Fostering Innovation And Leadership In The African Academy

Fostering Innovation and Leadership in the African Academy: A pathway for personal transformation College students and new lecturers in most sub-Saharan African countries face a great deal of challenges. These range from poor financial support to inadequate technology and resources. Despite these and other challenges, however, Fostering Innovation and Leadership in the African Academy suggests that students and educators alike can succeed in their research and academic endeavours, continue to remain fulfilled, and maximize their potential. Through this book, Dr. Obidimma Ezezika provides solid, tried and tested advice and presents ways for one to become a fulfilled and high-achieving academic within a system that poses many challenges and in which the odds for success are relatively slim. Most of the ideas in the book emerged from Dr. Ezezika's ten years of experience providing workshops and consulting engagements to students and educators in various universities and secondary schools in Africa and North America. This book will teach you practical tools that you can easily apply to your life to enhance your personal and professional development. Dr. Ezezika lays out a set of guidelines that, if followed, will support the aspiring scholar in navigating through various challenges. And, for many, these guidelines could make the difference between success and failure. There is rapid economic growth occurring in many African countries today. His hope is that this boom will also be felt among the school corridors. There is no shortage of bright minds in Africa, Dr. Ezezika argues, but quality education is the missing link. African academies have much to offer in terms of fostering innovation and building the next generation of leaders. This book seeks to show that it is what we do with what we already have that can really set the trajectory of our lives and academies.

The rapidly evolving nature of emerging technologies, and the transformative and disruptive tendencies offered by these are reshaping professional activities, operations and functions as well as value creation.

Is accounting as a first course going extinct? What motivates students’ choice of accounting as a career? How true is it that if you are not chartered, you are not an accountant? These are few of the questions that this book responds to. It is an orientation tool for intending students, students, lecturers/tutors, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, parents and the general public on the neglected story of accounting profession. It is written with the sole aim of enlightening its reader on who accountants are; career paths of accountants and their role in society; providing information to assist students in deciding a choice of career in the field of accounting. It places emphasis on the role-relevance of tertiary institutions in the development of accountants with robust acumen. This book opens up on the unsung story of the accounting profession, bringing to the fore the fact that the profession has emerged with three wings, that is practice, policy and research. As we continue to face an increasingly competitive market, the need to produce graduates with requisite knowledge and skill competence to fill vacancies in industries, which are faced with apparent economic circumstances are overwhelming. Howbeit, while it may be acceptable to find a meantime solution, a long term sustainable solution is better, which is to focus on breeding efficient, effective and productive accountants, who can sustain the objectives and goals of the going concern. Tertiary institutions must not underestimate the need to concentrate energy on creating awareness, arming graduates with necessary knowledge and skills on elements of accounting profession, which is a better way out to solve the problem rather than the fire brigade approach to salvage the situation. As the industry look up to institutions to step up the game, we must wow them by producing graduate accountants who will not only be able to practice, but also can in their circumference engage with policy issues and research in the work place environment for increased and sustainable productivity.

This book contains a number of case studies that examine the nature and origins of emerging high-end innovation hubs in Africa. It analyses, highlights and draws lessons from some of the most promising and successful innovation cases in Africa today, exploring the key factors driving their successful emergence, growth and future prospects.

Encouraged by the emergence and early impact of social innovators on the African Continent, but frustrated by the slow pace of large scale change, this book is focused on filling the knowledge gap for those tackling Africa’s serious social problems. It lays out the required building blocks for achieving scale at impact. By creating clear mission, vision, and values statements and piloting and rolling out business models that are demand-driven, simple, and low-cost, with compelling measurement and evaluation tools that leverage technology. It also explores the steps for attracting and retaining talent and financing and forming strategic partnerships with the private, public and non-profit sectors to foster scaling. Practical case studies provide inspiration for those who seek to become innovators or to be employed by them. Finally, it outlines the crucial steps for key stakeholders to take in order to support the emergence of more social innovators on the African continent, create an enabling environment for the scaling of high-impact initiatives and advance collective efforts to build stronger communities for current and future generations. This is a practical and inspirational guide for all entrepreneurs and individuals that seek to combine business and social goals and for those in the public, private and non-profit sectors that aim to foster and support these projects.

In this book, Florence Wambugu and Daniel Kamanga of Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International bring together expert African authorities to critique various biotechnology initiatives and project future developments in the field in Africa. For the first time, African voices from multidisciplinary fields as diverse as economics, agriculture, biotechnology, law, politics and academia, demand to be allowed to set the continent’s biotech development agenda. This book argues that there is a great future for biotechnology in Africa which sidesteps western interests that do not match those of the local populace. In these diverse chapters, Africa’s political and scientific leaders demand a greater say in how research and development funds are allocated and spent. They argue that Africa’s political leaders must see both clear benefits and have elbow-room to drive the change required. This is the way that African governments can employ workable policies, suitable biosafety legislation and regulation and respond effectively to public-private partnerships. Wambugu and Kamanga show that biotechnology has the potential to improve food security and standard of living as well as mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on the African continent.

Public sector innovation does not happen by itself: problems need to be identified, and ideas translated into projects that can be tested, implemented and shared. This report looks at how governments can create an environment that fosters innovation.