By Seyi Babalola
Top 10 winners of the Future Africa Leadership Award, an Oyakhilome Foundation Initiative, have received a total grant of $125,000 to support development initiatives in their respective nations.
The 10 young Africans between the ages of 16 and 23 from different countries, including Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Chad, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ghana, South Sudan, Togo, and Morocco. The winners were re-introduced to the world at a media conference on January 4, 2024.
The young Africans were celebrated for their inspiring achievements in agriculture, technology, health, community education, advocacy, and much more.
It would be noted that since inception, The Future Africa Leaders Foundation, a sub-organisation of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International (COFI) awards 10 youths after a series of selection processes, $10,000 each and an eventual star winner amongst them with an additional $25,000 to support their work in developing Africa from their locality.
Katleho Mojakisane Queen (Lesotho), Grace Lamane Fatime (Chad), Alieu Sasay (Liberia), Annick Bado (Burkina Faso), Clinton Arko Agyemang (Ghana), Emma Kwaje (South Sudan), Lyna Bossa Tchydre (Togo), Matilda Kahunde (Uganda) Wissal Rida (Morocco), and Mariama Gendemah (Sierra Leone), all emerged as winners’, and were all given the sum of $10,000 each, except for Mariama Gendemeh (Sierra Leone) who emerged as the overall star winner and was given an additional star prize of $25,000, making it $125,000 grants given in total.
According to a representative of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International (COFI), Pastor Temisan, the foundation was established by Rev. Dr Chris Oyakhilome, as a Pan-African foundation to solve leadership problem in Africa, and committed to identifying, nurturing and empowering young minds who have impacted their communities.
According to him, “several prolific feats were attained by the foundation working together with our unique ambassadors in identifying and supporting more than 77 million young people across the 54 African nations.”
However, he noted that Future Africa Leaders Foundation (FALF) is not a profit making organisation, and therefore the measurement of their return on investment (ROI) for them is based on what their ambassadors are able to offer to their people in their respective communities.
In the same vein, a senior executive from the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International, Pastor Arinze Emmanuel, also noted that the Future Africa Leaders Foundation is one of the major foundations under the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International (COFI). He pointed out that the foundation is an intervention programme for young people across Africa.
Pastor Arinze further said that the Man of God (Rev. Chris Oyakhilome) is using his foundations to inspire young people in leadership to use whatever they have to impact Africa.
In her reaction, the winner of the star prize and Sierra Leonean, Mariama Gendemeh, said although she was from a royal family, she still decided to go into agriculture in a bid to impact her community. She gave a breakdown of her plans after winning the FALA. Some of which includes: To collaborate with past FALA winners, to monitor the next set of FALA winners from Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, the Senior Executive Officer of The Future Africa Leaders Foundation (FALF), Olajumoke Ola-Akinsanya, disclosed that the sectors the foundation aims at looking at in 2024 and beyond are: education, humanitarian, technology, agriculture, entrepreneurship, advocacy and empowerment.
While speaking on how the awardees emerged, Ola-Akinsaya said that 30 winners were chosen from the nominations submitted by the organisers, and their applications were evaluated to choose the top 10.
She went on to say that each of the 10 awardees received $10,000, with the overall best winner receiving an extra $25,000 grant as the star reward.
While speaking with one of the awardees, Clinton Arko from Ghana, expressed appreciation to the Future Africa Leader Foundation (FALF). He also noted that the fact that eight out of the 10 winners are females, was actually a challenge for him to do more. He urged young Africans not to live only for themselves but to acknowledge the fact that they are moving to the outside world. In his words, he said: “We are not apologetic and we are not weaklings trying to be shouldered somewhere. We are moving out and nobody can stop us.”
Alieu Sasay from Liberia, on his part said his brand “Impact Liberia”, majors on helping single parents, helping less privileged students gain scholarship, among many more. While advising young Africans, in his words, he said: “The future of Africa is in the hands of young people, the Future is now”. He urged young people to have the spirit of helping each other irrespective of the situation.
Another awardee, Matilda Kahunde from Uganda, said that “I try to create a bridge for information flow between refugees in Uganda and the country nationals. Advocacy is what I love”.
While advising young people to start creating changes in their different communities no matter how little, she said: “we have what it takes to create the change that we believe in. you don’t have to wait. The best way to start is to start.”
She finally noted that FALA is not just about the award, but about the platform, it would be creating for her in her country. In her words: “there are some places that we’ve been able to go to, asking for help and they’ll not open doors for us, we are young people, they feel like, what do you have to offer, but this (FALA) is an endorsement, something that I can show, it is a proof of my work”.
