Transforming Tanzania’s leadership landscape: The fourth CAP graduation ceremony

Dar es Salaam. The CEO Roundtable of Tanzania (CEOrt) celebrated the fourth graduation ceremony of the CEO Apprenticeship Programme (CAP) with the theme "Sowing the Seeds of Leadership Transformation." This event underscored the programme’s significant impact on reshaping Tanzania’s leadership landscape.Launched in 2019 in collaboration with the Strathmore Global Institute and endorsed by the Prime Minister's Office, CAP aims to prepare experienced Tanzanian executives from both public and private sectors for senior leadership roles through specialized coaching and mentorship. The programme seeks to create a robust pipeline of highly competent leaders ready to assume CEO positions regionally and globally. As Tanzania’s economy rapidly expands, there is an increasing demand for skilled visionaries. The CEOrt is dedicated to nurturing leaders who can drive performance and foster continuous improvement. Over the past four years, CAP has achieved remarkable success, with 30 percent of its graduates advancing to CEO and other senior roles within leading multinational corporations. Currently, eight alumni lead distinguished multinational firms and are driving innovation in key sectors, including oil and gas, banking, and manufacturing. A key focus of CAP is unlocking the potential of women leaders. The CEOrt is committed to ensuring 25 percent female representation in each CAP cohort, recognizing that gender balance in leadership is crucial for Tanzania’s sustainable and equitable prosperity. David Tarimo, CEOrt Board Chairman, emphasized, “CAP was born out of a need we saw as CEOs to develop local talent for senior leadership roles while assisting organizations that might not have the capacity in-house to nurture their people. Beyond facilitating succession planning, companies can enhance knowledge transfer, ensure a steady flow of skilled leaders who understand local market dynamics, and adapt to changing conditions while maintaining a global competitive edge.” Hon. Adolf Mkenda, Minister of Education, Science, and Technology, and Guest of Honor at the graduation ceremony, highlighted the importance of cross-sector collaboration between the government and the business community. He noted that structural challenges, such as widespread poverty, are linked to the fact that two-thirds of Tanzania’s population relies on agriculture, a sector contributing less than a third of the GDP. This low productivity underscores the need for transformation, including the growth of the middle class to boost demand for locally produced goods and enhance overall productivity. Mkenda pointed out that despite Tanzania’s vast land resources, the country continues to import significant amounts of commodities like wheat and sunflower oil. Addressing these issues requires educational reforms, including the introduction of vocational secondary schools to bridge the skills gap and promote economic growth. The government has also made entrepreneurship a compulsory subject at the ordinary level of secondary education. Programs like CAP are pivotal as leadership development platforms and can serve as models for other capacity-building initiatives. The government’s commitment to collaborating with CAP, first expressed by the Prime Minister four years ago at the inaugural CAP graduation, aims to cultivate more entrepreneurial-minded individuals and enhance the country’s labor force.