I once heard a Nigerian saying proudly that the strength of Nigeria is its people. That statement stuck in my mind: in fact, its 170 million (or so) people makes Nigeria the most populous African country – but what did he mean exactly? A number of things come to mind: the most immediate and obvious,…

Work is one of the central tenets in human life. We ask our kids what do they want to do when they grow up; we start conversations by inquiring about each other’s jobs; we study extensively in order to secure future employment; we belong, as adults, to a well-defined working age population; we differentiate between…

In my interviews with managers from sub-Saharan African countries, I was surprised that – without my bringing up the topic – a large majority of them made a comment of this sort: "You know, what drives this company is job creation… Of course, we want to make money, and we do make money, but what…