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Lagos Business School in collaboration with Ford Foundation commenced the first round of the Nonprofit Leadership and Management Programme (Certificate course) in February 2018. As part of the Programme, a team of MBA students and members of the Sustainability Centre of Lagos Business School visited Ashesi University in Ghana to explore how the University has been able to successfully engage students in social entrepreneurship and design thinking – important components of innovation.
One thing that stood out is that despite the busy schedule due to the project-based teaching and learning methodologies used at Ashesi University, students are quite receptive to the introduction of social entrepreneurship and design thinking. They put their hands to work in designing projects that have often grown into social enterprises that outlive their academic term of four years. This is a call for Nigeria and other African countries to take a cue on what Ashesi is doing right in this area, and how we can transform the current challenges in the country into opportunities that create wealth using our blooming, youthful human resources.
Most African economies are encountering a youth bulge – where the larger percentage of a population is between the age of 15 and 29, which is a common and important demographic phenomenon in many developing countries. The youth bulge, which seems like a huge challenge presents a huge opportunity for the future prosperity of millions of Africans in developing economies. Sadly, most African countries lack basic amenities and infrastructure such as education, healthcare, technology, access to funding, etc. – tools that turn prevalent challenges on the continent into opportunities.
In many African educational institutions, where youthful energy should be harnessed and skillfully wrought, the ‘garbage in-garbage out’ system of teaching and learning are still reinforced. Students are taught science, technology, arts, and social sciences topics that were relevant fifty years or more ago, thus creating knowledge that does not evolve with the times.
Thankfully, Ashesi University and a few other institutions have recognised the limitations of higher education on the continent, and are revolutionising teaching and learning in their university communities. In Ashesi University, the garbage-in-garbage-out system of teaching and learning has been replaced with creative and critical thinking in classrooms.
The core curriculum focuses on interdisciplinary courses aimed towards producing well rounded graduates with the ability and skills to tackle challenges on the African continent. For instance, the Bachelor of Engineering course in the University focuses not only on engineering but also on other critical skills like design thinking and entrepreneurship. Additionally, all students are required to take a course in programming regardless of their core course of study, equipping them with a globally demanded skill.
Still, the social innovation and entrepreneurship focus of the university’s core curriculum makes Ashesi University stand out. Its Foundation in Design and Entrepreneurship (FDE) programme features student-led business simulations; a problem festival – where problems are dissected to their root cause without thinking about solutions; as well as small grants to support student community service projects.
The program has been successful in producing several innovative projects that have grown to become social enterprises – solving problems while creating wealth. One example of this is Tech-Era, a technology education company that equips teachers and students with skills to effectively use technology to improve efficiency in daily learning activities. The company emanated from a project done during the design and entrepreneurship course, and is running as a full-service company by the same students, who will continue to run the company when they graduate.
Bringing this to the individual level, a more personal approach to social innovation and entrepreneurship is Personal Social Responsibility (PSR), through which projects and solutions to problems are often birthed. Personal Social Responsibility describes how individuals can act in the best interest of themselves and others by taking responsibility to solve problems when they identify them. Personal Social Responsibility, social innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to creating social and economic balance, hence should be embedded into educational systems and cascaded down into social and cultural conversations.
Like Ashesi University, Lagos Business School (LBS) is also thinking ahead and looking in the direction of social innovation and entrepreneurship. The School has introduced Personal Social Responsibility into its programmes and is seeking the best way to effectively engage students in this area. LBS recently visited Ashesi University on an exploratory trip to learn best practices Ashesi uses in embedding these components into its curriculum, and hopes that such PSR, social innovation and entrepreneurship projects will form part of the learning and development process as students work towards piloting their ideas to drive social and economic change.
NGOZIKA ONUZO
Ngozika Onuzo is a staff at Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre.
