Congratulations to our 2017 Fellows!
LEAP Africa Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is a one year fellowship which supports talented young social innovators, whose ideas and initiatives offer effective and creative solutions to challenges in local communities across Nigeria. Through training and strategic support systems, the Fellows are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to sustain and scale up their impact. At the annual Awards, LEAP presents the most outstanding Fellows awards in recognition of their creativity and social impact.
The 2017 journey has begun! Do you know these young men and women? Read their profiles below.
Fasoranti Damilola – Founder, Prikkle Academy (Prikkle Educational Initiative)
Prikkle Academy uses asset-based youth development and design-thinking approach to trigger creativity, ingenuity and social solutions among rural and semi-urban youth. At the Academy, both in-school and out-of-school youth are engaged in an open educational training that helps to uncover the talent and resources which are then mobilized to create street-smart solutions. Their first innovative design is a bamboo solar lamp with plans to create the first rural makerspace in Nigeria before the end of 2016.
Eyitayo Ogunmola – Founder/Managing, Partner of PM Hub Nigeria
Eyitayo OGUNMOLA is a Social Entrepreneur strengthening labour and enterprise forces in West Africa. He currently serves as the Founder/Managing Partner of PM Hub Nigeria, one of the largest human capital development brands Operating in 2 West African Nations, 4 states in Nigeria and 15 Universities in West Africa; providing corporate leadership and workforce development support to young West Africans. Currently, he is on the project team of Creative Associates International in Washington DC.
Olumide Adeleye – Founder, Twim Academy
Olumide founded Twim Academy in 2013 after returning from India, where he had undergone vocational training. While in India, Olumide had observed that India’s vocational education model was drastically reducing the problem of unemployment. He therefore founded Twim Academy to raise entrepreneurs and freelancers in the media and creative arts. Twim Academy has provided different levels of vocational training to more than 5,000 people, and hosts one of the biggest entrepreneurial conferences in the city of Ibadan. Olumide is also the founder of Awarewa.tv, a video portal that showcases African entrepreneurs. He is a graduate of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
Ajala Saleem – Founder/CEO, AROJINTECH
Ajala Saleem is using renewable energy solution to combat poverty, climate change and insecurities in some of the most remote and semi-urban regions of Nigeria through mobile solar generator-sets, a plug-and-play 10W solar system with flexible payment plan for domestic use. AROJINTECH, aims to reduce dependence on grid power energy and eradicate fossil generators and the kerosene lamps which have proven hazardous to human health after long term use.
Akinnike Michael – Founder, Young Protégé Foundation
Financing his university education as an unskilled labourer on construction sites led Akinnike Michael to start Young Protege Leadership Foundation in 2011. He is an education advocate on quality and inclusive education for the undeserved, disadvantaged children and young adults. Michael developed Protégé Mobile App 1.0; a quiz format mobile app and paper board game called Protégé LEAD game – two amazing creative tools – to support young adults and children to learn about civic education and leadership.Under various initiatives such as Read2Lead, YPL has reached 10,000 young people in five states.
Akitoye Adetoun – Executive Director/Founder, Mademoiselle Foundation
Mademoiselle Foundation is set up to build a strong support system for young girls through mentorship and economic empowerment programmes. Adetoun’s passion is to harness their talents with aim of reducing the rate of illiteracy among young women, curbing early marriages and instilling strong moral and social values. Through various initiatives, 2,500 people (including market women, students and artisan ladies) are benefactors of the Foundation.
Ngene Mutiu Damilola Samuel- Founder, Greenpad Concepts
With his eyes set on decreasing girl-child absenteeism from school and early drop out, Samuel, provides affordable sanitary towels to girls and educates them on maintaining high hygiene during their menstrual cycles. He achieves this through a website portal that teaches young women on reproductive health.
Abioye Samson Damilare – CEO/Co-founder, Pass.ng
Abioye Samson co-founded Pass.ng in 2013 as an undergraduate to reduce the massive failure rate witnessed in the nation’s national exam. Pass.ng web and mobile application which is now being used by over 250,000 students nationwide helps them prepare ahead of Nigeria’s most important examinations like JAMB and WAEC. Pass.ng simulates the exam electronically, tracks students’ progress and performance and is available offline. Abioye offers scholarships to best performing students for their university education. In two years, more than 4 million tests has been taken on Pass.ng.
Onwuchuruba Cynthia Adaeze – Founder, Productive Education and Effective Leadership (PEEL) Initiative
Cynthia almost dropped out of school at 15 when her father passed away. She founded Productive Education and Effective Leadership (PEEL) Initiative, with the mission to empower and provide quality education and develop leadership potentials in young people. So far, her initiative has given 110 underprivileged students scholarship for vocational skills and 20 have received academic scholarships .She has embarked on various school intervention projects including; JAMB &WAEC Mathematics lessons for over 500 students, leadership training for over 12,000 students and youths, the building of four (4) toilets and a borehole in a school during her 2014 NYSC in Rivers State. She impacts over 25,000 youths annually and is currently engaged in a reformative project at the Port Harcourt Remand Home.
