SIIDAfrica Initiatives for Youth Development

I am applying for the Elevate Prize for two specific reasons

1.     To use the resources and funds provided as a recipient of the Elevate prize to help strengthen our work at SiidAfrica Initiatives for Youth Development in engaging public office holders to provide the basic necessities that will make Nigeria youths stand at par with their counterparts across the globe. One of our core projects is the “Young People’s Action Against Corruption (YPAAC)”, this is a project established with the sole objective of raising the voices of young Nigerians to take actions against prevalence of corruption in Nigeria.

2.     I am a young Nigerian who feels the pain of not having the resources and enabling environment to thrive mainly due to lack of infrastructure, corruption, poor youth focused policies and lack of political will that drives change in the country.  Therefore, if selected as a winner, the fund will enable us reach out to as many young citizens as possible to demand for accountability from their local government office holders while we will be able to engage different reference network who will be trained on the ills of corruption and the importance of upholding Integrity, Honesty, and Transparency.  

My desire and passion to help young people led me to studying Guidance and Counseling with specific attention on Career Development, with this enthusiasm, in 2016, I applied for my Master’s program to study Counseling Psychology at Felician University, New Jersey, United State of America. Surprisingly, with a part time scholarship and admission letter in hand, my Visa application was rejected due to the negative perception that has been formed over a period of time by few young Nigerians who had dented the image of the country to the global community portraying every Nigerian youth a threat.

I decided to let go of my pain of losing the admission to focus my attention on building the capacity of other young people around me to be good ambassadors of the country. Overtime I channeled my energy to social development which then led me and my team of young dynamic Nigerians to establish SiidAfrica Initiatives for youth development as an organization with a vision to see a prosperous and desirable Africa through youth inclusion and participation in governance.

Our ultimate goal is therefore to see young Africans collaborate regardless of culture, color, or community for a better Africa we all seek.      

Corruption has been a major hindrance to attaining the vision of youth inclusion in Governance in Nigeria. This thus demands urgent actions by young people who bear the brunt the most. Young Nigerians suffer most from ills and consequences of corruption as it leaves the young population with a bleak future, thereby leading to a more deteriorating African society. 

With global data revealing that youths in Africa constitute 19% of global youth population in 2015, numbering 226 million, by 2030, it is predicted that the number of youths in Africa will have increased by 42%. The most part of Africa's population as a whole are very young, with 60% of the entire continent aged below 25 and Nigeria being the seventh most populous country in the world.

SiidAfrica is leveraging on this data and using ICT through "C-Report”, its online evidence-based corruption reporting platform, to encourage citizens report cases of corruption.

We also engage relevant stakeholders who are directly involved in the fight against corruption through monthly dialogues with Government officials, NGOs addressing issues of corruption, legal practitioners on role of the judiciary in tackling corruption among others and young opinion leaders whose work contribute to ending corruption in Nigeria.

As a youth focus and youth led organization, SiidAfrica holds innovation at the center of her core values, this guides us through the process of creating interventions that are sustainable, impactful and youth led. We think globally looking out for global best practices for all our initiatives, but act country specific (locally) by directing our work to the young citizens at the grassroots to enable us get our desired outcome.

SiidAfrica is huge on the use of Information Communication and Technological tools as this is a deliberate approach considering our target audience, we deploy technology to drive change. A typical example is our Corruption Reporting Tool, “C-Report”, which was built using simple tools like google form, Facebook messenger and WhatApp, all embedded in our website to provide Nigerians with an easy-to-use evidence-based platform to report corruption from the comfort of their homes or on the spot if they are at the location the act is taking place directly on any device.

SiidAfrica is also adopting a model of communal involvement through “The Africa Reformers Movement” as a community to raise the consciousness of Africans especially young people to be proactive in responding to issues of development in their community.

SiidAfrica works towards attaining a developed and desirable Africa through youth inclusion in governance, for this reason we look more into the approach of breaking the inter-generational knowledge gap that exist in Nigeria and major part of Africa.

With Africa being a continent with the youngest population with over 60% below the age of 25, we believe that this teeming young population is an asset to Africa and the global community, hence the need to involve young people in development process, precisely governance.

SiidAfrica, however has the conviction that for young people to get a place at the seat of decision making, there is need for capacity to be built, knowledge to be acquired, awareness to be created and structures to be put in appropriate places. It therefore behooves on us that we engage as many youths as possible through our bottom top approach from the grassroots and community to promote systemic and sustainable development for transformative change in Africa through young citizens' partnership, participation, and inclusion in governance, and civic engagements