Why African Entrepreneurs Need a Different Strategy Playbook
Leadership
Since early 2025, FUNIC Business School (FBS) has partnered with the University of Buea (UB)—one of Cameroon’s most prestigious public universities—to launch a bold, market-driven MBA tailored for African executives and entrepreneurs.
This groundbreaking collaboration is more than academic. It’s a movement to empower African leaders with a new kind of business education—one that respects global standards but prioritizes African relevance.
Unlike traditional Western MBAs, the FBS-UB MBA was built in consultation with African business leaders. It’s designed to address real market conditions—informal economies, unpredictable regulation, cultural nuance, and infrastructure gaps—while still equipping students with globally recognized frameworks and tools.
“Many African businesses struggle not because they lack vision or ambition, but because they’re applying solutions crafted for someone else’s problems.”
— Dr. Fotabe Elmine, Founder, FUNIC Business School
🌍 Global Knowledge, Local Intelligence
The FBS-UB MBA is built on the case study method, a powerful tool for applied learning made famous by institutions like Harvard, INSEAD, and MIT. Our students dive deep into complex, real-world business scenarios from global markets to understand how top executives make decisions under pressure.
But we don’t stop at global examples.
We go further by helping students contextualize strategy for African business realities. They learn how to develop their own original case studies—documenting and analyzing challenges faced by local companies and industries.
For instance:
- What does supply chain management look like in landlocked regions with poor road infrastructure?
- How do family-owned enterprises manage succession in a culture with strong elder hierarchies?
- What customer engagement strategies work in informal markets where mobile money is more common than credit cards?
By answering these questions, students aren’t just consuming knowledge—they’re creating it. Each original case study becomes a tool for local insight and a contribution to Africa’s growing body of business research.
“How does this model apply in Douala, not Dubai? In Kumasi, not Kansas?”
“Our MBA program is not about copying; it’s about contextualizing. We equip leaders to build strategies rooted in their realities, not someone else’s.”
— Academic Director, FBS-UB MBA
🧠 Strategy, Reimagined for Africa
Strategy is not universal—it must fit the terrain. That’s why every core course in the FBS-UB MBA has been reframed for African realities:
• Business Strategy → Resilience and Value in Volatile Markets
African markets can be unpredictable. From currency fluctuations to power outages to political shifts, the rules of the game can change overnight. Our program trains students to build businesses that not only survive shocks but use them as springboards for growth. Strategy here means scenario planning, adaptive leadership, and learning how to turn volatility into opportunity.
• Market Strategy → Competing in Fragmented, Fast-Changing Ecosystems
Unlike mature markets, African sectors often lack dominant players and stable rules. This makes them high-risk but high-opportunity. Students learn how to identify entry points, use frugal innovation, and move fast in spaces where competition is informal but intense.
• Customer-Centric Strategy → Building Human-Centered Brands that Earn Trust
In many African contexts, relationships matter more than advertising. Word-of-mouth, community trust, and reputation often carry more weight than pricing or flashy marketing. This module teaches students to build customer loyalty through empathy, community engagement, and authentic value delivery.
• Financing Strategy → Beyond Banks: Smart Capital for African Growth
Access to capital is one of the biggest barriers for African entrepreneurs—but it’s not insurmountable. This course explores alternative models: bootstrapping, rotating savings groups, diaspora investments, microfinance, and crowdfunding. Students learn how to structure financing creatively, sustainably, and with minimal reliance on traditional bank loans.
• Expansion Strategy → Scaling with Local Intelligence and Strategic Partnerships
Scaling a business across regions or borders in Africa means navigating linguistic diversity, regulatory fragmentation, and infrastructure constraints. Students explore cooperative growth models, franchising, and strategic alliances tailored to the African context—so they can scale smart, not just fast.
• HR Strategy → Hiring and Leading in a Relationship-Driven Culture
Talent management in Africa isn’t just about contracts and KPIs—it’s about relationships, trust, and cultural sensitivity. This module equips students with tools to recruit and retain high-performing teams in environments where informal networks and personal bonds drive loyalty and productivity.
• Sales & Market Penetration → Selling with Cultural Intelligence
Selling in Africa isn’t just about product-market fit. It’s about understanding buyer psychology, respecting local customs, and navigating informal decision-making processes. Students learn how to craft sales strategies that resonate with deeply held values and social norms, unlocking new markets by aligning with how people actually buy.
🎓 A Transformational Journey for the African Executive
Graduates of the FBS-UB MBA don’t just walk away with a diploma. They walk away with a new lens—one that challenges conventional models and embraces bold, African-centered thinking.
They leave with a strategic identity that is:
- Critical of copy-paste approaches from foreign models
- Committed to documenting and refining indigenous business wisdom
- Capable of building businesses designed to succeed on the continent and for the continent
“We don’t teach business in a vacuum. We teach business in Africa. That means strategy has to be realistic, resilient, and radically local.”
— Dr. Fotabe Elmine, Founder, FUNIC Business School
💼 Build Your Strategy—Your Way
This isn’t just another MBA. It’s a call to African executives and entrepreneurs: to rethink strategy, reframe growth, and take ownership of the continent’s economic future.
Whether you're scaling a startup or leading a legacy business, the FBS-UB MBA equips you to design bold, practical strategies that make sense in your market, with your people, and for your long-term vision.
🔗 Ready to Design Your Own African Strategy?
Call us today on +237 675 102 650