It’s important that the African authorities allow ideas, capital and businesses to circulate and develop. That’s according to Loic Sadoulet, academic director of INSEAD’s Africa Initiative.

Loic Sadoulet

The Affiliate Professor of Economics says it’s also necessary to ‘demystify’ Africa, and give students and faculty in the West greater exposure to the continent.  

 “Let’s go and see high-quality business in Africa,” he says.

“If you think about the mobile money systems – Kenya, South Africa – a whole bank is run completely out of a cell phone.” 

“I was in Ghana (recently) and the head of Equity Bank transferred money from his phone to my phone when we were both roaming in Ghana.”   

“That meant securing two, three big security issues. Why can’t a French banking institution do this?” 

Brain drain or gain? 

A question that is frequently raised, Sadoulet says, is whether business schools such as INSEAD are just taking the best and brightest out of Africa. 

In INSEAD’s case, 50 per cent of its African alumni return to their continent – but not necessarily to their own country.

 “But what I am more worried about is only one per cent of our total class goes to work in Africa,” he says. “Why aren’t there opportunities?  I would love to be able to foster more brain exchanges.”  

“Forget about brain drain. It is good for people to move around across the continent, inside the continent.” 

Sadoulet also told participants at the Forum in Paris that he knows many MBAs who would welcome the opportunity to work in Africa, especially now there is an economic downturn.