Fellows

Abdulahi has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He graduated with honors in Demography and Social Statistics from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria. He also received certifications in Social Sector Management (sponsored by the Africa-America Institute) and NGO Management & Administration from Enterprise Development Center, Pan-Atlantic University and the Institute for Humanitarian Studies & Social Development, respectively. He volunteered with Living Hope Care under the American Jewish World Service project where he coordinated an empowerment program for the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NEPWHAN) Osun State. While working as an Account Officer and Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, he facilitated the training of 403 female sex workers on the consistent use of condoms and trained over 80 traditional birth attendants on universal safety precautions and prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child. He founded the Initiative for Sound Education, Relationship & Health (ISERH) and the Youth Affairs Center. Through these organizations, he has sponsored the Senior School Certificates Examination (SSCE) of 59 high school students, equipped 350 youths with books, awarded 17 vibrant teachers and reached over 15,700 youths in the areas of counseling and psychosocial supports. Under his leadership, ISERH provides oversight functions on the Npower Program of the Federal Republic of Nigeria designed to employ 500,000 unemployed graduates and 25,000 unskilled labors. He is a Fellow of YALI Regional Leadership Center (Cohort 3), Ghana (West Africa) 2016. In June 2016, Abdulahi was selected as a “Top 100 Brightest Young Minds” by BYM South Africa and Barclays Africa. He received ‘The Most Replicable Project Award’ of the Life Changers Foundation, U. K. in 2015. Abdulahi has developed strong leadership, youth education policy, strategy building and management skills. His interested in good governance, civic engagements, youth education, social and health issues.

Host Organization: Points of Light

Role at Host Organization: Abdulahi will support the successful development and execution of the Points of Light’s portfolio of programs focused on meeting both the academic needs and service leadership development of youth through youth and volunteer engagement in generation. He will equip youth and volunteers with the right resources that allow youth, volunteers, parents and teachers to collaborate on academic interventions and service opportunities that support the development of caring, compassionate and capable youth.

Abdulsamod is a communications and marketing professional with over six years of experience leading end-to-end content storytelling and digital marketing (search, social and email) campaigns in the nonprofit, financial services, venture capital and technology sectors in Africa. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and is trained in product marketing and growth marketing by Product Marketing Alliance UK and CXL Institute US respectively. He is the director of partnerships at Vibrant Girls Development Initiative, a social enterprise that has empowered over 300 girls in semiurban areas of Lagos with soft and digital skills, and provided career mentorship to 90 girls. Previously, he was a communications and marketing fellow at VestedWorld, an impact-focused African VC, where he raised newsletter open rate to over 40% and executed content marketing strategies that grew Linkedin followership by 115%, engagement by 1100% and unique visitors by over 70%. He also led communications for Leonine, a financial services firm, where he helped over 20+ social entrepreneurs get investor-ready and raise external capital. He also executed tailored B2B and B2C content marketing strategies that helped increase the firm’s web traffic by 300%, Linkedin page followers by 70%, enterprise client pool by over 60%, training pool by over 150% and originated deals worth over $1million. He is one of 5 Agora Fellows trained in communications by Young Voices UK in 2019 and has coordinated marketing for LEAP Africa SIPA and SocialGood Summit Lagos. Through these experiences, he has developed strong skills in content, digital and event marketing. Abdulsamod enjoys launching initiatives and dissecting issues in youth development, entrepreneurship, gender, and education.

Host Organization: Generation

Role at Host Organization: As a Marketing Operations Fellow, Abdulsamod will support Generation’s global marketing function and initiatives by supporting the rollout of existing and new marketing tools, preparing and analysing data, interacting with the countries in gathering information, monitoring performance, training the teams, and supporting overall marketing activities. The Fellow will also interact with the Generation Digital team in monitoring changes and engagement.

