Model business varsity opens in Rwanda

A model business school led by former South Africa first lady Graca Machel is opening its second campus in Kigali Rwanda.

The institution opens in three months and will be admitting top students from around Africa, including Kenya. Ms Machel (pictured) announced the opening of Kigali campus whose first intake will start classes in September this year, after the African Leadership University’s first branch opened in Mauritius.

Graca Machel address the press during the World Economic Forum(WEF) in Kigali Rwanda. This was on 11/05/2016. PHOTO BY PIUS CHERUIYOT

“Our universities are not providing the right skills leaving the population which is the largest resource, going to waste,” Machel said during the World Economic Forum for Africa in Kigali. Thousands of world leaders in government and business attended the forum whose intended outcome is collective approach by the different States to grow.

ALU precedes another continental push on skill enhancement called the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. Poor teaching in African universities, which are heavily ‘underfunded and overcrowded’ means that the continent is unable to utilise its best minds in driving its own growth.

Two of Africa’s best universities are in South Africa, but feature nowhere near the best 100 globally. University of Cape town was ranked 141 in the World last year, while the University of Witwatersrand came in at 318. “We must make use of the population dividend of young people, and that will be through proper training,” the former SA first lady added.

Harvard and Wharton

ALU’s curriculum is modelled around the best in the World including Harvard and Wharton, both in the US. The learning in the model university involves student exchange program with the global top business schools.

Already, 180 students have been admitted in the Mauritian campus. Former President of the Africa Development Bank Donald Kaberuka said the costs of university education abroad were prohibitive, as such locking out the best students from poor backgrounds.

A self-sponsored African students spent about Sh6 million a year in top foreign universities on average, Mr Kaberuka added, which gave opportunities only to the children from well-off backgrounds.

“What we need is skills and talent to drive the fourth industrial revolution in Africa,” Kaberuka said. There are plans to roll out more campuses in different African countries, which would potentially attract students from the developed World. Rwanda’s cabinet has approved the proposed campus.