June 15, 2026, | Bahir Dar, Ethiopia — The Nile Executive Leadership Academy (NELA) at Bahir Dar University, in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), successfully organized a Public Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem Building Workshop (PEIEBW)for the university’s senior and middle-level leaders, aimed at cultivating a new generation of public-sector innovators, change-makers, and entrepreneurial leaders.

The workshop was designed to strengthen participants’ public entrepreneurial competencies, enhance their capacity to lead innovation-driven initiatives, and foster the development of a mature university-led innovation ecosystem. It equipped the leaders with the knowledge, skills, strategic mindset, practical tools, and implementation frameworks needed to nurture innovative staff, student startups, and community-based entrepreneurial initiatives while embedding public entrepreneurship and innovation principles across academic programs, research activities, and service delivery systems. Participants explored frameworks for redesigning services within university departments and administrative units, with a strong emphasis on identifying and addressing stakeholder challenges through innovative solutions that are highly desirable to users, create significant value, and require relatively low levels of effort and resources to implement. The training further promoted a customer-centered approach to leadership, enabling participants to rapidly identify opportunities for improvement, experiment innovative ideas, and develop future-ready services that enhance institutional effectiveness, stakeholder satisfaction, and societal impact.

The workshop also introduced participants to a range of proven problem-solving tools, innovation methodologies, and practical frameworks designed to help leaders generate creative and sustainable solutions to problems and implement high-impact interventions. Through hands-on exercises and real-world case studies, participants learned how to apply structured approaches to problem solving, accelerate innovation, and address complex institutional and societal challenges more effectively.

The training challenged conventional notions of academic success that focus primarily on publication counts, citation metrics, and scholarly recognition. Instead, it encouraged leaders to embrace a broader vision of impact—one that advances from knowledge creation to knowledge translation, innovation, commercialization, and ultimately, meaningful national and global contributions.

Opening the workshop, Dr. Mengesha Ayene, President of Bahir Dar University, underscored the strategic importance of the training in supporting the university’s ongoing transformation agenda and strengthening flagship initiatives such as the Nile Executive Leadership Academy. He commended NELA for organizing the workshop and expressed his appreciation to EDI for delivering a high-quality capacity-building program tailored to the needs of higher education leaders.

Professor Yeshigeta Gelaw, Chief Executive Director of NELA, praised EDI for its continued commitment to leadership and entrepreneurship development through the delivery of the workshop in multiple rounds and formats. He emphasized NELA’s commitment to expanding the partnership and creating opportunities for a larger number of faculty members and leaders to benefit from similar capacity-building programs.

“We aspire to deepen our collaboration with EDI and ensure that entrepreneurship and innovation become integral elements of the university’s culture and leadership practice,” he stated.

In his closing remarks, Professor Delele Worku, Corporate Director for Graduate Studies, expressed his sincere appreciation to NELA for identifying and facilitating such a timely and impactful capacity development opportunity. He also commended the EDI facilitators for delivering an engaging, insightful, and highly relevant workshop.

The workshop forms part of Bahir Dar University’s broader efforts to strengthen innovation leadership, promote entrepreneurial thinking, and build a vibrant ecosystem capable of transforming research and knowledge into tangible socio-economic value for Ethiopia and beyond as successful universities of the future will not be distinguished solely by the volume of knowledge they generate, but by their ability to transform that knowledge into innovative solutions, entrepreneurial ventures, improved services, and measurable societal impact.