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Taiwo: Creativity, Innovation Essential in Era of New Normal Mr. Femi Taiwo who is an Executive Director at LEAP Africa, in this interview speaks about the leadership skills youths in the country and Africa must develop to remain relevant in the post Covid-19 era. He also talks about his organisation’s upcoming Social Innovators’ Programme. Obinna Chima brings the excerpts What leadership skills do you think young people in Nigeria and other African countries must focus on in order to address challenges facing the continent? I think if we’re going to solve the problems in this country and in our continent, we need to collaborate more as young people. I will also say a lot of collaboration, co-creation and teamwork are required. Secondly, I will say we need to be visionary. You cannot separate vision from leadership. So, we should not just be quick to jump at doing things, taking action or making moves, we have to be very visionary. Being visionary means there’s an opportunity for everybody and there’s an opportunity for growth. That’s the hallmark of vision. I like the definition of vision which says that its foresight based on insight to develop to the benefit of our hindsight. In this our generation, we need to pay attention to our history because our foresight must be based on insight. We cannot afford to have vision in isolation. We need to envision using the context of where we are coming from, what is going on right now, so that we can use that to define where we need to get to and what we need to go to. That also includes paying attention to what is going on around the world and how the world has navigated challenges that we are presently navigating. Obviously, the next thing is that we have to work hard. Diligence and perseverance are important for young people. We are going against very big issues in our country and in our continent, and we just have to be ready to do the hard work. Hard work here is not just laboring; it’s also requires smart work. We have to use our head, hands and be ready to go the extra mile because there’s no short cut to these things. There is no short cut to developing our country and continent and so we have to be ready to roll up our sleeves and really dig deep and also carry out the smart work and hard work that would get us there. We have to be ready to do things with integrity and with purpose and we have to be principled. So, considering the pandemic, what sector will you advise youths to focus on in terms of skill development? One of the major things we teach at LEAP Africa is that we tell every individuals to discover themselves. This is very important because before you even start adding skills, can you even start with who you are and what you have; your talents and your skill-set. That is because the reality is that there’s always a place for the passion, the gift and the talent that each individual carries. That will be my first message. So, find your own place in this world; find what you have and what you carry because it was given to you for a purpose and you can own it with excellence. Such talent can help doors open for you and people will respond to you. The second thing is that there are some fundamental skill-sets that irrespective of the industry you want to work in, irrespective of the opportunities out there, it would always make you a high flier. Those are things the world call 21st century skills, soft skills or core skills. The first one is critical thinking. No matter the sector you will end up playing in, no matter the talent or the gift you have, if you can think critically and solve problems, you will be very valuable. So, critical thinking and problem-solving are major skills that cut across any industry any time and any day, especially in this hot industrial revolution and season that we’re in presently. We are in the age of machines and artificial intelligence. So, critical thinking and problem solving are core skills. Secondly is creativity. Our world is demanding for more creativity. So, creativity and innovation are what young people would need to develop. Another skill required is
sector to be able to collaborate with the social sectors. We have the social sector- people like us who work in the non-profit space to solve problems, add value and even do that which government alone cannot do, while the private sector is focused on profit. No matter how you’re telling them to balance profit with people and with talent and be sustainable in how they do it, their major motive is profit, and they will forever be going for profit. The government on the other hand is focused primarily on public good and they are not the most efficient in delivering this public good. Even when they are efficient, they don’t have all the resources. On the third leg, the social sector too has its own limitations. Now, we have limited resources, we don’t have the wherewithal of private sector or even the wherewithal of the government. So, we’re trying to amplify the message and the need for more social enterprises. We want to raise more talents, and unleash more youth agencies towards actualising the SDGs. That’s what the Social Innovators’ Program and the conference is all about.
