Meet Acha Leke, senior partner and chairman of McKinsey’s Africa office, and coauthor of Africa’s Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World’s Next Big Growth Market. “Companies in Africa actually tend to grow faster and are more profitable than their peers around the world, because once you get the business model right, it’s actually more difficult for folks to come in and try to replicate it.”
Graça Machel, an international human-rights and development advocate, is the founder and patron of New Faces New Voices, a pan-African network that focuses on expanding the role and influence of women in the financial sector.
Aliko Dangote has built one of Africa’s largest industrial firms from humble origins as a trading company started with a small loan from his uncle in 1978. Today, the Nigeria-based Dangote Group has annual revenues exceeding $4 billion.
Fred Swaniker is the founder of several innovative educational and leadership institutions, including the African Leadership University (ALU), whose campuses in Rwanda and Mauritius are based on a new model of higher education.
Nadia Fettah, CEO of Morocco-based Saham Finances, has overseen the company’s expansion from a small local firm into a leading African insurance company operating in 23 countries across the continent.
An interview with Coca-Cola’s former president of Africa Alexander Cummings discusses the continent’s potential and ways companies can establish a presence there by partnering for development and building local relevance.
The coronavirus outbreak is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. It is also having a growing impact on the global economy. While business leaders are working to get a perspective on the evolving situation and the implications for their companies, they are only as strong as the communities of which they are a part. As decision makers figure out how to support response efforts—such as by providing money, equipment, or expertise, they should not assume the worst.
