NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

VENTURES AFRICA – Just like the great American civil right activist Martin Luther King Jnr. had a dream of an equal social existence, so did Ghanaian-born entrepreneur, Fred Swaniker, dream to build a Pan-African school that will position the new generation of African youth towards prosperity in future years. His mission was to give the African child a network of successful peers to tap for job opportunities, mentoring and career guidance.

Fred’s dream in reality is what is today known as African Leadership Academy (ALA), a prestigious school in Johannesburg, South Africa, that equip some of the most talented African youngsters from all African nations.

Nurturing relationships with over 2,500 educational institutions across the continent to identify the most suitable candidates to fulfil these roles, students of the school are handpicked while the U.N helps to locate individuals of high potential from various refugee camps. This rigorous selection process is designed to single out not only the brightest students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, but also those who have shown strong tendencies towards initiative, communication and leadership.

With the vision of creating up to 6,000 new leaders for Africa through the ALA’s leadership program in the next 50 years, Swaniker’s dream to build African Leadership Academy (ALA) was conceptualised while he was working and living in Nigeria on a microfinance project in 2003. He contemplated that parents spend as much as $50,000 to send their kids to top schools in the United Kingdom.