Ghana tops YALI Nigeria Cohort One Awards

Ghana's contingent to the 2016 first Nigerian edition of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), an initiative of President Barack Obama cohort one held at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Badagry Lagos, Nigeria have topped the awards scheme organised by both officials of ASCON and the Lions Group.

The five-week programme which was organised by the YALI Regional Leadership Centre, West Africa and partnered by the USAID, GIMPA, The MasterCard Foundation and Africa 2.0 was made up of One Hundred and thirty-four (134) Young Africans from seven countries across the Sub-Sahara Region of the continent.

Participating countries include Ghana, Nigeria (host), Gambia, Cote d' Viore, Cameroon, Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively with Nigeria placing second with four awards.

The Ghanaian contingent won five prestigious awards out of the nine categories, with Nana Osei Nkwantabisa ( privately known as Evans Osei Baffour), Nkosuohene of Lower Axim Traditional Area wining two of the awards with the Most Disciplined Participant of the cohort and the Best Prize in Presentation Skills, the Most Impactful Participant award was received by Mr. Yakubu Yusuf, Mr. Kweku Ankomah Asare won the Team Spirited award whilst Ms Doreen Onyinye Anene won the Good Leadership award.

Another participant called Mr. Peter Paul Akanko was also nominated for the most interactive personality award as well as being part of the team which won the Stimulation of the Mountain Everest Game.

In a statement signed by the contingent's convener Mr. Yakubu Yusuf on Tuesday 25 October, 2016 in Accra mentioned that Ghana's team was made up of twenty (20) participants with different backgrounds were selected from the various parts Ghana. According to the statement, the Ghana team exhibited a good sense of team spirit, high sense of discipline and good leadership skills among their peers from other countries.

"Each of the participants belonged to the three animal groups namely the Elephant Group, Eagles and Lions Group where they had the opportunity to interact and participate in the various activities with their members from other countries"

The training program enabled participants to learn other cultural values from their counterparts from other countries. The added.

Participants were taken through three key module such as Civil Society and leadership, Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Management with other cores such as urbanisation, Ethics, Gender and Health, Stimulation, Creativity etc.

Mr. Yusuf on behalf of his team commended the organisers YALI Regional Leadership Centre West Africa, Accra and their various key stakeholders such as the USAID, the U.S. A Embassy in Ghana, GIMPA, ASCON etc.

It could be recalled that the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) was launched by President of the United States Barack Obama as a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders.

The need to invest in grooming strong, results-oriented leaders comes out of the statistics: nearly 1 in 3 Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24, and approximately 60% of Africa's total population is below the age of 35.

Who will empower and lead these young Africans? Who will shape the future of business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, and public management? In order to answer these questions, YALI promotes three models designed to identify and empower young leaders: the YALI Mandela Washington Fellowship, YALI Network and now the establishment of Regional Leadership Centres across Africa.

The program was first hosted by Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and has gone through four cohorts successfully.