South African expertise in executive education has found its way to the Horn of Africa with USB Executive Development (USB-ED), the public executive development and training company of the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), partnering with Ethiopia’s University of Addis Ababa. The new partnership paves the way for executive education to be presented for the first time in Ethiopia.
This follows a formal partnership agreement earlier this month with the University of Addis Ababa’s School of Commerce to jointly provide executive education to the country. Academic vice president of Addis Ababa University Dr Jeilu Oumer, said at the signing that there are vast executive education opportunities in Ethiopia. USB-ED CEO Frik Landman, said the Addis Ababa University is a partner who is willing to tackle the complex challenges of Africa with the USB-ED. “We agreed that it is unacceptable that a continent endowed with so many natural resources and youth must endure the status of the poorest continent,” said Landman. “What we choose to do about it is what matters and in this case we chose to equip leaders with management and leadership skills. We know that with the necessary managerial skills, people may still be poor, but they will now know (as Peter Drucker has stated) how to manage themselves out of poverty. This is an exciting adventure for USB-ED with Ethiopia.”
The USB-ED partnership with the University of Addis Ababa follows a similar collaboration between the South African executive education institution and the Mzumbe University in Tanzania. USB-ED management programmes are now actively presented in eleven sub Saharan African countries and executive development services in five other African countries.