Nigerian and British Universities join The Future Awards Africa for summit on Leadership, Career Development
The University of Lagos hosted the University of Sussex (UK) and winners of The Future Awards Africa on Friday June 30, 2017 to engage the youth audience on leadership and empowering strategies for productive careers.
The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) are a set of awards given to young individuals between the ages of 18-31 who have made an outstanding impact. The winners included Godwin Benson; winner, TFAA Prize for Education endowed by University of Sussex; Ayo Thompson winner, TFAA Prize for On-Air-Personality (Radio); and Bidemi Zakariyau winner, TFAA Prize for Media Enterprise.
Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy of the University of Lagos delivered the keynote address which explored female leadership, gender empowerment and equality in the workplace. Turning to employability, Tosin Adebisi and Prof. Richard Follett from Sussex said: “As recent graduates starting out, it is important to have a clear purpose, develop an ability to see opportunities and how you can add value through your ideas and business”. “Our desire is to empower, challenge and equip Nigerian youths for a bright future”, they added.
TFAA role model Godwin Benson shared his life story and recipes for success with the audience comprising university students and National Service Corp Members. He said that “you have to get mentors who are in line with your vision and also try to develop your weak areas.”
Bidemi Zakariyau addressed the need to excel, acquire academic knowledge and real world experience through internship programmes. She added that with the emergence of new media, anyone can access relevant information needed to succeed in their chosen profession. Finally, Prince Mohammed Momoh, Lagos State Coordinator, NYSC challenged the youth to fully develop their potential by being leaders and active citizens in Nigeria’s future.
As part of the post-award activities, we are happy to engage TFAA winners and students of the University of Lagos.
For more information, please follow @tfaafrica on instagram and twitter
See photos below:
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About The Future Awards Africa
The Future Awards Africa has been called the ‘Nobel Prize for Young Africans’, and the ‘most important youth awards’ by Forbes. It is a set of prizes given annually to celebrate and accelerate innovation, creativity and enterprise amongst young Africans aged 18 – 31. It has produced over 150 winners and over 1550 nominees since its first edition in 2006.
It is presented in conjunction with The Future Project, which has a mandate to build empowered citizens across Africa, through (inclusive) enterprise and (active) citizenship. This focus on Human Capital Development is informed by our value proposition: Africa’s growth needs a generation of young people who are gainfully employed and able to demand and secure better leadership.
Our projects include Aiki.ng, an employability portal presented with Microsoft; the Nigeria Symposium for Young & Emerging Leaders, #StartupsAfrica, Intern4Jobs, YMonitor.org presented with National Endowment for Democracy (NED), The Future Enterprise Support Scheme and The Future Awards Africa, described as ‘The Nobel Prize for Young Africans’.
Founded by the Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams, TFP is supervised by a Global Board of Advisors drawn from Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East, including the Coordinating Minister of the Nigerian Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Senior Economic Advisor with the Open Society Foundations, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili; co-founder of ONE, Jamie Drummond and the Chief of Cabinet with the Africa Development Bank, Anne Kabagambe.
1 comment
It\’s goog to empower the youths, especially young school leavers as that will encourage the expellation of idleness and joblessness which is the major obstacle to the progressive ambitions of the youths of today……\’d the future leaders to be.