After nearly seventeen years of building one of the most prominent leadership development non-profit organisations in Nigeria and across Africa, LEAP Africa said it is ready to take on new targets and to realign its strategies to meet new 21st century realities.
LEAP which derives its name from four pillars; Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability, and Professionalism, on Thursday, said it plans to become a youth-led organisation addressing challenges facing the youths in Africa.
The new strategy became necessary because of the widening gap between the education system in Africa and the realities that confront young people. Apart from the widening gap, the number of young people gaining access to secondary education is not growing as expected. Only 1 in 3 young Africans gets to go to Secondary School.
Since 2002 when it was established, LEAP Africa has expanded to 6 other African countries and has its curriculum translated in Aramaic in Ethiopia. It also recently broke the grounds for its LEAP Africa Institute where it not only plans to make its center of operations but also to grow leadership and research talents from across the continent.
During a presentation at the LEAP Social Impact Award, Femi Taiwo, executive director of LEAP Africa said over 7600 entrepreneurs have been supported by the organisation in the areas of education, employment, access to health, social mobility and exercising citizenship.
To help young people deploy themselves to changing society, Taiwo said there is a need to build ecosystems that engage, engage in critical thinking on youth development and be advocates for everything youth.
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“It is no longer simply about employment for young people in Africa. It is about deployment. We must prepare young people to think differently & to be solution providers,” he said. LEAP Africa has been supported by many partners over the years including Mastercard Foundation and Union Bank of Nigeria.
Mastercard Foundation, through its vision of making the invisible visible, has invested over $2.6 billion in social development projects within the continent and beyond.
Reeta Roy, chief executive officer of Mastercard Foundation said while there are plans for more investments, but the target remains developmental programs and ideas.
“Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey,” said Roy. “Sticking to your own mission takes discipline and it is curiosity that enables innovation.”