Emelone Tochukwu Edwin – CEO/Founder, E.T. Edwin Industrial Company Nigeria (Eteicon)
Edwin is solving youth unemployment and hygienic issues by recycling waste paper into low grade toilet tissue jumbo reels. Through Eteicon, Edwin produces affordable Toilet Rolls for low income families and low-end schools, hospitals and hotels to eliminate the use of newspapers in restrooms. With Mums toilet tissue available in 15 cities across Nigeria, 65% of low income families, who used to use old newspapers in their rest room can at least afford Mums Guest Rolls which has helped stop open-air defecation and subsequently improve sanitation in these areas.
Sangoleye Oluwaseun Ajoke – CEO, Baby Grubz Nigeria
Seun, founded Baby Grubz in 2013 to increase access to nutritional, natural and affordable infant meals that help to reduce high rates of malnutrition. These meals are sold through an exclusive distribution channel which currently empowers over 40 mothers spanning 15 states in Nigeria. This has helped to improve the nutritional status of over 20,000 Nigerian children. She daily educates over 70,000 Nigerian Mothers on cost-effective nutrition, feeding best practices and on how best to combine foods for maximum nutrient absorption through her online platform. She advocates for children’s rights by speaking against abusive cultural practices of force-feeding.
Owobu Emmanuel Osayi – Co-Founder, Omomi
Osayi is improving maternal/child health, public health and family health in low income communities across sub-Sahara Africa with the goal of reducing avoidable death due to complication from child birth. ỌMỌMI is a mobile app, web and SMS platform which has a unique range of features for parents. It provided nutritional tips, helps to monitor children’s health and encourage family planning. Over 6,000 downloads on the Google Playstore and SMS platform with over 7,000 register pregnant women and new mothers. Through their medical missions, Osayi has provided medical aids to over 12 rural communities (Uselu, Aduwawa, Ugiogba, Oshimilli, Agbor etc) in three states.
Simi Olusola – Founder, Aspilos Foundation
Simi Olusola’s initiative, AbooCoder under her Foundation – Aspilos secures livelihoods for young Northern women in Nigeria. She nurtures their interest in STEM fields, digital literacy through organizes trainings on: Digital literacy, Programming/Coding, Financial literacy, Life skills and Business development. Till date, the project has impacted the lives of 169 young women as they have become digitally literate, been encouraged to study tech courses in the university or pursue tech careers, learnt how to create tech solutions or access income making opportunities.
Olalekan Ayodele Sipasi – CEO/Founder,Protect Ozone
Sipasi founded ProtectOzone to mobilise citizen consciousness in protecting the ozone layer. He was inspired to fight ozone layer depletion when on an airline he boarded to Addis Ababa in 2014, the pilot announced “on behalf of each passenger on board, we are planting a tree” and committed himself on arrival in Nigeria. ProjectOzone has since then distributed over 15,500 tree-seeds, carried out diverse environment friendly projects, and trained 3,753 children, youths, farmers and engaged citizens on Sustainable Best Agricultural Practice.
Mene Cynthia – CEO/Founder, Kadosh Production Company (KPC)
Kadosh Production Company (KPC) unlocks the potential of women by offering agricultural support and linking them to a processing & packaging service which is 200% faster & produces higher value. It enhances cassava processing efficiency for local women farmers in Nigeria by becoming a ‘linchpin’ processor in the local cassava value chain through an ecofriendly system. In addition, through KPC, Cynthia provides best farming practices to cassava farmers enabling them to increase their yields.
Ugwudi, Ugochukwu Stephen – CEO/Founder, SU Dynasty
Stephen is the founder of CASPEM, an initiative which focuses on increasing the economic benefit of Smallholder farmers and creating more job opportunities for young people. CASPEM transforms agricultural waste into low-cost and highly nutritional poultry/livestock feed that assist smallholder farmers to grow their businesses. CASPEM has impacted 100 farmers, served 4,800 consumers, and created jobs for 89 youths and rural women.
Chioma Ukonu – Co-Founder, RecyclePoints
Chioma Ukonu co-founded RecyclePoints in 2012; a social benefit venture that rewards citizens for recycling. RecyclePoints has a “Point-Based” incentive model where collected items such as, PET bottles, aluminum cans, water sachet, papers from registered post-consumers gives them points to redeem household appliances/provisions or cash. RecyclePoints handles 75,000kg of recyclable waste per month and the collected waste are processed into raw materials for the production of various item.
Olaosebikan AbdulLateef – Founder, Nafarm Foods
AbdulLateef is working in the agro value chain supply, to process and package perishable or seasonal foods such as tomatoes, onions, yam, cassava. Nafarms Foods has creatively developed a preservation technique for drying and converting raw tomatoes into powder to save consumers the cost, time and improve shelf life of the fruit, making it available throughout the year at a highly competitive price.
