The ESSEC Business School and a panel of local business and industry leaders have sealed a partnership agreement to advance executive training and talent development by providing exposure to real-world business environments.
At the sidelines of the just-concluded Africa Forward Summit, the French Business School, in conjunction with local firms Vivo Energy Kenya, Africa Global Logistics, and IBL Group, signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen talent development for mid- to senior-level executives pursuing their Executive MBA and related studies at ESSEC.
The local firms working with ESSEC confirmed that the MoU’s objective aligns with the Africa Forward Summit’s ambition to address the challenges and opportunities related to industrialization and raw material processing while strengthening Africa’s position in the global value chain.
The ESSEC Africa Chair, “Business and Industry”, was launched in 2024/2025 with the support of its partners. This high-level chair aims to train a cohort of international Master’s-level students at ESSEC’s Africa campus in Rabat (Morocco) between January and April each year, alongside case studies, site visits, and four- to six-month internships.
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According to the Executive Director of the Business and Industry in Africa Chair at ESSEC Business School, Benoît Chervalier, the industrialization of the African continent, the local transformation of raw materials, and the strengthening of human capital capacities are the core pillars of this private-sector-driven initiative.
He added, “This is also a message to the 2,000 companies and CEOs present at the Summit. We have a strategy, we have an ambition, and we have the tools to implement it.”
ESSEC Partners With Vivo Energy, AGL, and IBL on Africa Executive Training
On his part, Vivo Energy Kenya Managing Director Peter Murungi, while expressing the firm’s support for the Executive Training initiative, confirmed the latent need for practical Master’s-level training to ensure effective outcomes.
“At Vivo Energy, we will play a key role in ensuring that the MoU translate into tangible outcomes. The visit in Kenya, which came after visits in London with the Vivo Energy leadership team, illustrates the level of engagement of the Group.”
After the success of the first cohort, which visited Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan/Grand-Bassam) in 2024/2025, the second immersive study trip took place in March 2026 in Kenya (Nairobi-Mombasa).
International students participated in trips to tea and coffee value chains, IBL presentations, and activities with Naivas and Equator Energy.
They also visited ports in Nairobi and Mombasa with Africa Global Logistics and took part in site visits and business case studies with Vivo Energy.
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At a networking session with business leaders and the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) CEO, Carole Kariuki stated that “this Business and Industry in Africa Chair at ESSEC Business School is critical, as partners such as KEPSA and ESSEC seek to convert global disruption into structured economic opportunity and shared prosperity.”
Martin Mwangi, Managing Director of AGL Kenya, which hosted the students at the port of Mombasa, added that “this Chair is exactly what AGL is promoting: attracting new talent, developing internal capacity and contributing to the development of the African continent in the global value chain.”
A high-level conference will be held in Paris on June 15-16, 2026, marking the tenth anniversary of CEMA (Commodity and Energy Markets Association), and will be chaired by Professor Andrea Rancoroni, co-founder of the Africa Chair.
