African applications invited for entrepreneurship MBA scholarships

12 Mar 2010

Four entrepreneurs who aspire to build and develop their business skills will be fortunate enough to access scholarships which have been made available to study the 2010/11 Entrepreneurship MBA at the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). Three of these scholarships are being offered to exceptional individuals from sub-Saharan Africa through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (Danida), while the fourth will be made available by GIBS to an exceptional South African female.

Denmark sees the private sector as a prime driver of job creation and income generation. They believe that emerging business leaders and entrepreneurs need international business skills and networks to compete in the global marketplace, but often cannot afford the full cost of a Masters programme. Their Emerging Leaders Scholarship Programme (ELSP) will assist three successful applicants to overcome this barrier.

Calling for applicants out of Africa

The ELSP covers 90% of the total cost of completing the full-time Entrepreneurship MBA at GIBS, and applicants must be emerging business leaders under 45 years of age who hail from one of Danida's programme partners countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa , Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Women from sub-Saharan African countries are particularly encouraged to apply.

Prospective scholarship applicants are required to fulfil the admission requirements for entrance to the full-time Entrepreneurship MBA programme as well as the selection criteria of the ELSP. All applicants must be accepted to the full-time Entrepreneurship MBA programme before an ELSP scholarship award can be made.

The GIBS' Woman Entrepreneur scholarship aims to promote female entrepreneurship and assist potential female entrepreneurs to acquire the skills required to run and grow a successful business.

Applicants must be female and South African citizens, and prospective scholarship applicants are required to fulfil the admission requirements for entrance to the full-time Entrepreneurship MBA programme as well as the scholarship selection criteria.

Thorough training

"Not only does the Entrepreneurship MBA programme provide students with the opportunity to build and develop the disciplinary business skills that one would typically learn on an MBA but, over and above that, students will be required to integrate and apply these skills in an entrepreneurial setting which we hope will put each of our graduates on the fast-track to fulfilling their entrepreneurial ambitions", says Professor Nick Binedell, director of GIBS.

"The main causes for failure amongst entrepreneurs are naïve optimism and therefore over ambitious planning and poor cash flow management. Studying an Entrepreneurship MBA will enable would-be entrepreneurs with the right drive and experience to get started on establishing their new business using sound business principles, regardless of the sector or industry. We encourage would-be entrepreneurs to visit us at www.gibs.co.za in order to find out more about the Entrepreneurship MBA and the scholarships on offer."

To be considered for these scholarships, online applications must reach GIBS by no later than 1 May 2010.