Bosch has joined forces with 18 other companies, including Daimler, SAP, Voith, and Würth, to kick-start the “Afrika kommt!” (Africa is coming!) program. The German business initiative, which was instigated by the German federal president Horst Köhler and Tilman Todenhöfer, general partner of Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG, provides support for a total of 20 young managers from Africa. It aims to expand the two-way exchange of information between the German business world and young African management talent and lay the foundation for long-term cooperation.
“Dialog between Germany and Africa is also important on a business level if we wish to learn from one another and be effective in developing and implementing new market activities,” underlined Tilman Todenhöfer. The initiative is designed to add a private-sector dimension to the federal president’s “Partnerschaft mit Afrika” (Partnership with Africa) project. The participants from nine African countries have several years’ business experience or already hold leading positions at companies in their respective homelands. As part of the program, they will have the opportunity to participate in training courses, attend language classes, and learn about German culture in general. The corporate sponsors will bear all the costs of the one-year stay. To accompany the initiative, an extensive program of weekend events will be offered by both the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart – focusing on training and civic commitment – and the ZEIT-Stiftung in Hamburg – focusing on culture and the media.
The recipient of the Bosch scholarship is Akinyi Juddy Otieno from Kenya. Ms. Otieno works for an IT company in Nairobi. Before starting her career, she studied information science. She also speaks five languages and is confident of the benefits of the networking concept: “What I learn during the program will not only be of benefit to me – I will also share the information with others. After all, that's what good leadership is all about." Following the official kick-off event on October 30 at Schloss Bellevue, the 20 participants will start their training at the companies in January 2009. The first of two joint management training units will take place in December. The participants will return to their respective countries at the end of September 2009. The plan is that they will set up an alumni network there, before returning to Germany in 2010 for a two-week follow-up event.
