MBA’s In Kenya. The Real Truth.
I have never been a fan of MBA’s. If you ask me the fees and time spent studying for an MBA in Kenya is negligible to the benefits accrued. I also rate experience more importantly than having the right papers. And how many of you have benefited from having the MBA tag anyway? And benefiting I don’t mean the extra K’sh 5,000 that was added to your salary after much haggling. Wouldn’t it have been better to start a Matatu business that would bring you a daily income? Is an investment in MBA worth anything in Kenya now?
My other reason for not going for an MBA is to do with the general attitude of Kenyan universities where it’s all about making a kill from the students. Apart from Strathmore University there is no value for money if you attend other colleges. There is a lot of exploitation by Kenyan universities. A decade ago it was no joke taking an MBA. MBA was for a special privileged, not like nowadays when even before you cover two years in your new job you are back to Main Campus for the MBA. For Kenyan universities and lecturers MBA is the new cash cow. I also know of many job candidates frustrated with all this ‘tarmacking’ business simply decide to go back to school for lack of an alternative.
Universities in Kenya being the big business they are have seen this frustration and are exploiting it fully. Nowadays all the public and private universities in Kenya have MBA programs. And these programs are even being offered in remote locations like Machakos. What about the collaboration with small colleges littered in Nairobi and all over Kenya. To me education in Kenya whether secondary or university has been turned into big business and you better pay attention.
But we cannot blame it on universities alone. Kenyan candidates have contributed to this mess. Some ten years for you to get promotion to a managerial or supervisory role you had to have the MBA title and more so with the banks. If you had an MBA it didn’t matter how your performance was, you stood a good chance to be promoted very fast.
Kenyans job seekers saw this and the appetite for MBA begun. Many would register for an MBA just to have the MBA ongoing on their CVs and you know what, this trick worked like magic! All you needed to show on your CV was MBA going and companies would take you seriously and hire you. But this had a negative effect too. Here in Kenya we like copying and before you know it everyone was fighting to get back to school and acquire this title (for that promotion or a chance to work in big companies). And just like CPA’s we are headed to a situation where many of us are taking an MBA for the sake of it. No plan on how to use this degree.
Do I have plans of taking an MBA myself? Definitely and a big yes! As an employed individual I don’t have a choice and even you who doesn’t have an MBA right now will be forced to. When you have Kenyan job candidates aged 22 to 25 years having MBA’s then it’s a time to think and strategize. There will come a time in Kenya when having an MBA will be compulsory. And I can see this happening sooner than later. As a HR person I can assure you that 6 applicants out of 10 for a job requiring 4 years of experience now have an MBA in this or that. Time will come when an MBA will cease to be just an added advantage. The young ones are spoiling all the fun.
If you a bright Kenyan or job seeker it’s important to pay attention to trends and align yourself properly. Be part of the winning team. You can complain and rant how useless MBA’s are but this is the future. In any case universities will still continue to make money whether you as an individual register or not. Don’t be like the Bcom fellows who were caught napping. At one time CPA in Kenya was considered as an accounting qualification for those not bright enough to secure an admission for Bcom. Those Bcom candidates who didn’t read the sign of times and continued looking down on CPA have paid the price.
Rarely will you get a finance job with Bcom only. CPA has to feature somewhere. In those days it was easy to get a job without CPA because not many candidates had this combination. But when every graduate in Bcom had a CPA Kenyan employer’s started demanding for Bcom plus CPA.
At times it helps to go along with the crowd. If you still have ambitions of being a manager or supervisor somewhere then you are advised to seek out an MBA qualification. Everyone’s doing it and we really don’t have a choice. And as we all know supply does dictate demand.