Reawaken, Redesign and Re-emerge: Africa Beyond Potential
- Lagos, Nigeria
- 08/09/2022
- 4 Speakers
- Lagos, Nigeria
- 08/09/2022
- 4 Speakers
LEAP Africa’s Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is an accelerator fellowship that empowers young changemakers through a holistic approach of building their capacity, connections and credibility. It was borne out of the understanding of the challenges faced by most young social enterprises are faced with challenges such as early-stage funding, resource and connection deficit that hamper their growth and sustainability.
The Social Innovators Programme (SIP) fellowship exists to support the growth of these innovative youth-led social enterprises by
Building their capacity through trainings, mentoring, advisory coaching support
Connecting them to global networks and partnerships
Showcasing their innovations through the Conference/Awards and media promotions
As LEAP Africa reflects on 20 years of influence in the youth development space, it is imperative to rethink the future of leadership as we position ourselves as thought leaders within the youth ecosystem.
The theme for this year’s SIPA Conference Reawaken, Redesign and Re-emerge: Africa Beyond Potential will initiate conversations pertinent to a reimagined approach to leadership and innovation on the African continent. As more young people and youth led organizations emerge in solving youth related issues, there is a need for increased transgenerational partnerships through mentoring, coaching and other activities. The LEGACY edition of SIPA will foster such collaborations at various levels.
CEO, Mastercard Foundation
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Managing Principal, Sovereign’s Capital
Henry Kaestner co-founded the Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor ministries, and has been a catalyst behind both movements. He and his team seek to serve faith driven entrepreneurs, investors, funds, partners, and advisors through content, community, and connections.
Henry is also a Co-Founder and Partner at Sovereign’s Capital, a private equity and venture capital management company that invests in faith driven entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia and the U.S. from its offices in Silicon Valley, Durham, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to co-founding Sovereign’s Capital, Henry was Co-founder and previous CEO, and then Chairman, of Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) and its sister company, Republic Wireless (which spun out of Bandwidth in 2016). Together the companies have grown from $0 to more than $600 million in revenue.
Henry is a member of the broader Church in the Bay Area, attends Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, CA and serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America. Henry lives in Los Gatos with his wife Kimberley and their three sons.
CEO & Founder, TASCK Creative Company
Jude Abaga, known by his stage name M.I Abaga, was born in Jos Plateau State. He is widely heralded as Africa’s most commercially successful rapper. He first tasted mainstream success in 2008 with his debut, ‘Talk About It’, which sold 30,000 copies in the first 30 minutes; the largest sales recorded at that time. The album was a watershed moment for Nigeria’s hip-hop community, laying out the much-needed blueprint for commercial success selling rap in Africa. His music was largely based on his experience as a kid from war-torn Jos and his immersive experience while earning a business degree from Calvin College, Michigan.
His love for melody and understanding of music at his high school choir was infused with the heavy beats and poetic delivery of American rappers like Jay-Z and DMX; crafting the early parts of his trademark punchline-heavy musical style.
M.I. is widely known for his commitment to innovation in producing and marketing his music, as well as showcasing young talent. His ‘MI2’ album remains Nigeria’s best-selling hip-hop album. After taking a 4-year hiatus from music, he returned with the ‘Chairman’ Album, and did over 25 million streams in less than a month. His 2018 release ‘Rendezvous’ featured a mishmash of burgeoning young talent, and members of the country’s ‘alte’ community. He also holds the record for the most albums (5) charting simultaneously on Apple Music in Nigeria.
Beyond his music, M.I. is a brand favourite, holding Ambassadorship positions with brands like Globacom Limited, Martell, and Henessy.
Head, Global Prosperity at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
Efosa Ojomo was selected as one of 30 thinkers in the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar list, the world’s most reliable resource for identifying, ranking, and sharing the leading management ideas of our age. He researches and writes about how innovation can transform organizations and create inclusive prosperity for many. In January, 2019, longside the late Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, he published the book, The Prosperity Paradox: How innovation can lift nations out of poverty. Christensen was the world’s foremost thinker on Disruptive Innovation and was a mentor to Efosa Ojomo.
Efosa leads the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, an innovation-focused think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley. Over the past several years, his work has been published and covered by the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Quartz, Forbes, Fortune, The World Bank, NPR, and several other media outlets.