Taiwo
communication skills. No matter where you are working, your ability to pass across your ideas is a skill that you will forever need. Interpersonal skills and team work are important skill-sets that young people need to develop. So, these are core skills that young people need to develop. So, technology has democratised access for young people; young people can work from anywhere right now. The future of work by default means that the traditional employment, where people are employed full-time in a particular job for years is changing. What is the Social Innovators’ Programme all about and why is LEAP Africa championing this initiative? One of the biggest things in the radar of the whole world, including Africa is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the world has set 2030, which is less than 10 years as the timeline to help actualise these goals. Now, one thing that the whole world has agreed on is that if we’re going to achieve the SDGs, we need all hands on the deck; we need all sectors participating. But one major category of stakeholders that the whole world has also agreed and has
There is no short cut to developing our country and continent and so we have to be ready to roll up our sleeves and really dig deep and also carry out the smart work and hard work that would get us there
recognised as very crucial and critical to helping actualise the SDGs are young people. In Africa and also in Nigeria, young people form the largest demography and if we’re going to achieve the SDGs, we need to make it the goals for young people. This is because they’re the ones who have the energy, creativity and numbers to be able to tackle these goals. They form the largest proportion of the labour force. So, LEAP Africa, over the past seven years has actually been at the forefront of raising young change agents. That is young people who are not just trying to make a living, but are trying to solve problems and even make a life for other people. That’s what we’ve been doing in the Social Innovators’ Program. The Social Innovators’ Program is a year-long fellowship where we accelerate youth-led social innovations. So, young people who are the forefront of solving problems in their community, country and in the continent are helped with capacity building to be able to do more. We connect them with resources so they can do more and scale up their initiatives. We provide business-support services and all manner of support to help them become more resilient and be able to scale up their work and be more sustainable in how they deliver their work. So, that’s what the Social Innovators’ Program is all about. It’s a year-long program, but we now celebrate it with Social Innovators’ Program and Award conference. The conference will be taking place in less than three weeks from now. And what we do within that conference is to bring young people and leaders across multiple sectors to help amplify the message of social innovation and social enterprise. We amplify the message of sustainability to the private sector in the social innovators’ conference. We help to amplify the message of government and how they can amplify the works they are doing and also to support private/public
When is this year’s conference coming up what is the structure; that is will it require physical gathering or it is going to be virtual? When it used to be held physically, the conference used to have between 1500 and 2000 people. Last year, we did it physically and we had more than 2000 persons in attendance. This year, we’ve opened up the program to other countries in Africa. Previously, we used to take only entrepreneurs in Nigeria, but this year, even before COVID-19, we had decided to expand the class and bring more slot for other West African countries. So, by default we have opened up the conference to the whole world. So, it’s going to be a wholly virtual conference and it’s happening between October 2nd and 3rd, and the theme is: ‘Mobilising Collective Action for Systemic Change.’ What led to this theme is that many people are working in isolation and that’s one of the challenges facing our development goals. The private sector players are doing their own, every company is doing their own CSR. Government agencies are not necessarily interfacing with themselves as much as possible. The problems we are trying to tackle are systemic and deep-rooted and if we’re going to solve these problems, especially in this decade, we need more collaboration and synergy. We need collective action and everybody bringing more strength together to make up for the differences of others. This involves everyone bringing their own little resources together with that of others to be able to tackle this very big, broad and systemic issues. That’s why the aim is mobilising collective action for systemic change. COVID-19 has taught us that we need to work together, and that there is need for more urgency in how we are tackling these issues. We need to work together even more, unless we are going to have a bigger issue on our hands. We can achieve more together, rather than working in isolation and that’s what we’re trying to do. So LEAP Africa is a youth-focused organisation; our goal is to raise leaders that would transform Africa. All of our programs are aimed at improving and increasing the urgency of young people to be able to solve problems in their community and in their continent. So, we focus on helping them develop the capacity to solve their own problems first and ultimately to extend that capability to solving problems in their community and in their continent. So, we want to raise talents to help actualise the SDGs. We believe so much in young people, we believe in creativity, the energy and the voice of young people to be able to solve problems. So, it’s time to collaborate more to support young people.