Many Africans who get a chance to go abroad for studies or work end up accumulating wealth and come back home to enjoy their lives.
Some end up becoming permanent citizens of the countries they work in, abandoning their homes for the developed nations, fearing that returning home would be a challenge due to the high poverty levels.
However, a Kenyan economist who has lived most of his youthful life abroad thanks to his being brought up by a father who was working as an ambassador, chose a different path out of his many travels abroad.
Dr James Mulli who hails from Misiani village in Kangundo, Machakos county, studied and worked in prestigious schools and successful companies, but opted to develop his own university abroad in Luxembourg, one of the world's richest nations.
He established the European Business University of Luxembourg (EBU), which today offers opportunities for students to study online from many parts of the world, with many beneficiaries hailing from his home country, Kenya.
Using technology, lectures and examinations are conducted online and the university has proved to be offering a world-class education that is slowly transforming the lives of some people who had lost hope of accessing higher education due to poverty.
Recently we met Dr Mulli, who was on a working holiday in Malindi, where he owns a luxurious villa.
He was meeting students who had benefited from free scholarships offered by the university at Sandies Tropical Village hotel, and looked so humble and human despite all the achievements in his life.
I created a programme that was elected the number one global MBA programme four years in a row and they did not even mention it was a Kenyan who was running it
HOW HE STARTED
Mulli said his father was an ambassador and they were traveling everywhere, which gave him an opportunity to travel to many countries abroad and learn several languages.
Currently, he is the dean of faculty and programme director of EBU and speaks six languages, including Chinese, since his father was the first Kenyan Ambassador to China in 1964.
"I started learning more about where I was, who I was with, the environment I was in and at some point, I realised that this power of education is what will change everything," he said.
Mulli did studies on economic development, after which he went to live in the US before getting into education.
Initially, he got a job opportunity in South Africa and China when he was living in Germany, and upon consulting, he was advised to go to China, where he realised the Chinese were taking education very seriously.
"We think we have standards of education but part of the reasons you see where the Chinese are today is because of what they have done with education," he said.
After moving from the US, Mulli worked with a financial organisation called Soros Industrial Partners, and then he decided to go into education.
He moved to Europe and quit his job in the European universities after realising that his efforts were not being felt.
"I created a programme that was elected the number one global MBA programme four years in a row and they did not even mention it was a Kenyan who was running it, who was the programme director," he said.
"So I said no, forget about this. I am going to do this on my own since I had started that programme from point zero to more than 300 students."
If you can empower somebody with that entrepreneurial mindset, then the sky is the limit, you can learn everything else
FOCUS ON BUSINESS
This is when he created and established the European Business University in Luxembourg, which now has more than 9,000 students, 4,500 of whom are from Kenya.
He said they have more than 55 partners, with the latest being the Botswana Office of the President after the ministry asked them to start the scholarship programme in the country.
"I am just humbled. All I can say is, 'Wow!' It's been an incredible journey," he said.
He is focused on partnerships, such as with Pwam (Progress Welfare Association of Malindi), to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals number 4 of education.
He believes education is the mantle of everything and one cannot do without it.
More so business education because it empowers somebody, which is the gateway to transforming their life.
"If you can empower somebody with that entrepreneurial mindset, then the sky is the limit, you can learn everything else," he said.
Mulli said their mission is to push more courses that are going to empower the girl child to ensure they expand on that which is their focus currently.
The university, he said, intends to make university education free of charge in Africa.
Mulli said by 2050, Kenya will be having 85 million people, and without such programmes, it will be difficult for them to access tertiary education.
"So we are offering tuition-free university courses as of September, and this is something that does not exist, there is no single country in Africa that offers free university-level education," he said.
"Forget about politicians, whatever they say, we are offering it already."
His hope is that other organisations and universities embrace what they are doing as even his university is not doing it alone but with other partners.
The European Business University is a non-profit organisation whose job is impacting people, and he wants other universities to adopt the same approach as they cannot do it alone.
The university's partnership began with Progress Welfare Association of Malindi, an organisation dealing with environmental issues, cleaning of the resort town and sustainability development and growth of the society.
TESTIMONIES
The association chairperson Kate Mwikali said the community in Malindi has been empowered through the scholarship offered by EBU.
She said all the courses are aligned to Sustainable Development Goals from 1 to 17, including no poverty, life below water and life on land.
Mwikali said EBU's courses are in line with the objective of PWA, which is fostering active citizenship.
She said most beneficiaries have been participating in the Malindi monthly clean-ups, others have been making products from recycled materials and solid wastes.
The chairperson said police, judges and the provincial administration have been active in the clean-ups, and it is through those activities that a few opportunities have been born.
Scholarship awardees said the chance to access higher education was a game changer in their lives.
Hosea Baraka, a pool attendant at Sandies tropical village, who also doubles up as a farmer and a charcoal trader, is using the knowledge he studied to manage his businesses.
Baraka initially started by selling one sack of charcoal and today, thanks to the education from EBU, his business is thriving.
"There was a time I wanted to give up because I was doing a business that was not sustaining me personally, and then I was also not sustaining the market," he said.
He was about to quit when EBU came in and offered him a scholarship through PWAM to study business management.
Through the course, Baraka was enlightened on how to manage his business with the little capital he had even after the challenges he went through.
"I thank God because not only am I doing good in my farming, at least people are copying my ways of farming, meaning that I am also introducing education to the people indirectly," he said.
Nassib Yusuf, a dancer and environmentalist, dropped out of school after completing secondary education due to lack of fees to proceed to further studies.
He was forced to begin a career of dancing to try his luck in the entertainment industry.
While doing so, his aspirations pushed him to conservation, and to date he is working both as an entertainer and a conservationist in Malindi.
"I remember that time there were some difficulties back home, I was told that I couldn't go to college or anything further," he said.
Yusuf's love for dancing was perceived differently by people, who were assuming he had no interest in education.
His love for conservation led him to join the monthly clean-ups organised by Pwam, which made him build networks with other stakeholders, including KWS, who were also part of the activities.
During that time, Yusuf met Mwikali, who later introduced him to EBU and he managed to get a scholarship.
He joined the university and studied the fundamentals of blockchain since he believes in being in line with global changes.
"I would say thank you for that course because right now, I am in the university and it feels like it's not real but it's real," he said.
Yusuf confessed that he never thought he would one day join an institution of higher learning, but he is now among the thousands of EBU beneficiaries of the scholarships in the world.
Charity Beduly, a conservationist in Malindi, chose to study the women and leadership course at EBU and cases in gender inequality.
She said her gratitude also goes to Mwikali, the Pwam chairperson, for giving her the opportunity to study.
Had she not met her or known anything about Pwam, she wouldn't have done any of the courses that she did for free.
"From my history, I never went to college, and this was the best opportunity because I really loved going to school," she said.
The testimonies are many and are similarly based on the fact that the majority had no hope of accessing higher education, but through Pwam and the university, they got a chance to further their education.