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GHANA HOSTS YOUNG AFRICAN LEADERS INITIATIVE TRAINING PROGRAMME

A training programme for the second cohortof theYoung African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has begun at the West Africa Regional Leadership Center (RLC) which is hosted by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra.

One Hundred and five participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso are attending the five-week training programme.

In an address at the opening of the training programme in Accra, yesterday, Dr Victor Osei, Project Director, YALI RLC West Africa, Accra, said the training programme was an opportunity to help improve the well-being of Africa and the continent’s future leaders.

Dr Osei said the goal of the Accra RLC was to educate and motivate the youth to make positive changes in their communities, their countries and in Africa as a whole.

In his remarks, Nana Osei-Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Private Enterprise Federation, Ghana (PEF Ghana), stressed the need for the training programme to be grounded in practicality and serve as a tool box of leadership training that would empower participants to influence policy and build their capacities to create and manage businesses as well as empower their communities with enhanced livelihood opportunities.

Nana Osei-Bonsu pledged the commitment of PEF Ghana to partnering the YALI Project and to providing internship opportunities for participants to build their capacities in entrepreneurship, business leadership and corporate governance through its Africa Development Bank Project to train more than 1,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

In a key note address, Mr Alex Duprais, Mission Director, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), West Africa, lauded the YALI Project as a way of nurturing Africa’s youth and an avenue for transforming the future of communities in Africa.

Mr Duprais expressed delight that the YALI Project included women in Science and Technology.

YALI is a signature effort launched by the President of U.S.A., Barrack Obama, in 2010 to invest in the next generation of African leaders by supporting young African leaders to spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, enhance peace and security, and shape the future of business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management across Africa.

In 2012, USAID awarded two grants totalling US$1.3 million to support the core principles of YALI such as professional training, access to mentorship and networking opportunities in Africa, with the aim of increasing public and private sector engagement with the continent and enriching young leaders' potential to contribute to economic, political, and social development of Africa.

And in July 2014, President Obama announced the creation of YALI RLCs in Africa toprovide quality leadership training,support entrepreneurship and enhance professional development and networking.

The Accra Centre has been established with support from USAID Ghana, The MasterCard Foundation— whose mission is to advance youth learning and promote financial inclusion to catalyze prosperity in developing countries— Microsoft, Webster and Notre Dame Universities, and Africa 2.0 Foundation,a pan-African civil society organisation that provides a platform for emerging and established African leaders to drive forward the transformation of Africa.

Other sponsors are PEF Ghana— a non-profit, non-political, autonomous institution and the apex Business Council of Ghana— Ecobank Ghana and Vodafone Ghana.

Source: ISD (G.D. Zaney)