Participants in Lagos Business School’s Chief Executive Programme (CEP 23) recently commenced a week-long joint session with their Advanced Management Programme (AMP) counterparts from the Strathmore Business School, Kenya.
The joint session, which ends tomorrow, is aimed at forging a bond between business executives from East and Western Africa.
This year, the East African team led by Kenya, also comprises participants from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Rhodesia. They represent diverse industrial sectors such as telecoms, banking, chemical engineering, insurance, research and analytics, among others.
Dean of SBS, Dr George N. Njenga, who joined the Kenyan team, said his visit to LBS was targeted at forging stronger ties with the renowned academic institution. “We’re looking at exchange professorship programmes, training of PhDs and generally bonding business executives from Nigeria with their counterparts from Kenya,” he explained.
Strong networking opportunities are also on the line-up, which Njenga said would break trade barriers between Nigeria and Kenya, and the entire continent by extension.
“LBS is a world-class institution recognised within and outside Nigeria. The School has an impressive environment, culture of learning and quality control,” he observed six years after his last visit to the School.
Participants were treated to a lively welcome cocktail and a guided tour of Lafarge Cement Company, to familiarise them with the workings of a thriving Nigerian business concern. Dr Njeri also met with his LBS counterpart, Dr Enase Okonedo, to discuss issues mutually beneficial to both institutions.
“There has been a consistent increase in participants since 2012,” said Lucy Kairu, Programme Manager, Executive Education, SBS. “The depth of connections between Nigerians and Kenyans is midwifed by Kenyans in Nigeria (KIN) and the Kenyan High Commission.”
Indeed, the Kenyan High Commissioner is scheduled to meet with Dr Njeri at LBS for discussions on the formation of the Kenya Nigeria Business Association, which past and present AMP/CEP participants would formalise. At the meeting, issues such as ease of doing business between both parties will be discussed; while the Kenyan High Commissioner will issue certificates to all participants and join them for a closing cocktail.
