Education Nigeria Project #28672

Building Leadership Pathways for 5000 Young Africa

by L.E.A.P AFRICA LTD/GTE

Project Report | Feb 24, 2020
A Resource Centre to Inspire YoungAfrican Leaders

By Bernard Ibelih | Communications Programmes Coordinator

A Prototype of the LEAP Institute

My engagement with LEAP will remain one of the most significant experiences in my lifetime – Mapple, LEAP’s 2008 YLP Beneficiary

Mapple is a graduate of marine engineering from Rivers State University of Science and Technology. He was born and bred in the coal city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. “Growing up wasn’t exactly rosy but I learnt early to be contented and to live life one day at a time”.

After graduation, while waiting for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2007, Mapple developed an interest in social work, especially in the area of youth development. He was concerned that youths in Port Harcourt lacked mentorship and the empowerment they required to maximize their potentials. He had a very strong urge to do something but didn’t know how to go about it because he wasn’t equipped for such a task.

Burning with passion, he shared his vision with a friend from University – Abassah. Abassah happened to be a beneficiary of LEAP Africa’s Youth Leadership Programme (YLP), as he had enrolled for the programme sometime in the past. Adassah then recommended YLP to Mapple and he decided to enrol in 2007.

Recounting the impact of the programme had on him, Mapple said: “Today, I’d say the Youth Leadership Programme is one of the best things that has ever happened to me”.

Three years after going through LEAP Africa’s programme, Mapple published his book ‘Seeds of Greatness’, which is inspiring and equipping hundreds of young people to maximize their potentials, take responsibility for their lives and make significant contributions to the advancement of their immediate communities and the larger society. He also ventured into entrepreneurship immediately after his NYSC in 2008 and spent the first few years establishing a brand consulting firm called Mapemond Resources. Expressing his delight, he said: “My engagement with LEAP will remain one of the most significant experiences in my lifetime”.

Mapple’s story is like that of many young people in Africa, who have brilliant ideas capable of transforming millions of lives and creating a huge impact on a lot of people. But these ideas, in most cases, are abandoned for lack of proper training and structural support because there is a well-equipped institution in West Africa that can provide a holistic training, research and curriculum development for personal, organizational and community development. This the gap the LEAP Institute seeks to fulfil.

LEAP Institute is an oasis for leadership development, training and research, which will help proffer solutions to some of the issues affecting development in Africa. It will be the first fully equipped institute in West Africa with facilities for personal, organizational and community growth to supply training and research and curriculum development.

By 2025, LEAP expects to have impacted 10 million Africans directly and gained quantum leap in building ethical leaders and businesses to drive Africa’s realization of its full potentials. This vision is only possible through the support of both local and international organizations, partners and individuals that share our passion for an Africa that will lead a new frontier for good governance, inclusive growth and economic prosperity.

Positive transformation in Africa may seem like a dream to many, but for us, we believe nothing is impossible when we work together.

We invite you to make the LEAP institute a reality and give access to free and affordable leadership training to young Africans.

Thank you!

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Nov 18, 2019
One Step Forward

By Bernard Ibelih | Communications Programmes Coordinator

Sep 3, 2019
Lighting up a dream - The story of Violet

By Bernard Ibelih | Communications Programme Coordinator

iLEAD students in Uyo

The iLEAD Fellowship is helping graduates in Akwa-Ibom state develop transferable skills and
competencies required to access job opportunities and excel on the same after school. Critical means for
engaging these Fellows include training, mentoring, personal development and experience.

At 22, Violet is taking steps towards actualizing her dreams of helping humanity, especially
underserved children in rural communities in Akwa-Ibom State – the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Her parents, like the average parents in Nigeria, juggle between business and corporate jobs to make ends
meet in order to cater for her and her four siblings. Being the third of five female children, her parents are
her greatest inspiration. Their passion and selflessness towards humanity is model for her to emulate.
Growing up in the hands of a disciplined parents, Violet never had the privilege to socialize with other
teenagers. She was restricted from visiting friends and this made her always sad and bored. Beyond the
negative energy brought about by regular boredom, Violet drew a lot of inspiration from her recluse. She
focused on developing herself through reading materials on the third sector. This is where she birthed a
vision to set up a nonprofit to help humanity.

At 12, while her mates were busy with mundane things, Violet gave her dreams - of helping humanity – a
wing by offering her time and resources to participate in her first-ever volunteering engagement with the
Nigerian Red Cross Society.

With a degree in Microbiology, Violet is always on the lookout for opportunities to dive into the social
sector and continue in the path of her dreams, but she is faced with the challenge of “How”. She felt she
could achieve more but financing was chief of the challenges she faced. Substantial knowledge on
leadership, creativity, project management, impact reporting, and more are some other difficulties Violet
struggled with on her journey.

In Nigeria, there are organizations focused on building talents for the corporate world but very few
organizations intentionally invest in preparing young talent for the development sector. To keep her
dreams alive, Violet volunteered to work at the local radio station while she was on camp for the National
Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme. It was there she got in touch with the iLEAD Fellowship
advertorial and her dreams of helping humanity gained new momentum. Not knowing what to expect from the Fellowship, Violet blindly applied and was eventually chose amongst 14 other young people on the National Youth Service Corps scheme in Akwa-Ibom State. We met with Violet in June 2019 - just before the end of the fellowship year - and surprisingly, her vision had taken a new direction. She told us that the fellowship offered her the opportunity to develop transferable skills for effective transitioning and to express her inner strengths while working on her weaknesses.

Due to the wealth of training, exposure and resources made available to her and the cohort, she is now
sufficiently self-aware and confident to rethink and recalibrate her vision towards sustainability. Violet is
no more interested in setting up a nonprofit organization, she is now working to establish a social enterprise, which will finance itself and remain sustainable. Violet now has a place to call her own in the development sector.

To further support her transitioning process and give her vision international leverage, LEAP recommended Violet for a fellowship programme with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Youth Cohort and she was selected.

Violet is just one out of the many stories of youth transitions we would like to share with you. Look out
for the stories of the 15 other members of the iLEAD Fellowship who have also found and are passionately following their path.

Two of our iLEAD Fellows (right Violet)

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