Young African leaders confab underway in Accra
A young African leaders conference which seeks to share ideas and discussions on innovative ways of helping to achieve the dreams of young generational leaders is underway in Accra.
The two-day West Africa Regional Conference involves beneficiaries of the Mandela Washington Fellowship who are deemed to be the continent’s emerging generation of corporate and business leaders.
It has brought together beneficiary youth of the fellowship from 21 African states.
About the fellowship
The fellowship programme is a flagship of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) that brings 1,000 young African professionals from across the continent to universities in the United States of America (USA) annually for six weeks of leadership training in areas such as business and entrepreneurship, civil leadership and public management.
The fellows represent Africa’s emerging generation of entrepreneurs, community leaders and public officials. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supports the fellows with continuing professional development opportunities for one year after they return to Africa.
Government support
Welcoming the fellows to the conference last Wednesday, the US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Robert P. Jackson, said the US government supported the idea of bringing the fellows together to foster their continued networking, promote opportunities for their ongoing professional development and encourage their involvement in community services.
He indicated that the conference afforded them the opportunity to reconnect with their peers and with other leaders and experts who believed in the YALI vision of young African leaders creating positive change in their respective communities.
Mr Jackson, who made reference to the conference theme: “Promoting Regional Development in Africa through Transformational Leadership”, submitted that promoting regional development was very much a part of the broader goals of the USAID West Africa Mission, adding that: “We want to see West African nations trading more among themselves.”
The ambassador encouraged the fellows when he quoted former US President, Mr Barak Obama, who initiated the YALI programme, as saying, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Panellists
The Founder and President of Ashesi University, Dr Patrick Awuah; a Senior Consultant at the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Network, Madam Oury Traore; a Chief Information Officer at nFortics, Mr Kwame Acheampong; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Green Cities Incorporated in Liberia, Mr James Mulbah; and a Mandela Washington Fellow from Burkina Faso, Ms Aude Tapsoba, made contributions on ideas to make the youth achieve their full potential.
Madam Traore called on African governments to integrate the youth in their national development efforts.
She stated that the contribution of women and the youth to national development could not be overemphasised, for which reason she underscored the need for African governments to make youth issues a plank of their development.
Mr Awuah expressed concern over the failure of Africa to produce its own telecommunication infrastructure except to import those facilities at the expense of job creation for the youth.
Ms Tapsoba and Mr Mulbah added their voice to calls for African states to create the necessary conditions for the youth to excel.
The Chief Economics Officer at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Louis Amo, who represented the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Attah, said the objective of the fellowship programmes dovetailed with the government’s agenda to create opportunities for the youth.
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