From Competition to Collaboration: AU, CZI Reframe Africa’s Industrial Future
Africa University (AU) this week hosted the 2nd Annual Africa Innovation and Industrialisation Sustainability (AIIS) Conference 2026, bringing together academia, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and development partners to explore how stronger university-industry collaboration can drive innovation, skills development and industrial growth.
Hosted by the College of Business and Management Sciences (CBMS) in partnership with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the TAGDev 2.0 programme, the conference explored the theme “Driving African Industrial Transformation through Innovation, Sustainability, and Enterprise Development.” At its core was an important question for Africa’s future: how can universities and industry move beyond operating in parallel to building solutions together that advance innovation, strengthen enterprise and accelerate sustainable industrial development?
Welcoming delegates on behalf of the Africa University Vice Chancellor, Reverend Professor Peter Mageto, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Engineer Talon Garikayi challenged higher education institutions to rethink their relationship with industry and their responsibility in economic development.
“The role of government is not to give you jobs; it is then the role of industry [to create jobs]. When industry is failing, who is responsible for industry failing? It is the universities,” he said.
Prof. Eng. Garikayi argued that universities cannot remain detached from the realities facing the productive sector, noting that institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to produce graduates, research and innovations that respond directly to industry needs. He also observed that universities and industry too often operate as separate entities rather than as partners.
“We are competing. We are not collaborating with the industry,” he said.
Calling for stronger partnerships, he noted that while international grants and development support remain valuable, sustainable impact is achieved when local industry invests in university programmes and innovation.
“Receiving funding from UNICEF is a great achievement; receiving funding from USAID is a great achievement. But the greatest achievement that you can always have is when you have sovereign funding from local industry, when they believe in your curriculum,” Prof. Eng. Garikayi added.
His remarks set the tone for a conference that repeatedly returned to the idea that industrialisation, innovation and graduate employability depend on closer and more intentional collaboration between universities and industry. That message was reinforced by Mr. Sam Hlabati, a human resources practitioner at Mega Market, who described university-industry engagement as a learning architecture “co-created to flow in both directions.”
His proposition challenged the traditional view of universities as institutions that simply supply graduates to industry. Instead, he advocated “for a model in which academia and industry jointly design learning experiences, with knowledge, feedback and innovation moving continuously between the classroom and the workplace.”
Earlier, keynote speaker and Chief Economist at CZI Mr. Cornelius Dube had called on universities and industry to take advantage of Zimbabwe’s recent macroeconomic stabilisation to deepen partnerships and invest in productive collaboration. He argued that “economic stability should be viewed not as an end in itself, but as a platform from which industry, academia and other stakeholders can expand innovation and strengthen competitiveness.”
Prof. Eng. Pedzisai Tapfumaneyi, CEO of Verify Engineering, shifted the discussion to the individual student, emphasising that “technical knowledge must be accompanied by the right attitude and the ability to apply skills in real-world contexts.” He advocated for stronger competency-based learning approaches to ensure that graduates enter the workplace equipped with both expertise and practical problem-solving capabilities.
For Mr. Kudzai Makore of the SMEs Manicaland Chapter, his concern was structural rather than personal, that too many people are still working as individuals inside environments that reward systems. He highlighted the need “for stronger SME clusters and institutional support structures that allow businesses, entrepreneurs and young professionals to collaborate, share knowledge and build collective capacity.”
Returning to the question of work-integrated learning, Mr. Hlabati argued that curriculum development and workplace preparation cannot be designed by universities alone, nor can industry shape training without academic input. A stronger model, he suggested, requires shared ownership, where industry contributes practical insights and universities provide academic rigour, creating a continuous feedback loop that keeps learning relevant and responsive.
Taken together, the conference discussions presented a compelling argument: Africa’s path towards industrial competitiveness depends on investment, policy, and relationships. Economic stability creates opportunities for collaboration. Competency-based education prepares graduates to seize those opportunities. Stronger enterprise networks build collective capacity. And sustained partnerships between universities and industry ensure that teaching, research and innovation remain aligned with national development priorities.
For Africa University, through CBMS and the CZI, the AIIS Conference continues to provide a platform where academia and industry can move beyond dialogue towards practical collaboration that strengthens innovation, enterprise and economic transformation. The takeaway message is that Africa’s industrial future requires universities and industry to work not as competitors, but as partners, creating a learning architecture that flows in both directions.