As brands and agencies across Africa recalibrate for a market shaped by rapid shifts in technology, media, and consumer behaviour, a new kind of strategic capability is gaining urgency. Pop Culture Varsity (POKV), a Lagos-based strategy school founded by Franklin Ozekhome, is positioning itself at the centre of that shift with the next intake of its Mini MBA in Strategy & Pop Culture, known as the NEXUS Cohort, commencing April 11.

Founded as an evolution of the earlier B-School platform, Pop Culture Varsity was established to address a gap long acknowledged within the marketing and communications industry: the shortage of deeply trained strategists who can interpret culture, translate it into business decisions, and build work that travels across platforms, communities, and markets.

Ozekhome, who serves as EVP, Strategy & Innovation at Chain Reactions Africa, describes the school as a response to both a capability gap and a structural shift in how brands now grow.

“Many teams are still operating with planning models built for a different era,” he said. “The work today requires a stronger grasp of culture, behaviour, and systems thinking. That is the gap we are addressing.”

Over the past few cohorts, POKV has trained a growing base of marketers, strategists, founders, and creatives drawn from agencies, corporate organisations, and entrepreneurial ventures. Its most recent graduating class, the Genisys Cohort, has already begun to demonstrate the school’s intended impact, with participants applying their training across sectors including financial services, consumer goods, media, technology, and emerging creator-led businesses.

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Graduates have developed strategic frameworks, brand platforms, and product concepts that extend beyond campaign thinking into areas such as ecosystem design, cultural positioning, and new market entry models. Several have also begun to take on expanded roles within their organisations, reflecting a broader industry demand for more integrated and forward-looking strategic leadership.

At a time when AI tools have accelerated the production of ideas and lowered the barriers to execution, the school’s curriculum focuses less on output and more on decision-making. Participants engage in live case work, strategic diagnostics, and structured sessions that examine how culture, technology, and commerce intersect in real market conditions.

The NEXUS Cohort builds on this foundation with an eight-week programme designed to deepen strategic judgment, refine how briefs are constructed and challenged, and strengthen the ability to connect cultural signals to business outcomes.

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For organisations, the value proposition is increasingly tied to talent development. Agencies and marketing teams are under pressure to deliver work that is both culturally fluent and commercially effective, while also navigating a more complex media environment. Programmes such as POKV’s Mini MBA are emerging as part of a broader effort to bridge this capability gap within the African market.

Beyond the classroom, the school is also building an alumni ecosystem that includes leadership structures such as its recently instituted Fellows Council. The aim is to sustain learning, collaboration, and professional growth beyond the duration of the programme, while contributing to a more structured and connected community of strategy practitioners.

With applications now open for the April cohort, Pop Culture Varsity is entering a phase of growth that reflects both industry demand and a wider recognition of the role culture now plays in shaping markets.

For Ozekhome, the ambition is clear.

“More than half of global consumers say shared values drive purchase decisions. Culture is where those values take shape. Ignore that, and pricing becomes your only strategy,” he said. “The goal is to develop strategists who can operate at a global level while remaining grounded in the realities of this market. That is where the opportunity sits.”

Applications for the NEXUS Cohort close ahead of the April 11 start date.

More information is available at pokv.africa.