With the looming unease following the Davos Summit over the need to come up with new models of economic growth, Africans can’t help but wonder how they can protect themselves from the current uncertain state of affairs.
Discussions continue to dominate media platforms on the opportunities for the growth of the world economy with some believing that a relook at capitalism should be the answer to our bleak future, some insisting that there should be creation of more jobs and some adamant that businesses should have a philanthropic approach to their work rather than primarily focus on profits.
“While all are concrete steps to remodel our growth opportunities, I especially concur with those who advocate for creation of jobs to grow our economies particularly in Africa. Our sustainability and independence relies on workforce solutions that integrate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development and support by larger businesses” says Paul Malherbe, CEO & Managing Director for African Management Services Company (AMSCO).
He added that a full package of workforce solutions should also be considered as the existing workforce needs to be groomed to run globally competitive businesses that are sustainable. Africa has seen increased financial capital flows to the continent, but yet human capital, that is needed to unleash economic development, has not attracted the same level of attention.
“AMSCO, and the ATMS Project, are about human capital development in enterprises for the growth of our continent. We have placed over 900 expert managers on enterprises in 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the development impact has been phenomenal while profits remained high. The secret behind it was threefold; job creation, capacity building and robust succession planning for in-country managers” Malherbe continued.
Wealth creation by the private sector and commercially operated state enterprises working the Government and Civil Society is crucial for Africa’s home grown solutions to the economy.
AMSCO is a special purpose company established by the UNDP in 1989 to rollout the African Training and Management Services (ATMS) Project in order to assist African enterprises to become globally competitive, profitable and sustainable. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the Executing Agency and the African Development Bank is the Regional Coordinating Agency for the Project.
