Of leadership and apprenticeship, by Muyiwa Adetiba

There are many endearing aspects of the Igbo business culture. But few, in my opinion, are more endearing than the apprenticeship system. It is a system that teaches and then empowers. The two most important requisites in successful entrepreneurship are knowledge and finance. The Igbo apprenticeship system provides both. This system, which has become a case study in many business schools the world over, has made billionaires out of enterprising young men and women who might otherwise have amounted to very little in life.
It has also led to the dominance of its graduates in certain key areas of the economy. It is a system that is self-serving, yet selfless: a symbiotic relationship that...