JOHANNESBURG // Nelson Mandela. Kofi Annan. Desmond Tutu. These are some of the African leaders who brought inspiration to their countries and their continent. The African Leadership Academy is determined to add to this list in the coming years and make sure Africa's next leaders will be groomed for positions at home.
On Saturday the school graduated its first class, a unique group of students with diverse backgrounds - from those who grew up in refugee camps to those who came from the upper classes. "Our dream is not to educate kids and get them to college. Our dream is to transform Africa," said Fred Swaniker, the school's co-founder. "We want to create a powerful network of people who can bring about that change. If 100 promising students graduate each year, Ala will build a network of 6,000 leaders over the next 50 years."
The secondary boarding school might just be a real solution to a main problem in Africa: the need for engaged and inspiring leadership. Founded in 2004 and launched in 2008, the academy situated on the outskirs of South Africa's capital offers a two-year programme to boys and girls from ages 16 to 19. The inaugural class comprised 98 students from across Africa and the Middle East and were chosen from more than 1,700 applicants. The school can boast a 91 per cent graduation rate in its first class.
Eighty per cent of the graduates will continue their education at top universities around the world on full scholarships. Mr Swaniker, 33, who was born in Ghana and graduated from Stanford University in California, admitted this unexpected success rate is a triumph in itself. More than 95 per cent of students received full or partial scholarships structured as "forgivable loans". Students will not have to pay back the estimated annual tuition of $29,000 (Dh106,500) if they return to Africa when they are 25 and commit to work on the continent for at least 10 years.
The academy curriculum consists not only of internationally recognised A-level courses such as maths, biology and languages including English, Arabic and Mandarin, but also of three core classes Mr Swaniker likes to call "the special sauce": leadership, entrepreneurship and African studies. "We train our doctors, we train our engineers, but we don't train our leaders," Mr Swaniker said in an interview. "So instead of hoping that good leaders would emerge, we wanted to be pro-active in creating them."
Classes on time management, public speaking and group assignments are considered necessary skills to become leading agents of positive change. "We want them to develop the skills of having a vision for something and how to practically bring it to life," Christopher Khaemba, the dean of the academy, said. Besides regular schoolwork, each student is expected to participate in student-run businesses, community service projects and have original ideas for development. Some of the projects included a bulding and running a children's library in a nearby community, staffing an on-campus room cleaning service and manufacturing a milk-butter lotion that not only softens the skin but also aims to repel malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
These engaging courses and unconventional teaching methods have attracted scholars, teaching fellows and leaders and entrepreneurs in the fields of science, business, and public service. "We all believe the actions of one can impact a continent," said Hatim el Tayeb, 22, a Harvard graduate who was born in Sudan. "And this school has put that in its curriculum." Mr el Tayeb was doing a teaching fellowship at the school.
The commencement presentations reflected the ambitious goal of the school to develop leaders. Winnie Imbuchi, 19, from Kenya, worried about the brain drain that plagues Africa and applauded her peers for their passion and dedication. At the graduation ceremony, the school choir performed the song Schools for Africa, which she co-wrote. Ms Imbuchi was given the school's Spirit of Africa award. William Kamkwamba, 21, the academy's first published author, cowrote a book recounting the challenges of building a windmill when he was 14 in an attempt to bring electricity to his poor village in Malawi. At the moment, Mr Kamkwamba's windmill provides 60 families with power and clean water.
Another graduate, Joseph Munyambanza, 19, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo at the age of six and ended up in a refugee camp in Uganda where he realised education was his only way out. "I always expected to fail and felt a great anger," Mr Munyambanz said. "Now I look at the future and feel hope." The freedom fighter Seth Mazibuko, 50, who spent several years imprisoned on Robben Island, was the keynote speaker. "The tree of liberation has been watered with blood," he said. "Let this generation water it with sweat and enjoy the fruits and shade."
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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