One of Africa’s leading Busi­ness School, Lagos Business School (LBS), has appointed Ja­meel Verjee, founder and CEO of CityBlue Hotels, Africa’s fast­est-growing local hotel chain, to the advisory board of LBS Hospitality Initiative alongside industry heavyweights Trevor Ward and Mossadeck Bally.

The Academic Director of LBS Hospitality Initiative, Dr Belinda Nwosu FIH, stated that the Initiative is a platform for developing and growing the hos­pitality industry in Nigeria and Africa, anchored on four main pillars; Advisory, Engagement, Research and Capacity Building.

According to lbs.edu.ng , CityBlue Hotels, a hospitality and technology business built from the ground up over the last decade across sub-Saharan Afri­ca, has operations in five coun­tries with significant expansion plans.

By partnering with LBS Hospitality Initiative, CityBlue hopes to accelerate its expan­sion into West Africa to comple­ment its plan to open in Accra, Ghana, later this year.

This partnership will strengthen the company’s focus on executive leadership devel­opment and critically, expand CityBlue’s ESG and governance strategy across sub-Saharan Af­rica.

Speaking about the partner­ship at the Africa Hotel Invest­ment Forum (AHIF), Dr. Belinda Nwosu remarked, “We are hap­py that Jameel accepted to join our advisory board as his skill set, demonstrable resilience, and range of experiences in Africa will benefit our goal to co-create solutions for regional players and proactively build a pipeline of local talents for ex­ecutive leadership in the hospi­tality industry.”

On his part, at AHIF, Jameel expressed his excitement at the opportunity to collaborate with Lagos Business School; “We are excited to take the next step for our group, both in partnership with LBS Hospitality Initiative and to learn from Belinda and her team. Nigeria has the larg­est population in Africa and the most potential for knowl­edge-based, tech-driven growth. This is both an honour and an opportunity for us”.

This partnership between LBS Hospitality Initiative and CityBlue Hotels will, among other things, revolutionise executive development in the hospitality industry in Africa, which aligns with the vision of Lagos Business School to devel­op responsible leaders to inspire Africa’s growth.