This month I participated in the second EFMD Africa conference, hosted by GBSN Member the University of Stellenbosch Business School of South Africa (USB).  It was first-rate both for the quality of presentations and discussions, and for their most gracious hosting (apparent in the picture below).

Congratulations to EFMD for, once again, putting Africa center-stage.  As you know, opinion pieces, articles and studies picturing Africa as the “surging economic lion of the coming decade” are mushrooming.  However, few point out that while there is one business school for every 250,000 people in the U.S., and about one per million in India and China, there is only one business school per 10 million people in Africa.  At the very most a hundred quality business schools are operating on the continent.

The good news is that, especially over the past 10 years, the number of high-quality African business schools have grown at an impressive rate.  Membership in the Association of African Business Schools, a GBSN partner organization (www.aabschools.com) has grown to 25.  More important, these schools have been expanding in their reach and their offerings. Indeed, being young and therefore not as constrained as “old” business schools in the US and Europe, some African business schools are serving new markets in innovative ways – entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, health and agribusiness management.

For example, for the past five years, USB has been offering a Masters in Development Finance, uniquely I believe, tailored to the continent’s needs. Strathmore Business School (Nairobi) is running an advanced health management program.  An agribusiness management center is being established at Nairobi’s Chandaria School of Business, and Lagos Business School spawned a highly successful Enterprise Development Center, which is now being replicated across Nigeria and in other African countries.

As I mentioned, I was very impressed by the quality of discussion throughout the conference.  Participants discussed the impact of business education on African society and the competitive landscape facing business schools in Africa; business schools as agents of social development in Africa; support required by African business schools; and accreditation in the African context.  Some of the discussion focused, as was the case at last year’s first EFMD Africa Lisbon conference, on whether the African environment called for a “New Model of Business School,” a topic that will no doubt continue to be debated in years to come.

In short, I returned from this conference energized and hopeful about the trend in business education on the continent.