Abigail Bokoyeibo has five years of experience as an advocate for women and girls development, renewable energy access, and business development in the nonprofit sector. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. While working as Business Coach and Facilitator at the International Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Bayelsa, Nigeria, she trained students on vocational skills, entrepreneurial skills and business development, and also consulted for the business unit of the Institute. As the Founder and Team Lead of a Nonprofit Young African Women Connect initiative, she developed and led programs that build the capacities of young women on hand skills and empower them through trainings on self-growth, entrepreneurship, business, career, leadership, personal finance, and advocacy. Previously, Abigail worked at Solar Sister as a Business Development Associate, where she recruited, trained and mentored rural women to become energy solution providers and solar entrepreneurs. Through her work, 30 women became active renewable energy advocates and solar entrepreneurs; each making an average of $1,000 annually through her mentorship. Abigail has volunteered in different organizations as a facilitator, youth advocate, and agent of change, including CornerStone Leadership Inspiration Transform foundation, Great Reformers Initiative, and Agent of Change Initiative. Through these experiences, Abigail has developed skills in capacity building, leadership development, business development and project planning and implementation. Abigail is interested in entrepreneurship, leadership, rural energy access, social entrepreneurship, business development, and management.

Host Organization: World Vision US

Role at Host Organization: Abigail will focus on the holistic youth workforce development project model called “Youth Ready: For Work, For Life”. She will particularly work on improving the learning activities and materials that make up the project’s extensive curriculum that focuses on life skills development, livelihood preparation(employability and entrepreneurship), financial education, digital literacy, and citizenship.

Omitogun Abolaji has more than five years of experience in enterprise building, startups, and social entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Geography from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He founded Zmcorps a network of young individuals that support several community developmental initiatives by engaging fresh university graduates posted for National service within the Northern state of Zamfara, Nigeria. Through his activities at ZMCORPS, he encouraged and promoted several socio-cultural integrations and developmental activities especially trough fundraising & donations. He leads, contributed and participated to many community development activities including organizing learning programs, sessions for uneducated and fresh graduates, fundraising for sport, dance and drama amongst communities and schools, Skill acquisition, empowerment and training in cosmetics in Zamfara state. In his quest for self-improvement, Abolaji acquired skill and knowledge from several institutions including the African Managers Initiative, Enterprise Development Center (Lagos, Nigeria), Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation University of Ibadan. He is a 2015 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Foundation Alumni. Abolaji Keen interest in business and startup has found him worked with several startups including WAWOOH. While at Wawooh, a fashion tech startup for discovering African fashion designers and promoting trade and investment opportunities in African fashion Industry, we lead and played a pivotal role leading the startup from ideation to execution and in developing successful business strategies. In his spare time, he is a business development and a Start-up coach; and have helped in mentoring and securing over $50,000 in business funding for several startups.

Host Org: Making Cents International

Role at Making Cents International: As the YouthLead Fellow, Abolaji will support the newly launched online platform YouthLead.org, a website to inspire, support, and foster connections among young changemakers around the world. In addition, Abolaji will participate in the planning of the annual YP meeting and contribute to social media and youth outreach.

Anwuli earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Benin in Nigeria. She has worked extensively in media, development, and management consulting. In the early stages of her career, she served as a journalist, columnist, and as assistant editor/PRO Officer at Kachifo Limited (Owners of the Farafina Trademark) working with acclaimed writers, such as Chimamanda Adichie, Chika Unigwe, and Binyanvanga Wainaina. Her other past experiences include stints as a communication manager at FATE Foundation, where she managed the communication strategy of the foundation and worked with budding entrepreneurs; Senior Consultant, Development Communications & Projects, ThistlePraxis Consulting, where she co-designed and lead media campaigns on sustainability for clients such as the Cross River State Government, and Ag Executive Director, Career Development Network (CDNet), a career development based non profit. Also, she has lead projects on youth development. Anwuli is a Fellow of the sustainability initiative at Leadership in Environment and Development Program in Africa (LEAD), a member of the Atlas Community Leaders, and a member of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum. In addition, she serves as a global volunteer for the Global Dignity Day Project, affiliated with the World Economic Forum. Anwuli is currently in the process of setting up a publishing/communication outfit where she will be co-partner.

