by the reality of her present circumstances but by the absence of role models and good leadership. The need to correct this inadequacy is the purpose of The Foundation for African Leadership in Business (ALB).

The Foundation for African Leadership in Business (ALB) creates business leaders by ensuring that the need of promising students to fund their management education is met. The Foundation also uses business as a platform to raise leaders committed to the more important project of building up Africa and Africans.

Why Africa? Despite being credited as the cradle of civilization, and also being the 2nd most populated and the most natural resource-rich continent on the planet, Africa’s claim of the world’s wealth in terms of GDP is a paltry 2%. This is clearly reflected in the number of African students that pursue advanced courses in management in comparison to students from other continents. The founding members of the foundation, who are four MBA graduates from three continents, chose to focus on Africa because “Africa needs it more”.

Only with the active participation of Africans can Africa be developed in a consistent and sustainable way. This is why the core of the ALB Foundation is to push to the forefront not only Africans who show the requisite acumen for business management, but those who have a commitment to return to Africa with their newly acquired perspectives. Congratulations to the lucky recipients of the 2011 ALB scholarship, Andrew Tarawali from Sierra Leone and Funmilayo Odushola from Nigeria.