CEIBS’ new strategic focus in Africa

Building on the last eight years of sharpening the skills of African executives determined to lead and grow their organisations, China’s leading international business school has since the beginning of this year embarked on a number of new strategic initiatives in Africa.

The CEIBS Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) has been revamped to make it the world’s first truly global stand-alone programme. The CEIBS GEMBA is the only one that provides access to two emerging continents – Asia and Africa – plus Europe and the U.S.

The programme is for “high potential executives who understand that business – and learning – is not constrained by geographic location,” says CEIBS Vice President & Dean Ding Yuan. GEMBA programmes tend to be collaborations between at least two business schools but the new CEIBS GEMBA will draw on the school’s existing resources in China, Europe and Africa. The CEIBS Africa EMBA has been merged with the Zurich GEMBA class, providing both sides with greater networking and learning opportunities. Core modules will be spread across Zurich, Accra and Shanghai with possible electives in other locations. Students will also have the opportunity to take at least one global elective in New Delhi, Sao Paolo, Silicon Valley, New York., or Munich.

There will be scholarships open to participants from Africa for the GEMBA programme and younger students can access financial aid to do the full-time MBA at CEIBS Shanghai campus.

Also, efforts are on-going to increase the number of African companies that will benefit from CEIBS’ world class Company Specific Programmes (CSPs) and Open Programmes that are designed and tailor made for individual company needs. As part of the CEIBS CSP the school has this year delivered a number of fully funded business management programmes for African government officials and business executives in Accra, Lagos, Nairobi and Addis Ababa.  This first-of-its-kind executive education programme brought together business leaders from more than 200 companies. They were joined by top managers from Chinese SOEs based in Africa, providing extensive opportunities for knowledge exchange and networking. 

Meanwhile CEIBS is continuing with its highly successful Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership for Africa (WELA) programme. WELA which runs in both Accra and Lagos with a China immersion module in Shanghai has been designed to support the learning of women entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs to become effective entrepreneurs and to create and sustain their own businesses. 

WELA strengthens competencies in management, finance, leadership, entrepreneurial marketing and innovation, to allow women to develop strategies, skills and confidence to grow their businesses. Furthermore, WELA facilitates the development of networks with other women entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia and to support women getting access to markets.

In the views of CEIBS President Pedro Nueno “It’s not surprising that as relations improve between China and Africa at the government level, there is increasing interest in the way business is done in both of these emerging economies, markets which are also of significant interest to Europe. We are simply anticipating and responding to these needs.”