Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development, Stellenbosch Business School, and the Alumni Association are partnering together to host a series of face-to-face thought leadership events with prominent and influential panelists.

South Africa stands at the forefront of a momentous trade revolution that will shape the future of the continent encouraging innovation and promoting the development of value-chains, thereby spurring industrialisation and job creation across sectors.

For this special Leader’s Angle event, we invite you to engage with us and our panel of experts exploring ‘BRICS Prospects for South Africa and the Rest of The Continent: How BRICS Could Be a Big Boost for The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)’.

Our event promises to bring together a diverse and influential audience, fostering meaningful discussions and networking opportunities. It is also a chance to engage with our Business School’s new Acting Director, Prof Charles Adjasi.

We look forward to having you join our conversation.

In association with:

 

 

 

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

 

Philip Myburgh

Head: Trade, Business & Commercial Banking at Standard Bank Group

Philip Myburgh is the Head of Trade in Standard Bank Group’s Business & Commercial Banking unit. As head of this division, Mr. Myburgh is responsible for driving Standard Bank’s end-to-end trade solution to support the growth ambitions of its business & commercial customers across the group’s African footprint.

This includes helping African businesses to import and export internationally, with emphasis on Africa’s largest trade partner China, and introducing Chinese-owned businesses to trade and expansion opportunities in Africa across the group’s 20 country footprint.

Responsible for the business unit’s Africa Continental Free Trade Area ambitions, he is also leading the trade ecosystem designed by Standard Bank for supporting and stimulating intra-Africa trade through expert advice and solutions in finance, payments, foreign exchange, access to new markets and logistics. 

He has filled numerous management roles in Standard Bank’s South African and Africa Regions’ business units including Head of Standard Bank’s Small Business Division for Africa, Enterprise Banking. Prior to his current role, he was the Head of the Standard Bank Business and Commercial Banking Africa-China division, based in Beijing, China.

 

Prof Charles Adjasi

Head of Research: Stellenbosch Business School

Prof Charles Adjasi is the acting Director of Stellenbosch Business School as from 1 November 2023.

He is currently the Head of Research and Professor of Development Finance and Economics at the Business School. He also lectured at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and University of Ghana. He was a Research Fellow at Afreximbank and has consulted for institutions such as the World Bank, UNCTAD, African Union, and the African Development Bank.

He holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University, an MPhil (Economics) and a BA (Economics and Political Science), both from the University of Ghana.

He served as Programme Head for Development Finance from 2014 to June 2017. Prior to joining the the Business School in 2011, he was on the faculty of the University of Ghana Business School from 2001, serving one term as Head of the Department of Banking and Finance in 2011. From 2007 – 2011 he was Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, USA.

Prof Adjasi has consulted for various institutions, including the World Bank, Africa Centre for Economic Transformation, the Frederich-Ebert Stiftung Ghana, the Trades Union Congress of Ghana, Investment Climate Facility for Africa and the African Development Bank. In 2016, he served on a panel of experts in the Special Commodities Unit of UNCTAD, Geneva, and facilitated for Tariffs, Trade and Regional Integration within the West African Institute of Economic and Financial Management.

Prof Adjasi is a network member of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Nairobi, Kenya, and the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA. His general research focus is in the area of development finance/economics in Africa, with specific interests in financial markets, FDI and growth, household welfare, firm behaviour and productivity, and international trade and development. He has published widely: 31 articles in internationally reputable journals and three monographs, also contributing five chapters to edited book volumes.

At the Business School, Prof Adjasi teaches on the Development Finance programmes, in Research Methods in Development Finance and Issues and Banking and Finance.

 

Bertha Dlamini

Founding President of African Women in Energy and Power (AWEaP)

Ms. Dlamini is an advocate for accelerated participation of African Women and Youth in Africa’s Power and Energy sector. She is the founding President of African Women in Energy and Power  (AWEaP);  an  organisation  she founded  to  accelerate  the  participation  of  African  Women Entrepreneurs in the full value chains of Power and Energy in Africa and contribute towards addressing the continent’s energy poverty. The organization has 22 chapters in Africa.She is the founder of Rito Group of Companies Pty LTD, a consulting  group  with  interests  in  management  consulting energy and power consulting solutions.

 

Wandile Sihlobo

Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz)

Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of two books, “A Country of Two Agricultures: The Disparities, the Challenges, the Solutions(2023)” and “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity, and Agriculture(2020)”. He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.

Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from2018.He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC). Sihlobo is the Chairman of the Agribusiness Working Group of the BRICS Business Council (South Africa). He is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine. Sihlobo holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.