Entrepreneurial leaders rally the troops. They see failure as a learning opportunity. They take risks for the greater vision. They solve problems and chase solutions. Unfortunately, most schools don’t teach these skills. African Leadership University enables the next generation of African leaders to build careers and lives of impact - by focusing their education on missions, not majors. The AL Group (ALA, ALU and ALX) aims to develop 3 million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders for Africa and the world by 2035. ALU uses a personalized, student-driven, project-based, and mission-oriented approach to create agile, lifelong learners who can adapt to a changing world. ALU has sites in Mauritius and Rwanda.
Why We Invested
With the youngest and fastest growing population of any continent, Africa will have the largest workforce in the world with over 1 billion people requiring employment by 2035. Currently, Africa’s tertiary enrollment rate is roughly 8% and even graduates often find that their skills are misaligned with employers’ needs. Existing university models will not meet the volume or skill requirements for this future. ALU (along with its sister organizations in the African Leadership Group: African Leadership Academy and ALX) aim to develop 3 million ethical and entrepreneurial leaders for Africa, and the world, by 2035. ALU was founded in 2013 by renowned Ghanaian educationalist Fred Swaniker.
All of us who are privileged enough to be healthy, to be alive, to have education and to have influence, our role is not to do small things and to solve small problems. The only way that we can justify privilege is by solving the world’s biggest problems, and by doing hard things.
Fred Swaniker, Founder and CEO, African Leadership Group