( CNN ) -- A teenager who set up a school to educate children in a refugee camp , a youth who built a windmill to generate power for the houses in his community with no access to electricity and a 17-year-old with HIV who founded a charity to help others infected with the virus . These are just a few of the students hand-picked to attend The African Leadership Academy ( ALA ) -- a prestigious school in Johannesburg , South Africa that aims to create the continent 's leaders of tomorrow . The initiative is the brainchild of Fred Swaniker , a Ghanaian-born entrepreneur who hopes to instil a new generation with the skills to navigate Africa towards prosperity in future years . `` We get young people from all across the continent , bring them here initially for two years [ and ] give them this hands-on leadership practice , '' says Swaniker . `` I believe that you do n't learn leadership through theory , you learn leadership by leading and so that 's what we 're trying to replicate here at the academy , '' he adds . Swaniker explains that the ALA tasks students with starting their own businesses and working closely with the local communities situated around the school . They are also taught about the roles of CEOs and CFOs as well as other senior positions within business , politics and industry . This , he says , helps prepare them for a future at the very top of society , whilst equipping them with the skills `` to do something much bigger for the continent '' in the future . From his experience of recruiting across the continent , Swaniker concludes that Kenya , Nigeria and Zimbabwe are producing the best students , while schools are weakest in Liberia and South Africa . So far over 400 students have taken part in the ALA 's leadership program and over the next 50 years , Swaniker says the school 's aim is to create 6,000 new leaders for Africa . Relationships have been set up with over 2,500 educational institutions across the continent to identify the most suitable candidates to fulfill these roles , while the U.N. also helps locate individuals of high potential from various refugee camps . This rigorous selection process is designed to single out not only the brightest students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds , but also those who have shown strong tendencies towards initiative , communication and leadership , Swaniker says . `` The best leaders are not necessarily the smartest people , '' he explains . `` At the heart of what we 're doing is a belief that the main reason why Africa has not met its full potential today is due to the quality of the leaders that we have , '' he says . `` So this is really an attempt to solve that issue ... the Africa Leadership Academy , is really saying : let 's address [ this ] , instead of trying to deal with all the symptoms of bad leadership that we have in Africa . '' Swaniker identifies his own formative experiences as a teenager as a key factor in his desire to found the ALA. At just 17 years old -- and on a gap year before beginning university -- he was appointed headmaster of a school in Botswana . He says the practical knowledge he gained in his time there gave him the confidence necessary to achieve success later on in his career , not least in setting up the ALA. `` I firmly believe that a leadership experience that a young person gets in their teens particularly , gives them the foundation to do something much bigger later on in their lives , '' he says . He cites luminaries such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg , Nelson Mandela and Richard Branson -- who were all exposed to leadership situations in their youth -- as the type of characters he hopes the ALA will produce . `` We 're trying to create leaders in all segments of society , so leaders in science and technology , leaders in business , entrepreneurs who can create the millions of jobs that we need on the continent , political leaders who can create the policies that we need to develop properly , '' he says . `` We really need leaders from all walks of life to solve the diverse challenge that we have in Africa , '' he adds . By equipping the continent 's most talented youngsters with the qualities necessary to lead on their own accord , Swaniker has taken the first steps towards creating an Africa more equipped to meet these challenges head on . Eoghan Macguire contributed to this story .
David Swaniker is the founder of the African Leadership Academy . The school aims to equip young Africans with a wide range of skills and knowledge . He hopes his project will help shape a new generation of African leaders .