Fred Swaniker, a well-known Ghanaian entrepreneur, has accomplished many things over the course of his relatively brief career; however, his most notable achievement is undoubtedly the co-founding of the African Leadership Academy, a boarding school which has providing hundreds of talented young people across the continent with the opportunity to learn about leadership, and entrepreneurialism.

Swaniker himself has a strong educational background, having received his undergraduate degree from Macalester College, and his MBA from Stanford University.  He began his career with a South African consulting company, and throughout the next few years, he worked in many African countries, including Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, and the homeland of Tunde Folawiyo, Nigeria.

It was during this period of time that Swaniker became acutely aware of the need for better schools around the continent. Realising that that Africa’s development could only be sustained and accelerated through the systematic cultivation of leaders, he decided to establish the African Leadership Academy, with the help of Chris Bradford.

Fellows of the African Leadership Network, such as Tunde Folawiyo, may know that each year, the ALA selects 125 students, whom its committee believe have the intelligence, determination and courage to implement ideas and projects which will transform Africa into a prosperous and peaceful place. The programme lasts for two years; Swaniker has likened it to the African version of the Rhodes Scholarship, as it aims to nurture and support the continent’s most promising young minds.

Over the next five decades, he hopes to create a minimum of 6000 leaders, who may then go on to work as entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, philosophers, university presidents, governors of central banks and politicians. With their expertise, experience, and understanding of Africa’s needs, they will be able to change the continent for the better, addressing and resolving its most significant problems.

Swaniker and Bradford’s efforts have not gone unnoticed; in 2006, two years after the ALA was first established, an international non-profit called Echoing Green named the two men in their list of the world’s top 15 social entrepreneurs. Three years later, Swaniker was named as TED Fellow, and in 2010, he was  chosen as one of the 115 leaders who would attend the Forum for Young African Leaders, which was led by President Obama. More recently, he was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.