Fred Swaniker

The Ghanaian entrepreneur and leadership expert is striving to disrupt education with a model that will produce millions of African leaders and jobs by 2035.

By 2035, Africa will have the world’s largest workforce. The continent’s booming population will need jobs and good leaders – both of which Ghanaian entrepreneur Fred Swaniker is determined to provide through his latest venture, the African Leadership University (ALU).

Swaniker has seen the effects of weak government: at four, he was forced to flee his native Ghana in the middle of the night during the 1979 military coup; six months later, his family went through the same ordeal in the Gambia. After studying in the US, Swaniker took a trip through Zimbabwe, where he’d attended secondary school, and was saddened to see how it had suffered under former president Robert Mugabe. These experiences fuelled his determination to provide African countries with much-needed ethical, entrepreneurial and progressive leaders.

ALU is a pan-African university with campuses in Pamplemousses, Mauritius; Kigali, Rwanda; and Nairobi, Kenya. Swaniker aims to have campuses in every major African city, shooting for 25 by 2025. Disrupting the traditional academic model, entrepreneurship is a core subject and students choose missions rather than majors, providing solutions for Africa’s challenges and taking advantage of its opportunities. The university aims to produce three million leaders by 2035, each tasked with creating at least 300 jobs.

Swaniker’s other institutions include the African Leadership Academy secondary school and ALX, which runs six-month leadership courses for grads and experienced professionals. Both are based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Image credit: Piero Zagami and Michela Nicchiotti.