About SEMBAACreated by a network of African universities in cooperation with Colorado State University, we have rethought and redesigned the traditional MBA to be relevant to the needs of entrepreneurs working in developing countries. Where others provide token capstone classes, we demand real venture creation from our students. Where most think the classroom is where it all happens, we believe business happens out in the real world. Where traditional MBAs create managers for the air-conditioned suite, we empower the men and women with the dirty boots and the rolled up sleeves.
African countries have all of the means to work themselves out of endemic poverty, given the right investment in human capital. SEMBAA is the right investment at the right time.
Background: Why Africa?FACT: Developed nations have invested over a trillion dollars, half a century, and vast amounts of human capital into the noble quest to reduce poverty, disease & human suffering across Africa.REALITY:Today almost twice as many people in Africa subsist on less than $1.25 per day than did in 1990.OBSERVATION:“It is insanity to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and expect a different result.” Albert Einstein
Progress in the West has largely been a consequence of commerce and industry. Indeed, great empires in Africa that surpassed Europe existed many centuries ago, based largely upon commerce and trade. If Africa is to find its place among developed nations, its progress will be powered by commerce. By reprogramming development dollars to drivers of business and entrepreneurship, we can end poverty in Africa by using the only proven, long-term solution.
Like many thought revolutions, the underlying theory is simple: “It’s the economy, and the entrepreneur.” Start-ups become companies. Companies provide jobs. Jobs enable people to provide better food, health & education for their families, creating social stability, civil society, responsive government, better policy environments, enabling a new generation of entrepreneurs to create companies… and so the development wheel spins.
In this cycle, the key mover, that most precious human capital, is the entrepreneur. Whether in the US or Uganda, new companies can only be created by people with the imagination, boldness, endurance, and skill to bring them to life. And make no mistake. Startups are the most powerful generator of job growth.
That’s where SEMBAA comes in.
Economic Development Cycle and Leverage Points
This model begins with the premise that we know how to impact entrepreneurs with the right kind of education and training. The path of those entrepreneurs is fraught with risk and uncertainty, just as it is in the West. But those who succeed in building companies set in motion a chain reaction that delivers many of the development results that governments have worked towards for decades. It is particularly noteworthy that the economic development cycle set in motion by education of entrepreneurs is more financially sustainable than any other, given its long-term independence from government funding.