INSEAD Africa Initiative

Business-government partnerships will play a transformative role in accelerating sustainable growth in Africa. Through IAI we hope to create the scholarship to contribute to such partnerships, and train future business leaders to lead them.

Prashant Yadav
Affiliate Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD;
Academic Director, INSEAD Africa Initiative

The distinctively unique continent of Africa, with its wealth of natural resources and human capital, makes a special contribution to global business and society. At the Africa Initiative, we look forward to learning from and about Africa as well as sharing management knowledge and best practice to enhance its continued success.

Vinika D.Rao
Executive Director, INSEAD Africa Initiative, Gender Initiative & Emerging Markets Institute
Asia Director, Hoffmann Global Institute for Business & Society

We look forward to engaging with current and future leaders across Africa to capture an extraordinary opportunity. Together, we can realize a sustainable future where healthy communities, healthy ecosystems and healthy economies grow together.

Katell Le Goulven, Ph.D
Executive Director
Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society

Africa provides many opportunities for mutual learning with INSEAD on gender balance. With significant gender gaps in many African countries connected to education, earnings, and leadership, cocreation of wise practices to develop equity can emerge for Africa’s benefit. Plus, Africa’s brilliant women leaders provide valuable insights for the world.

Zoe Kinias
Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
Academic Director, INSEAD Gender Initiative Chair, Organisational Behaviour Area

Africa: so many opportunities to do well by doing good! Given INSEAD’s strengths in international business and entrepreneurship education, we look forward to supporting both local and international players capture these opportunities. The INSEAD Africa Initiative is our commitment to making this happen.

Michael A. Witt
Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy and International Business
INSEAD

The African continent offers us new insights into business practices, innovation, leadership, and more. Yet Africa and Africans are under-represented in our research and classrooms. The INSEAD Africa Initiative aims to rectify this.

Narayan Pant
Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired
Professor of Leadership
Development, INSEAD

We need a new way of thinking about Africa – from the predominant development-through-aid perspective to a development-through-business perspective. Business academia can help drive that change by asking new research questions steeped in the rich and diverse contexts of the countries on the Continent and focused on understanding the roles business, and specifically large multinationals, play in shaping economic development. It is essential that we use a business lens to create and advance deeper more nuanced understandings of development for Africa.

Lite J. Nartey
Visiting Professor of Strategy at INSEAD

Equity! That is the conversation we finally need to have about Africa and then take real action. Why must Africa continue to be treated as less than when Africa’s resources, both natural and human, have been the foundation of modern wealth for many? It is time for a new conversation.

Lucy Quist
INSEAD Board Member
MBA '05J
Author, The Bold New Normal

Family entrepreneurs create the foundation for Africa's future growth and prosperity. Family businesses are powerful because they see their enterprises as both economic and social contributors to their communities and countries. INSEAD has been honored to train many African family businesses through our degree and executive education programs.

Dr. Randel S. Carlock
Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Emeritus Professor in Enterpreneurial Leadership

Africa used to be called “the hopeless continent” by The Economist; it has now become the continent of “1.2 billion opportunities”. The most important opportunity is better education and a better life of the people on this great continent.

Beatrice Weder di Mauro
Professor of Economics, INSEAD,
CEPR and Graduate Institute Geneva

The ‘Business School for the World’ has to substantially grow its interest in the African continent.  ’Business as a Force for Good’ implies that we use our knowledge, on technology, health, business models and supply chain management, in finding creative solutions, e.g. in curbing possible future pandemics.

Luk Van Wassenhove
Emeritus Professor of Technology and Operations Management
Academic Director INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group

Africa’s rapid urbanization, rising population, and growing markets make it extraordinary attractive for investments. Businesses will play a transformative role in the coming decades with new business models and innovations tailored to the local context.

Pushan Dutt
Professor of Economics
INSEAD

INSEAD has always been dedicated to being international. The Africa Initiative is an integral part of this commitment. I am proud to be associated with it and look forward to the continuing journey of mutual learning.

Henrik Bresman
Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
INSEAD

Demographically, Africa is China in 1965 and India in 1995. Nurture the youth of Africa over the next 20-30 years and they will solve the problems of the planet in the latter half of the 21st century. African youth are the future. How can we help them on their journeys?

Claudia Zeisberger
Senior Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise
Academic Co-Director Global Private Equity Initiative (GPEI)

Africa has so much richness, diversity as a source of learning, and people with talent and creativity to support opportunities for growth.

Stephen E Chick
Professor of Technology Management
Novartis Chair of Healthcare Management, INSEAD

I am looking forward to teach for the first time in Rwanda in the Valuation and Risk Management Programme. I hope this is the beginning of a long-lasting engagement with the African continent.

