Leadership Development
Africa Needs Effective Leaders. Africa has long suffered from a shortage of effective leaders. Poor leadership has cost the continent immensely over the past few decades, creating major problems in the spiritual, political, economic, and social spheres:
Spiritual
• Majority of church leaders do not have any kind of training
• The church is still a reflection of the world around it
• The church is not futuristic & visionary in its thinking
Political
• Over 90% of Sub-Saharan African countries have experienced a repressive government in the past 30 years
• In the past 15 years, more than 30 of the 54 African countries have experienced violent conflict
• Less than 8 of the 54 nations in Africa are considered to have a free press etc
Economic
• Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer in the last forty years. This was during a period that saw unprecedented improvements in living standards in the rest of the world
• Corruption costs African economies more than $148 billion USD each year. This is equivalent to 25% of Africa’s GDP and disproportionately affects the poor by increasing the cost of goods as much as 20%. This corruption deters investment and impedes development and entrepreneurship
• Africa has a larger proportion of wealth (39%) held overseas by residents than any other continent. This impedes growth by reducing domestic investment and tax inflows
• Barriers to business formation deter entrepreneurs in African nations. The World Bank reports that Africans face the highest costs to b
usiness formation and have the slowest official processes for incorporation
• Africa’s many small nations and closed economies affect the ability to build strong businesses by limiting economies of scale and inhibiting intra-continental trade. African nations do only 8% of their trade with other nations in Africa, while European nations do 68% of their trade within Europe
• One in two people in sub-Saharan Africa survives on less than $1 per day. Africa has the greatest income disparity of any continent
Social
• Average life expectancy in Africa has declined by 15 years over the past two decades. Life expectancy in Africa is now only 41 years, as compared to 78 years in Europe
• Over two-thirds of all the people living with HIV in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 83% of the world’s AIDS deaths
• Malaria kills 1.8 million children each year and costs Africans an estimated $12 billion USD per year.
Would you partner with us as we take the unchanging message of Jesus Christ to a rapidly changing continent in words and in deeds? Together, we can make a difference!
Actions:
For more than ten years, BFL has conducted conferences, seminars and assisted individuals, churches and organizations with resources to address issues affecting every spectrum of the African life.
• Our land in Yaounde would be a base for training future leaders while continue to address and assist our present leadership.
• Several Team members are receiving formal and informal training on leadership
• I-LEAD: Institute for Leadership, Ethical-studies And Development is a vision of BFL to provide a campus and training in every sphere of life.
• Our Executive Director, Dr. Daniel Shu has written an excellent book on Leadership; our president, Rev. Ernest Ehabe is working on a book project dealing with the myriad problems facing Africa and giving biblical solutions.
• Our future campus (Secondary school) in Yaounde would take in kids at the age of 10 to 13 and invest seven years in their formative years, giving them formal education that also emphasizes character and altruistic leadership
You can be a part of making history and bringing needed change to the glory of God!