African Leadership Academy seeks to transform Africa by developing a powerful network of entrepreneurial leaders who will work together to address Africa’s greatest challenges, achieve extraordinary social impact, and accelerate the continent’s growth trajectory. ALA brings together the most promising young leaders from from across the continent for a pre-university program in South Africa with a focus on leadership, entrepreneurship and African studies. ALA continues to cultivate these leaders throughout their lives, in university and beyond, by providing ongoing leadership and entrepreneurial training and connecting them to high-impact networks of people and capital, enabling them to lead change in Africa’s public, private, and social sectors.
Why We Invested
In the 2010 Legatum Prosperity Index, a global assessment of wealth and wellbeing among 110 countries, Sub-Sahara African countries performed significantly worse than all other regions of the world. Africa needs a new generation of qualified and entreprenuerial individuals to drive change. African Leadership Academy (ALA) offers a transformative and empowering pre-university experience that prepares students for university study and a lifetime of leadership on the African continent. ALA engages visionary leaders at an inflection point in their lives and nurtures their potential through a uniquely African, leadership oriented curriculum, rigorous academic study, and the cultivation of a life-long network.
Local leadership is the key to lasting peace and shared prosperity. For many years, we were told with great conviction that “once you invest so much in promising young Africans and they go abroad, few will come back”. ALA alumni – now hard at work across the continent – beg to differ. They are not deterred by challenges. Rather, they are attracted to opportunities.
Chris Bradford, Founder and CEO, African Leadership Academy