He speaks and consults often on how organizations can develop a culture that fosters market-creating innovations, and has presented his work at TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Bank, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and at several other conferences and institutions. His TED Talk on Innovation and Corruption has garnered over 2 million views. In a Wall Street Journal review of The Prosperity Paradox, Rupert Darwall writes that the book provides “a better way to fight poverty” as it returns “the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity.” Click here to view a list of some of Efosa’s published work.
Efosa graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in computer engineering and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Co-founder, Catalyst 2030
Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of several innovative and award-winning NGOs and has over twenty years’ experience running systems change organizations as a Skoll awardee, an Ashoka and Schwab Fellow.
Among her previous organisations are Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI), Aflatoun International, Childline India and Child Helpline International, which have facilitated meaningful change in financial inclusion of youth in over 160 countries and created a global movement for protection of children and youth active in more than 181 countries. Jeroo is now founder of One Family Foundation which incubates social innovations and applies the systems change methodology to help organizations scale.
One Family Foundation is currently anchoring Catalyst 2030, initiated by leading social entrepreneurs from Ashoka, Echoing Green, the Schwab Foundation, the Skoll Foundation and other global networks of social entrepreneurs. It aims to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by radically transforming social innovation ecosystems and driving systems change interventions at the country level.
Founder, Pathfinders Justice Initiative
R. Evon Benson-Idahosa, the founder and Executive Director of Pathfinders Justice Initiative https://www.pathfindersji.org is a Nigerian native, a thought leader and leading expert on the subjects of modern day slavery and gender based violence in sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a trained English Barrister and American lawyer who, when her passion and compassion called her to address these pressing issues in her home country, resigned from her partnership at a New York law firm to a full time advocate on behalf of women and girls. Her commitment is to structural transformation of both the narrative and the economic landscape for African women, with a focus that extends beyond ending generational poverty and seeks wealth creation for a generation of women who are confident in who they are and in the transformative power of their voices.
She is a firm believer that if you empower women and engage men as allies for gender justice, you can transform any society. Ms. Benson-Idahosa lends her expertise as an advisor/consultant to organizations as well as state, national and international governments and has served as a consultant to the Government of Nigeria (Parliament), the UN Rapporteur on Trafficking, UNODC, the UK Home and Cabinet Offices, Nigeria’s federal anti-trafficking agency as well as to the government of her home state in Nigeria, Edo, an internationally recognized hub of sex trafficking.
In her role as an innovative facilitator/trainer, she has organized and led multiple high level stakeholders’ national and international conferences/roundtables, including Nigeria’s first ever Gap Analysis on human trafficking and unsafe migration, trains Parliamentarians and serves as a legislative drafter. Her work has culminated in the production of Nigeria’s first national Guidelines for rehabilitation service providers and law enforcement officers, judges and prosecutors on human trafficking. In August 2021, along with her team, Ms. Benson-Idahosa launched HERS Africa, the continent’s first online Hub of Economic Resources for Survivors, a platform for survivors of sexual exploitation that will provide them with access to tailored resources, regardless of where they are in the world. Under her leadership, Pathfinders has provided holistic PATH (Personalized Action to Healing) Plans for over 2, 500 survivors, maintains a thriving shelter, has conducted ground-breaking research on recruiters of sex trafficking in Nigeria and engages in outreaches that reach millions of people daily.
As an activist, published writer and speaker, Ms. Benson-Idahosa’s work has been featured on multiple radio and television news outlets, including CNN, CNNi, BBC, Al Jazeera and she has been named one of New York’s New Abolitionists. She is also the recipient of multiple fellowships/awards and has been nationally and internationally recognized for her efforts in seeking an end to gender based violence. For more information, please visit www.pathfindersji.org (http://www.pathfindersji.org/) or email reidahosa@pathfindersji.org.
The fellowship year ends with the Awards ceremony. The year-long fellowship culminates in an Awards ceremony to recognise outstanding fellows and to induct a new cohort. The Awards ceremony celebrates youth at the forefront of social change across Africa leveraging innovative approaches. At SIPA, LEAP showcases and awards exceptional fellows in the following categories:
Three fellows who have distinguished themselves during the course of the fellowship year and recorded significant growth in their enterprises
One alumni who has achieved significant growth and impact and has continued to maintain the organizational systems and structures developed during the fellowship
One fellow who has translated the learning and professional insights acquired from the fellowship programme into upholding financial accountability, transparency and sustainability in their social enterprise.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Sharon Begley
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