LEAP Africa – a youth-focused leadership development organisation has trained and graduated 450 students alongside 15 teachers in Federal Capital Territory,(FCT),Abuja on entrepreneurship education.
The students and the teachers were specifically trained on critical thinking skills, creativity, innovations, public speaking, communication and negotiation skills.
The Chief Operating Officer of LEAP Africa Kehinde Ayeni who spoke at the graduation ceremony in Abuja said the organisation wants to fill some gaps in Nigeria’s education curriculum by building capacity of young students with interpersonal skills.
She said:”The essence is to equip them to believe that they can achieve anything they want to with the tools they have been equipped with.”
“The philosophy behind this is that we equip them to also equip other young people. We believe that the lessons they learnt here would impact and influence their respective communities,”she said.
She noted that some of the students who have graduated have formed cluster groups to grow their leadership influence in respective communities.
A Senior government official from the Secondary Education Board, in the Department of Guidance and Counselling, Momoh. S. told the ICIR that records showed positive records from the schools trained by LEAP Africa team.
“From the Schools they have entered, they left an indelible mark thereby establishing projects and donating books to students.”
He also noted that the key problem among FCT students is absensteesm and truancy.
He said they are also working with the LEAP Africa team to address that.
“The problems we are having in FCT among the students is truancy, absenteeism, because some of them are coming from far place. However, we are addressing that gradually working with I LEAP Africa team,”he said.
Solomon Greatness, one of the graduating students from Government Secondary School Karchi, said the training has changed his perspective about leadership and accountability.
He said:” Since I joined this training, it has helped me to gradually retool my thinking towards asking questions where things go wrong in leadership circle.”
Bashir Umaru, a former beneficiary of the training said it has helped students from underserved communities benefit for capacity development.