Theo Vermaelen
Professor of Finance
INSEAD

Africa’s collective future needs innovation that takes place within the context of communities, experiments to find alternative strategies while addressing social needs to unearth power of all people, fostering technology as enabler, and collaboration to learn from different worlds. Thought leaders serve to enhance engagement of professionals based on humanistic principles, that value individuality, integrity, and serving the community.

Dominique Lecossois
Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD
Emerging Markets Institute

With challenge comes opportunity, and this makes Africa such a promising continent for ambitious entrepreneurs and their investors. INSEAD’s role in providing knowledge and experience to the next generation of African startup leaders could be a game changer to its entrepreneurial success.

Bill Magill
Visiting Lecturer of Entrepreneurship, INSEAD

Data about people, who are most in need of help, are often scarce and lack quality. This should not deter research and innovation. Instead, we should seek to help others, make do with what is available now, and explain how current practices should be changed to support future research.

Ville Satopaa
Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD

Honored to contribute to INSEAD Africa Initiative delivering our first Executive Education Programme in Rwanda in partnership with Brussels Africa Hub, Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Finance Limited. A country of great ambitions for the whole African continent developing future Leaders in the financial sector.

Katy Falcao
Corporate Partnerships,
INSEAD Executive Education

Africa is on the move, making great strides to overcome its challenges and unlock its tremendous economic and business potential. Undoubtedly, the region will be the world’s next big growth market in the decades ahead. By launching the INSEAD Africa Initiative, the institution’s leadership demonstrates its confidence in the future of Africa and its commitment to be a key catalyst of its success.

Dr. Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly
Vice President, Global Economy and Development
The Brookings Institution, Washington DC

The European Union and Africa have committed to an equal partnership to enable them to achieve the UN SDGs. Knowledge partnerships with the private and educational sectors are integral to this commitment and should be extended further. Institutions like INSEAD have the expertise to enhance the impact that well-chosen policies, strengthened institutional capacities, and more effective governance, will have on the challenges to economic and social growth and stability. Multi-lateral and multi-sectoral collaboration that build on past successes and correct areas of under-performance, notably in the organization of domestic and international financing resources and the regulation of trade relations, urgently need to be addressed.

Thomas C Barrett
Senior non-resident Fellow, Global and Development, Brookings Institution DC FMR Chairman of the OECD Infrastructure Governance Forum.
FMR Director of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Permanent Representative of the EIB to the United States. INSEAD'78

Africa’s share of the global population under 35 is 23%, and yet Africa’s share of Global GDP is only +-3%. Technological advances are making it possible for people with very limited resources to participate politically and economically like never before. So with the world’s youngest and fastest urbanising continent, we at Adansonia believe this 23% / 3% ratio will look very different by 2040!

Brendon Jones
CEO, Adansonia Group

The 4th industrial revolution is driving global change towards stakeholder capitalism and sustainable development. Africa is uniquely positioned to lead the way with its rich natural resources and diverse societies. For instance, the AI-powered rating tool ESG GPS is built by Africans for Africa and the rest of the world, to create a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future for all.

Andrey Bogdanov
Interim CEO, Risk Insights and Co-Chair
World Economic Forum New
Champions Chapter South Africa

My first glimpse of the African continent was when arriving by sea, after a passage of 31 days from the Cabo Verde Islands, early in the morning with the sun slowly illuminating Cape Town. I was impressed with the hard working and friendly people I met. To me, it is clear that we Europeans should be in the frontline supporting Africa’s development.  While the colonial history had many negative aspects, it left a heritage of languages, culture and administration systems. Our collaboration should be in the context of general business and governance, where INSEAD is perfectly placed, with its managerial education programmes, know-how of start-ups, ESG, multiculturalism and modern business methods in general.

Ole K Røed
Retired
INSEAD MBA'69

The INSEAD Africa Initiative is in a unique position to build trust between the aid agencies and the private sector to accelerate development. In this regard its support to the sustainable development goals is highly commendable. IAI may wish to consider elaborating indicators that measure results of specific SDG goals to which INSEAD contributes. Establishing an Africa Information Centre would enhance knowledge of Africa’s cultural diversity and might provoke serious interest in working and investing there.

Boudewijn Mohr
INSEAD MBA'69
Author of A Destiny in the Making: From Wall Street to UNICEF in Africa

When we discriminate based on gender, race, religion, social class, beliefs, or ideology, we limit our possibilities. When we embrace diversity, we experience humanity at its finest and unleash the power of many. In my informed opinion, diversity simply means we are differently similar - we are human!

Taiwo Oyedele
Africa Tax Leader, PwC

The immediacy and severity of climate change on the continent, paired with Africa’s leapfrog capacity and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, is driving potentially world-changing green innovation. Ambo Ventures is committed to supporting Africa’s leading entrepreneurs in the fight against climate change.

