Stakeholders have urged Africans to invest in the productive sector to solve capacity development challenges and develop the human capital to contribute significantly to the global economy.

Chief Executive Officer, Harde Business School, Tayo Osiyemi, said that though Africa controls about 20 per cent of the world population, it contributes less than three per cent to the global gross domestic product (GDP), stressing that the continent’s productivity level is extremely low.

Explaining how the output level dissipates, he said just nine per cent of individuals get admission into tertiary institutions in Africa compared to America with 87 per cent and South East Asia with 90 per cent.

Speaking at the launch of Harde Business School’s Expert-led Courses, in Lagos, he called on government to establish policies that would bring more players into the education space and rethink the country’s curriculum to gain a competitive advantage.

“For us to be competitive as a country, we need to rethink our educational curriculum. It has to be deliberately designed to the skills obtainable today,” Osiyemi said.

He said the school was aimed at driving educational transformation in Africa and other emerging markets, with a specific focus on preparing young Africans for the future of work.

“Africa is by all stretch the youngest continent in the world and this is a huge potential to be looked into. When we talk about Africa’s competitiveness, the core of the discussion is how we are going to develop our human capital to be able to contribute our fair share to growth and innovation.

What Harde has provided is a learning platform with micro-courses aimed at addressing specific skills crucial to modern-day learning and development, a platform where professionals can go to reskill themselves in specific areas of interests,” he added.

Founding Vice Chancellor, Babcock University. Prof Kayode Makinde, said innovation required to reimagine the future of learning must be adaptive, interactive and creative.