Developing and Promoting Africapitalism as an Economic Philosophy through the Academe
The potential opportunities in Africa are undoubtedly driving the new rush towards Africa as the last frontier of capitalism and the focus of Africapitalism. Tony Elumelu’s injection of Africapitalism into the business lingua is a welcome development. According to him, “Africapitalism is an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through investments that generate both economic prosperity and social wealth.” Mr Elumelu argues that Africa’s renaissance lies in the confluence of the right business and political action (The Africapitalism, Q4, 1(1), 2012). This is a desirable call for many reasons. Mr Elumelu deserves the credit to pioneer the articulation of Africapitalism as an economic philosophy. Africapitalism now needs to be engaged as an intellectual project to enhance its robustness and application.
This project is divided into three main phases. Phase one will seek to ground Africapitalism in the extant academic literature. It will identify the uniqueness of Africapitalism and how it differs from other competing ideas and forms of capitalism. Phase two is to identify and study companies and entrepreneurs engaged in Africapitalism, even if they do not currently label their practices as such. Phase three will finish with an industry, policy, academic conference in Nigeria or South Africa.
This project is in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Lagos Business School, Strathmore Business School, University of Loughborough, York University, University of Durham, University of Cape Town, and University of Grand-Bassam.
The project start date is 1st April 2014 and the end date is 31st March 2015 and is funded by The Tony Elumelu Foundation.