Nigeria has become an attractive country for entrepreneurship in Africa. This African giant is transforming itself into a continental-scale receptacle, attracting patrons from all over the world. With One Million African Leaders, Lawrence Afere and his team hope to make a lasting impact on the continental entrepreneurial landscape.
Why did you create the project of ” One million african leaders”?
Africa has the youngest population of any continent on Earth, with an amazing amount of entrepreneurial energy and hope for the future. Business opportunities abound across the continent, but they will have to be explored in sustainable away and, hopefully, in collaboration with and lead by a new generation of sustainably and socially literate leaders.
The One Million Leaders Africa (OMLA) Program, which was founded by 12 young Africans, intends to harness this positive energy and help train a whole new generation of leaders across the continent, who can help put Africa on a more sustainable course. 600 african entrepreneurs are registered for our event. That demonstrates the deep interest of the african youth for our iniative. In simple terms, OMLA plans to develop One Million young leaders across Africa by 2030. The event that we are organizing from the 28th to the 29th will be the starting point of our ambitions in the coming months and years.
What were the steps of the preparation?
We have three steps towards getting the project started. We take our step with a first virtual Pan-African Virtual Summit with the participation of 300-500 people, sustainability leaders from as many as possible of the 54 countries across Africa. After the summit, we will then move onto a pre-signup campaign aiming to create a “booster community” of 100,000 people. Then, as a third step initiate bootcamp training of the first cohort of young leaders in 2021, we are currently developing a partnership with the African Leadership University to host the first bootcamp on their campus in Mauritius or Rwanda until 2030. Actually, we have a calculus for reaching the 1 million leaders by 2030. In 2021, we train 100 people in Mauritius or Rwanda.
How can you describe the utility of your project while the world’s preparing at the biggest recession of the modern era ?
OMLA is a 10-year strategic plan to develop One Million leaders across the continent who can help put Africa on a more sustainable course.
We are the ones that have been chosen to re-write the narratives of this continent and to testify of the greatness and the light of our continent. We are the ones that will safe this continent from perishing. By our work, all the world will know that Africa is no longer a sleeping giant but indeed, it is awake and ready to inspire the world into a new kind of leadership built on the principles of Sustainability. This generation of young leaders will be empowered by OMLA to carry out the task before them.
This is a ‘phygital event’ ( half physical, half digital). What will be the caracteristics ? How many people will you host in physical ? And What are the feedbacks expected from your movement ?
OMLA takes its first step with a first virtual Pan-African Virtual Summit on Aug. 28-29th, 2020, with the participation of 300-500 nexgen, sustainability leaders from as many as possible of the 54 countries across Africa. If COVID-19 permits, the 2021 bootcamp, which will train 100 people, will be on-site. Also, the subsequent trainings will happen online and off-site.
