Youth Leadership Institute

Africa’s greatest need today is ethical and entrepreneurial leadership. Too often, we have invested in addressing the symptoms of bad leadership in Africa- we give blankets, medicine and food to those impacted by war, poverty and famine. But these efforts will never stop unless we develop leaders who prevent wars from occurring in the first place, entrepreneurs who create jobs and scientists who sustainably increase food production and access to healthcare.
Our Youth Leadership Institute seeks to catalyze the emergence of a new generation of youth leaders who will participate effectively in forging a strong democratic, people-centred development and sustainable economic emancipation in Nigeria.
Major highlights of our Youth Leadership Institute include: entrepreneurial and financial management training; educational seminars on democracy and good governance, health, gender issues, human rights, citizenship and social responsibilities and a mentoring program that connects established and emerging youth leaders.
The program empowers young people by supporting the creation of youth-generated activities that promote self-worth, responsibility and intergenerational respect and communication.
The Program seeks to foster, develop and support youth initiative, and a strong representational youth voice in the service and decision-making life of our nation, and to engage youth as resources for peace, democracy and good governance, interfaith dialogue and agents for change, growth and sustainable development. The Youth Leadership Institute explores various models of leadership that have been developed from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The learning objectives of the Institute are primarily twofold:
First, Participants gain an understanding of the major leadership theories. For each model, the Participants learn the theoretical basis of the model, the strengths and weaknesses, and how to apply the model to practical situations in business and other settings.
Second, Participants explore their personal leadership style through a series of assignments and project activities. These project activities enable participants to reflect on how they view leadership as both subordinates and as leaders. By participating in the Youth Leadership Institute, participants develop a well-rounded understanding of leadership concepts for use in their own leadership opportunities.
The leadership development formula which we propose is relatively simple: we seek to identify young men and women with great potentials, train them and empower them to practice leadership and then connect them with transformative opportunities.