The Mandela University Africa Hub was established in 2024 to drive youth entrepreneurship and social innovation, starting with our Entrepreneurship and Incubation in Action students and young township entrepreneurs in Gqeberha and expanding this to the Eastern Cape, South Africa and ultimately to other countries in Africa. In the past year, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (CfERI) at Nelson Mandela University has incubated 42 small businesses over the past year, creating 96 jobs.
Launched in July 2024 at the University’s inaugural Innovation Indaba, and hosted by the Madibaz Youth Entrepreneurship Lab, the short learning programme inducted a second cohort in 2025, with students from across faculties seizing the opportunity to develop business-ready ideas rooted in Africa.
Endorsed and funded by Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, Dr Muki Moeng, the course is closely aligned to the University’s Vision 2030, which calls for the cultivation of socially responsible, adaptable global citizens who can turn ideas into impact.
The EOI’s central theme, Innovate Africa for the World, is informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, which promote inclusive growth and sustainability.
Second year, stronger focus
Programme coordinator Akalambo Fidel Mabolabola – himself a final-year student majoring in financial management – says the second cohort of 35 students started at the end of July 2025, with a revised curriculum building on the lessons of the previous year.
A total of 30 students were selected for the first course, with 18 completing the full programme. Many credited the experience with broadening their horizons and sharpening their business acumen.
Final-year BSc Microbiology and Physiology student Londeka Mgabhi, for example, said she had enrolled in the course in 2024 because: “I want to leave Mandela University as a business-minded scientist.”
Mabolabola says that Mgabhi won the pitching competition last year with an “amazing business idea”.
African innovation with impact
“The programme is designed in such a way that after these sessions, the students need to go and research an African problem that they can solve,” Mabolabola says.
“It is about how can we create Afrocentric solutions and think innovatively in a way that complements Africa, and ensuring that Africa is innovated for the world, and also placing Africa as an inspiration of innovation.”
Students who complete the course are encouraged to take their “big idea” into the prototype phase, through one of the many entrepreneurial development programmes housed within Mandela University’s Africa Hub.
“We help them prototype in the sense that we help them move from the idea phase into operational phase,” says Mabolabola. “We’ve got other University entrepreneur development departments that we can tap into, such as InnoVenton, the Innovation Office and others, to help support and actually bring the idea to life.”
Crucially, the programme also benefits those who do not want to run their own businesses.
“Even the students who don’t want to become entrepreneurs walk out with an entrepreneurial mindset. When they’re employed, they have more to offer than just their degrees and their skills; they also bring an entrepreneur aspect.
“Employers are looking for employees who think in an entrepreneurial manner, such as, how could the business make more money? How could it save more money? What other avenues can it tap into?
“We also make it Afrocentric to create a sense of responsible citizenship, so they are aware of the challenges that Africa is facing, and the trends, and know that it is up to us to solve those problems. Afrocentric solutions are also encouraged from an interdisciplinary approach because we group students from different disciplines together.”
As EOI goes into its second year, Mabolabola says a workbook is being developed to expand the reach of the programme beyond Gqeberha, with the George Campus next in line.
With new energy and ideas fuelling the 2025 cohort, Mandela University’s emerging innovators are showing what Africa’s future could look like – and it starts now.
2025 course outline
Mabolabola says the 2025 syllabus aimed to strengthen mindset and method.
“Our first master class will be an introduction to entrepreneurship and dealing with the mindset and the business model canvas.
“We are really looking forward to our second master class, in digital tech business tools, that will also be taking a deep dive into artificial intelligence (AI). That is going to be exciting, and also very relevant, because now people are now using AI to build their businesses.
“Our third and fourth sessions will be dealing with design thinking – one lecture on theory and one practical – because we would like to actually see the change in the mindset. This is what design thinking does: it gives a different perspective of looking at problems and going about solving them.”
Financial literacy, which will include basic instruction on how to do income statements and so on, will be the fifth session, and the final round will teach students how to prepare themselves for pitching.
The competition is called Innovate Africa for the World and will be where participants present their business models and receive expert feedback to fine-tune their ideas.
Read more in the latest BizYouth magazine, showcasing the pioneering work being done in advancing Nelson Mandela University as an entrepreneurial institution.