Jade Bouhmouch
Managing Partner
Ambo Ventures

Africa offers an amazing range of business opportunities. The standout feature of the market is its openness and the fact that the ESG impact (ESG ROI!) of carefully thought through business ventures on the continent is more straightforward and bigger than anywhere else on earth. I am happy that IAI focuses on ‘enhancing learning about Africa’, more strength to you.

Ranveer S Chauhan
Chairman, Advisory Board
NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies, Singapore

As the world’s ‘youngest’ continent, there is a huge opportunity to nurture creativity and talent that can drive sustainable development. This can only be done if we provide the right learning and support environment. I expect the next few years will be instrumental in shaping our future entrepreneurs.

Sheba Safo-Adu
Investor Relations Manager
Development Bank Ghana
INSEAD MBA'93J

In the best case high economic growth scenario, the gap between Africa’s rising share of world population and low share of global GDP will remain dangerously elevated in the next century. Should Africa’s economy falter, the consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate. If Africa fails, the world will be at risk. Still, Africa promises to be the last frontier of global growth.

Colin Coleman
Member of Boards, former Goldman Sachs CEO Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa’s true potential and place in the world is yet to be realised, and as the interconnectivity of the world becomes even more normalised and extensive, it has increasingly become more urgent that Africa is not left behind. The world needs an Africa that can stand on its own, instead of one propped up by ‘foreign aid’ crutches. With the right leadership and partnerships efficiently utilising Africa’s vast human and mineral resources, the continent will be on its way to the forefront of innovation and positive change in the world. 

Torera Ogundimu
Former Co-President, INSEAD Africa Club
INSEAD, MBA'22J

Informal retailers serve the largest demographic in Africa but are themselves greatly underserved by the existing infrastructure. At Wasoko, we are empowering vital players in the market with access to quality products and streamlined services that help their businesses grow - ultimately driving the informal sector forward.

Daniel Yu
CEO & Founder - Wasoko
Speaker, INSEAD Africa Business Conference 2022

African sovereign investors have demonstrated their ability to develop and implement innovative mechanisms such as public-private partnerships across all kinds of sectors. Integrating climate finance constitutes yet another pillar for Africa’s sustainable development, a challenge for us all to rise to.

Akim M. Daouda
Chief Executive Officer
Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Gabonese Republic (FGIS)

My first faculty position was at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and ever since then, I have loved Africa: her natural beauty, her wildlife, and the potential of her people. I am proud to continue to support education for Africans now, nearly 50 years after my first experience.

H. Landis Gabel
Emeritus Professor of Economics & Management;
The Novartis Chair in Management & the Environment, 
Emeritus, INSEAD

ShEquity is committed to gender equity and invests in African female-led and owned businesses aiming for triple bottom-line: Profit, People and the Planet. African women are underestimated and underfunded, even thought they lead/own 40% of SMEs on the Continent. Closing the existing gender funding gap in Africa will benefit everyone and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.

Pauline Koelbl
Founder and Managing Partner, ShEquity

Although Africa has contributed the least to climate change, it faces some of its most severe impacts. At the same time, Africa is home to many transformative and innovative climate solutions – from livestock insurance for cattle herders to clean cookstoves that generate emission reductions credits. Integrating climate and development considerations is at the heart of the World Bank Group’s approach to climate action, and will be critical to meet the continent’s development and climate objectives.

Hania Dawood
Manager, Climate Finance & Economics
Climate Change Group
The World Bank

Economic growth, poverty alleviation, adaptation to climate change and integration into the global economy are key challenges for many countries in Africa. INSEAD’s Africa Initiative aims to shed light on these topics through the exchange of knowledge and the generation of practical policy solutions. This will be of great benefit to policymakers, businesspeople, activists, and researchers who are working to improve lives and livelihoods across the continent.

Vijaya Ramachandran
Director for Energy and Development
The Breakthrough Institute

INSEAD shows how a business school for the world can be a business school for Africa. It’s less about bringing the intellectual power of 164 professors from 40 countries to the continent, and more about the shared purpose and values that bring the INSEAD community together, especially the belief that diversity—in people, culture and ideas—is a powerful driver of innovation and transformational learning.

Dan LeClair
Chief Executive Officer
Global Business School Network (GBSN)

Greening African economies offers a chance to tackle youth unemployment and environmental issues. Education and training programs can equip young people for these jobs, promoting inclusive economic growth with no one left behind. Therefore, tackling youth unemployment, climate change challenges and following a just transitions approach, can lead to a prosperous future for the continent.

Professor Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu
Dean, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences
University of Pretoria