Pinehas Nakaziko
Windhoek
The Namibia roadshow for the Stanford Graduate Business School programme is scheduled for September 22 and the venue will be announced soon.
The programme was announced by the De Beers Group last week. The programme, which recently invited young Namibians to enroll for a year, is a new initiative in Namibia and young entrepreneurs are asked to make use of it.
Nicole Senuku, a corporate affairs specialist at De Beers Group, says although the programme had been launched before in East Africa and Ghana, this was the first time the programme has been offered in Namibia and other southern African countries.
“We conducted a soft launch of the initiative via a press release this month and will host roadshows in various key cities in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa as well.”
Senuku adds that the programme is a corporate social investment initiative led by De Beers as part of socioeconomic contribution to countries they operate in. On this programme, De Beers pumped around N$39.5 million into the three-year partnership with Stanford Graduate School of Business, to specifically impart skills to people in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa at large.
The programme will start early next year and will be headquartered at the Botswana Innovation Hub, a science and technology park in Gaborone.
The programme will provide management training, leadership team workshops and networking support to assist emerging southern African leaders to grow their businesses, create jobs and help lead their regions to greater economic diversity and prosperity.
It will also enable participants to “develop the skills, tools and mindset to grow and scale business, create jobs, and lead your region to greater prosperity, and gain essential business and leadership skills, from strategy and finance to business ethics and design thinking, all taught by world-renowned Stanford faculty and local business practitioners”.
The participants would also be able to “take advantage of a world-class curriculum from Stanford GSB and the innovative thinking that has shaped some of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley”.
Young and aspiring entrepreneurs interested in the Stanford Graduate Business School programme are encouraged to visit https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seed/transformation-program/admission for info on how to register, the requirements of the programme and other useful updates.