The Jospong Group of Companies (JGC) and the Ghana Scholarly Society (GSS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen collaboration between industry and academia and promote the use of research and data in addressing business and development challenges in Ghana and across the African continent.

The agreement, which was formally signed on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at the Jospong International Business (JIB) office in Accra, is expected to create a structured and sustainable platform for the two institutions to bridge the gap between academia and the corporate world.

Speaking on behalf of the Executive Chairman and Board of Directors, the Group Chief Operating Officer (Apex COO) and an Executive Director of Jospong Group, Dr. Samanjith Udumalagala, said the partnership was particularly important to the Group’s ongoing efforts to build the human capital required to support its rapidly growing operations across the globe.

He noted that Jospong Group currently operates in 29 countries through more than 82 subsidiaries and employs approximately 10,000 people directly, making workforce development a strategic priority.

He said the Group viewed education, skills development, and intellectual empowerment as critical investments in sustaining its growth trajectory and maintaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex global market.

He emphasised that sustainable economic transformation could not be achieved through financial investment alone, but required deliberate and sustained investment in knowledge, skills, and emerging technologies.

Employees, he noted, must be equipped to understand complex challenges, develop innovative solutions, and convert business and operational difficulties into opportunities for growth and value creation.

In a significant disclosure, Dr. Udumalagala revealed that Jospong Group had sponsored more than 200 PhD and doctoral scholarships worldwide as part of its long-standing commitment to developing a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. Several beneficiaries of these scholarships, he said, had gone on to occupy key leadership positions within the Group, demonstrating the tangible long-term value of sustained investment in human capital.

He stressed that the success of the new partnership would not be measured simply by the number of academic qualifications produced, but by the practical knowledge and analytical capabilities acquired by employees and applied directly to solving business challenges. The ultimate goal, he concluded, was to build a smart, tactical, and future-ready workforce capable of supporting Jospong’s continued expansion across Africa and beyond.

The President of the Ghana Scholarly Society and Associate Professor of International Business Management at the University of Bradford School of Management, Dr. Kweku Adams, called for a fundamental change in the way academic research is produced and utilised in Africa.

He argued that research should move beyond the traditional focus on academic publications and citation counts and instead concentrate more on generating practical, implementable solutions for businesses, governments, and civil society. He said evidence-based decision-making had become increasingly important as African countries grapple with rapid population growth and mounting pressure on infrastructure, healthcare, education and other social services.

He pointed out that Ghana’s population had increased from about 6.4 million at independence in 1957 to more than 37 million today, while Nigeria’s population had risen from approximately 45 million to more than 200 million over the same period. He cautioned that without reliable data, rigorous research, and long-term planning, African countries could struggle to respond effectively to emerging socioeconomic challenges, from urbanisation to climate resilience. ‘

Under the terms of the MoU, GSS will provide specialised supervisory support, executive training, and multidisciplinary expertise through its seven thematic areas, including health and medicine, the built environment, law, economics, accounting, and the social sciences.

Dr. Adams also highlighted the importance of research to Jospong Group’s international expansion strategy, noting that studies on the internationalisation of African businesses had shown that informal networks often played a significant role in helping companies navigate new markets. He said the combination of such research with Jospong’s established sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives could provide valuable insights as the Group expands its footprint across the continent, helping it to adapt to diverse regulatory, cultural and economic environments.

The partnership was initiated by the Head of the Green Transition Office at Jospong Group, Dr. Glenn Kobina Gyimah, who described the collaboration as a strategic convergence of industry and academic expertise. He said that while Jospong had benefited significantly from technical and technological partnerships over the years, its rapid expansion required equally strong collaboration with academic and research institutions to ensure that growth was informed by rigorous data and analysis.

Under the agreement, Jospong Group will provide real-world corporate data, operational platforms and industry challenges for academic research, while GSS will draw on its international network of scholars across the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and Asia to train executives, supervise applied postgraduate research and develop practical solutions to business challenges.

Both institutions expressed confidence that the partnership would provide a model for stronger industry-academia collaboration in Africa, while contributing to innovation, sustainable development, human capital development and the long-term growth of Ghana’s private sector and wider economy.