Why nurturing talent is hard in Africa

AFRICA is hailed as a major growth market for global businesses, but as global companies expand there, they are having a tough time finding leaders to run their operations.

That is the conclusion of a new report on executive talent by Russell Reynolds Associates, which surveyed 230 senior leaders and recruiters in Africa. Recruiters say companies are eager to recruit good hires in the region, but find that candidates with traditional management skills — such as the ability to drive change or build teams — are in short supply.

The report focused on the talent markets of Kenya and Nigeria, whose economies are growing rapidly, and SA, the continent’s most developed economy, yet the issues are common to many nations in sub-Saharan Africa, the authors note.

The issues will become more acute as more businesses expand in Africa, where gross domestic product growth is projected to strengthen to 4.5% this year and 5% next year, according to the African Economic Outlook 2015 report.

Driving the talent shortage is Africa’s dearth of high-quality business schools, according to Simon Kingston, who leads the global development practice at Russell Reynolds. In countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, many with management aspirations tend to leave for school or work abroad, and persuading them to return home for their career is a challenge, recruiters said.

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5 initiatives helping SMEs in Botswana

Botswana is a small country with a population of 2 million. The country located in the sub-Saharan Africa, is well known for its Kalahari desert which occupies 70% of the landmass and its mineral wealth in diamond.

Almost all of Botswana’s US$14.79 billion GDP is made up from the mineral extraction industries, with over 50% coming from diamond export revenues in the mineral sector, followed by livestock trading and others.

The challenges

The country is ranked 149 among 188 global economies in the World Bank’s ranking for competitiveness for doing business, which measures the ease of starting and run successful enterprise in Botswana.

Some of the most noteworthy challenges experienced by SMEs are inadequate marketing skills, business premises and other start-up business problems. This is according to  A 2002 research paper “Government Policy and Entrepreneurship Performance“ by the Department of Accounting and Finance at the University of Botswana.

In a 2012 editorial by the Sunday Standard, editor Outsa Mokone said  ”[Botswana's] regulatory framework is not only outdated but also excessive, intrusive, tedious and outright unfriendly”, and that It takes two full months to register and start operating a business in Botswana.

The country has an unemployment rate of only 18%, which is marginally better than its SADEC neighbors of South Africa where it is at 25%, Namibia at 29%, or Zimbabwe which is unknown.

The successes

Writing in the Washington Post in November 2014, the Head of Stanbic Bank in Botswana, Onkabetsi Morapedi said there was a noticeable growth, particularly in the last five years, and an increasing number of SMEs in the country.

“More opportunities have arisen in time, largely in the form of tenders or purchase orders,” Morapedi wrote.

And an overview of the country by the World Bank released in April 2014 shows that  Botswana has rapidly grown into becoming one of the fastest growing economies and moved into the ranks of upper-middle income countries from being one of the poorest countries in Africa since independence from Britain in 1996.

We look at the five ways Botswana stakeholders are assisting the country’s SMEs:

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Press Release: The Alliance 54 Ltd – Change of Company Name

We hereby inform the general public that as from September 2015, Alliance 54 has officially changed its trading name from Alliance 54 Global Ltd to THE ALLIANCE 54 LTD with company registration no: 09923098

The reason behind the change.

We were duly informed by a well-meaning individual that some non-entities were selling our personal and company information and the management of Alliance 54 had written to the Companies House to inform them about the activities, but we received a feedback from the Companies House stating that there was nothing they could do. So, we deliberately decided to get the company dissolved and did a re-registration with both an Accounting Firm and Solicitor in order to protect our information.

With a new logo.

However, we still maintain our brand as Alliance 54.

Please take note.

Thank you.

Signed: Management