African Leadership University (ALU) has announced that billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, has been appointed as a visiting professor at the university based in Kigali.
The university’s website quotes its founder, Dr Fred Swaniker, as saying that he is happy that young African entrepreneurs studying at the university “will now have the opportunity to be taught by one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the world”.
Jack Ma – once the richest man in China – is said to have fallen out of favor with the Chinese government after criticizing one of its policies.
Jack Ma does not confirm what is said by this private university in Rwanda, only the charity he founded, the Jack Ma Foundation, recently said that Ma is currently “returning to what he loves” – teaching – and “was working before founding Alibaba”.
Last week, Hong Kong University announced that Jack Ma had agreed to teach entrepreneurship for three years. Last year, he was appointed as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo in Japan and Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The Jack Ma Foundation says that Ma “has been a university teacher for six years”, that he “has a passion for education, and always wants to share his journey of learning with young people”.
Fred Swaniker, the Ghanaian who founded the African Leadership University, says that what he will teach at this African university “will make our students think big…and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams”.
The university does not say whether Jack Ma will go to teach at its headquarters in Kigali or if he will teach remotely.
African Leadership University (ALU) started working in 2015 in Mauritius and in Rwanda in 2017, it says that it aims to “build a new generation of leaders who can change Africa”.
