Covid-19 and Blended Entrepreneurship Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Covid-19 has radically transformed education around the world. From K-12 to higher education institutions, administrators and faculty are using online platforms to deliver instruction to mitigate the negative impact of national and local lockdowns. For less developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Covid-19 has created unprecedented challenges because of the limited resources in information technology and internet connectivity. Despite these challenges, new institutions have emerged to embrace blended learning as a means of teaching. Using Seeka University, a start-up university in Ivory Coast, as a case in point, the paper explores the challenges and prospects of blended entrepreneurship education in sub-Saharan Africa. In so doing, the paper describes an integrated entrepreneurship model including five teaching approaches, face-to-face, online, MOOCs, collaborative learning, and service learning used by Seeka University to deliver entrepreneurship education. It also explores the importance of combining Western, local, and indigenous knowledge in providing impactful entrepreneurship education. The paper discusses this approach’s implications for entrepreneurship education and research in sub-Saharan Africa.