Host Organization: Thinking Beyond Borders

Role at Host Organization: Anwuli will contribute to the planning and implementation of Thinking Beyond Borders’ digital communication strategies to promote and advance its mission. Anwuli’s contributions will include engaging take holders, research, planning content creation, building a long-term infrastructure for TBB digital media; disseminating information and promoting discussions on global issues of interest on sustainability and international development in line with Thinking Beyond Borders’ mission.

Chiudo has eight years of experience in environmental management consulting and earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Pure and Industrial Chemistry from the University of Nigeria, and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Technology and Management from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Chiudo is Head of Projects at Rumines Limited, an environmental technology and management consulting company in Nigeria. His responsibilities include project management, environmental research, data collection and analysis, as well as technical report writing. Since June 2016, he has served as Country Manager for Nigeria with Climate Scorecard – a U.S.-based organization that monitors how the top 25 greenhouse gas emitting countries implement the Paris Agreement on climate change. As a participant of the USAID Young African Leaders Initiative training program that held in Accra, Ghana, from October to December 2015, he served as Research and Outreach Volunteer with U.S.-based Leaders of the Free World, a nonprofit that aims to improve positive outcomes for young Black males through training on leadership and self-efficacy, and international travel. Chiudo helped to develop a White Paper on the LFW program and contributed to blog articles. He is interested in environmental protection and sustainable development, as well as entrepreneurship and youth empowerment.

Host Organization: Seeding Labs

Role at Host Organization: Chiudo will be responsible for managing several partnerships with universities in the Instrumental Access program. He will also help increase the annual capacity of universities that Seeding Labs can support.

Destiny has over seven years of experience as a marketing expert, business developer and a professional trainer. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Literature from the University of Benin and has been trained professionally in Project and Business Management. He is the founder and lead consultant for ProfileSME, an organization focused on providing business and marketing solutions to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. Through his leadership, ProfileSME has provided sustainable business solutions to more than 17 businesses in the southern region of Nigeria. During his work with business owners and entrepreneurs, he developed competence for business management and strategic marketing skills. In 2013, he co-founded Project Management Development Centre (PMDC), a professional training body focused on developing emerging youth as business and professional leaders in Nigeria. In 2015, the negotiated and secured the Project Management Development Center partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Bayelsa State, through which he trained about 1,400 youth in Business Development, Project Management and Human Resources Management Skills. He is a volunteer to the Open Journals Nigeria, a platform that seeks to help young Intellectuals share their intellectual works and papers. Destiny is passionate about Business development and management, communication/marketing and youth engagement, development and empowerment.

Host Organization: Addgene

Role at Addgene: At Addgene, Destiny will gain an understanding of Addgene’s unique business model and use Addgene’s distribution data in conjunction with market research to develop and execute a plan to grow Addgene’s presence in select international markets.

Emmanuel Olawoye is a passionate business professional. He has about 3 years of experience working in human resources and business strategy in two financial institutions (Microfinance and Commercial Banking). He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2015. Emmanuel has previously worked in a microfinance institution where his main responsibility was to manage employees and ensure optimal productivity. In this role, he always went beyond the call of duty by working with teams that provide access to finance for micro-businesses in the North Central region of Nigeria. He helped deepen financial inclusion in the region through the introduction and sale of mobile money, micro-lending, and savings tools. In his most recent role as a business strategy analyst, he has worked on several sustainability projects, including an environmental makeover program in Lagos, Nigeria to help fight against environmental degradation and climate change. He also helped develop Public-Private Partnership proposals for six Nigerian states to launch projects aimed at fostering economic development by improving healthcare, education, transportation, agriculture, and power generation in the states. He is deeply involved in SME business expansion and he constantly helps in the creation of business solutions to help SMEs scale and grow the economy. Through these experiences, he has become passionate about entrepreneurship, leadership, and financial inclusion. He seeks to become a global social change leader making an impact on millions of lives.

Host Organization: Charter Cities Institute

Role at Charter Cities Institute: At Charter Cities Institute, Emmanuel will serve as the Operations Manager Fellow: developing processes and procedures to streamline the growth of the Charter Cities Institute, and helping the organization continue to expand and retain its operational excellence.