Africa Needs Leaders, Not Just Founders, Louis Kimuli Tells SEED Tour

By Daniel Okafor

More than 60 per cent of Ugandan enterprises do not survive beyond five years, and Louis Kimuli says weak leadership explains much of that number. The Ugandan youth development leader and entrepreneur delivered that argument at the SEED Business School Festival 2026 Tour in Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 31.

The event, hosted at NH Johannesburg Sandton, gathered roughly 200 stakeholders. They included prospective business school applicants and admissions directors from Cambridge Judge Business School, Imperial College Business School, NYU Stern School of Business and Bocconi University. According to the organisers, the tour offered scholarship opportunities exceeding $10 million, application fee waivers and a selective Golden Ticket initiative.

Kimuli attended representing the Kimuli World Foundation. He argued that access to such opportunities means little without deliberate effort.

"Opportunities must be actively pursued and created rather than waited for," he said.

Why the numbers behind Africa's youth bulge matter

Uganda's 2024 National Population and Housing Census put the country's population at 45.9 million. About 10.7 million people are aged between 18 and 30. That is a large labour pool by any measure.

The employment data tell a harder story. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics' 2025 labour report found that 42.6 per cent of people aged 15 to 24 were not in employment, education or training.

The pattern repeats across the region. Kenya's 2024 Economic Survey highlights the difficulties facing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Tanzania's SME sector continues to grapple with constraints on access to finance, business governance and market opportunities.

Kimuli's core concern is not the number of businesses being founded. It is whether they survive, grow and create lasting economic value. Uganda's Fourth National Development Plan identifies business survival and enterprise development as significant challenges. The plan puts average business survival at 4.8 years.

"Weak financial management, limited investment readiness, inadequate corporate governance and difficulties in scaling operations remain among the key constraints," Kimuli said.

What does he want changed?

His prescription is simple to state and hard to execute. Efforts to promote entrepreneurship should move beyond providing startup capital. They should build the management and leadership skills required to run sustainable businesses.

The same logic applies to international business education. Kimuli argues that prestigious business schools should not serve solely as a channel for individual career advancement. Instead, they should strengthen Africa's private sector.

"Business leaders with international exposure can contribute to stronger corporate governance and more sophisticated investment practices. But that contribution depends on whether African economies create the institutions through which such knowledge can be applied," he said.

Can scholarships avoid feeding brain drain?

International education carries a known risk: talent leaves and does not return. Without deliberate retention efforts and opportunities to apply new knowledge at home, scholarship programmes could push more talented Africans into careers abroad rather than into enterprise development on the continent.

Business education analysts have pointed to the same issue. They stress retention, knowledge transfer and local institutional support as the conditions that determine whether international exposure delivers meaningful economic benefits.

SEED organisers say their engagement model addresses this directly through returnee networks and partnerships with local enterprise support organisations.

For Uganda, the test is concrete: whether international exposure translates into stronger businesses, improved corporate governance, better financial management and enterprises capable of attracting investment and expanding across regional markets.

Kimuli frames the goal in industrial terms. Africa, he said, must move beyond producing entrepreneurs who simply establish businesses.

"Africa needs leaders who understand global supply chains. Elite education should empower entrepreneurs to stop exporting raw commodities and build regional manufacturing giants," he said.

His message points to the broader task facing African economies: converting youthful ambition and entrepreneurial potential into productive enterprises that generate employment, strengthen local industries and compete globally.