In the past year, the tax revenue of governments across 23 African countries increased by more than $85-million as a result of the African Training & Management Services project, a United Nations (UN) Development Programme.

Project implementor African Management Services Company (Amsco) says it placed 300 managers with 200 client companies in Africa to introduce global best practices.

CEO and MD Paul Malherbe says the project was initiated in 1989 to address the plight of the private sector in sub-Saharan Africa by improving the leadership and management skills of its businesses. “We do this by seconding skilled and experienced managers to client companies for about three years, with a strong emphasis on local succession planning and focused training of the teams.”

In Namibia, Kenya and Ghana, Amsco has trained leaders and managers of companies to instil corporate governance in their businesses to reduce supply-side governance corruption.

Meanwhile, in Ghana, the project has also trained more than 2 300 people in the agriculture sector to improve their skills and remove them from extreme poverty.

Further, in Zambia, Kenya and Cameroon, hundreds of small and medium-size enterprises, many of which are women-owned, are being trained to break free of poverty and better manage their businesses to improve their lives and those of members of surrounding communities.

“While this is not enough to eradicate poverty or achieve gender empowerment – two of the UN’s Millennium Devel-opment Goals – it is worthy progress that continues to transform Africa – one business at a time – and requires ongoing support from all sectors of the economy, particularly progressive alliances between the business, government and civil society sectors, to accomplish inclusive growth in Africa,” notes Malherbe, who this month addressed business leaders and policymakers at the second yearly Africa Governance, Leadership and Management Convention hosted in partnership with professional membership-based nonprofit organisation the Kenya Institute of Management and nonprofit organisation the Africa Leadership Forum at the Whitesands Hotel, in Mombasa, Kenya.

The convention was aimed at increasing continental cooperation in the private sector and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

“It is a great opportunity for people to actively engage in the sustainable development and growth of Africa.”

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