Investing in Africa’s future

Today five hundred young Africans, women and men adjudged to be some of the most promising leaders on the continent, are in the United States for a six week program courtesy of President Obama’s Young Africa Leadership Initiative (YALI).  YALI is a program initiated by President Obama in 2010 to invest in the next generation of African leaders.  This is through enhancing their leadership skills, encouraging entrepreneurship and connecting young African leaders with one another and with Americans.


It was no easy task to be selected to participate in the program.  The YALI fellows first completed an application packet that required a lot of effort and time.  At this stage there were about 15,000 applications from Nigeria alone out of which about 500 were selected for further consideration.  Most of these 500 went through an interview process, after which the final 45 candidates were selected.

What will the YALI fellows be doing in the United States for six weeks?  They will be hosted by colleges and universities that have generously matched the U.S. Government funding commitment to this initiative.  The universities include Clark-Atlanta University, Dartmouth College, Florida International University, Howard University, Morgan State University, Northwestern University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Syracuse University, Tulane University, University of Arkansas, University of California, Berkeley and University of Delaware.  Others are University of Minnesota, University of Notre Dame, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia/College of William and Mary, University of Wisconsin – Stout Wagner College and Yale University.

While on these campuses, Fellows will participate in academic and leadership institutes in one of three areas:
business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, or public management.  Already we are getting positive feedback from our fellows.  For example, Ijeoma Idika-Chima excitedly reported that “the experience is amazing, getting to learn a lot and seeing how much I still need to know, the lectures are dynamic and flexible, also interactive and engaging. At the end of 6weeks, I believe I would enhance my capacity to bring change in my community and positively influence people around me when I get back home.”

Upon their return home, the Fellows will have opportunities for networking, ongoing professional development, seed funding, and community service. They will have access to enrichment seminars, local and regional networking events and an innovative on-line platform for social collaboration.   We will be following the YALI Fellows and their progress during and after the Washington program.