One Young World trains 150 young leaders in Lagos

The One Young World (OYW), Lagos caucus, has trained no fewer than 150 young leaders in Lagos.

The event with the theme, “Better innovation, a Better World,” took place at the Silicon Valley of Africa, Yaba, Lagos on Saturday.

In his introductory speech, Dr. Isaac Olufadewa, the ‘One Young World’ Coordinating Ambassador for West Africa region said the event is targeted at finding solutions to the host of challenges plaguing Nigeria as a nation.

“When it comes to overcoming unemployment, poverty, poor health insurance coverage, high rate of teenage pregnancy among other challenges, Nigeria has a mountain to climb.

“We know the problems facing Nigeria. We have discussed and debated them but we have not extensively developed solutions to them. Today, we are here not to celebrate our problems, but to create solutions to them,” he said.

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He further talked about the One Young World community, saying it is a global community with over 10,000 Ambassadors from over 190 countries of the world and that the OYW West Africa community has come together to organise the event.

In her own words, Kate Robertson, the Co-founder of One Young World who also inspired the audience said that the future belongs to young innovators and that the young people must be willing to create the better world that they want to see.

The programme also featured two engaging sessions: Innovation for Public Good and Healthcare Innovation.

In one of the sessions, Aliza Leferink, the West Africa Marketing Director, West Africa of Reckitt Benckiser talked about ways to strengthen the healthcare system in Nigeria and Africa and made a clarion call for private and public partnerships to move Nigeria closer to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While narrating his personal experience to inspire the participants, Olubunmi Odekunle, a One Young World Ambassador said he was born as a low birth weight baby and was lucky to survive in the rural area where he was conceived.

“I was born as a low birth weight baby of 2kg in the faraway rural community of Igbeti, I was just lucky to survive against all odds.

“In these days of advanced medical inventions and innovations, it is inexcusable for any underweight child to die due to lack of medical equipment or healthcare service,” he said.

He further talked about ways to strengthen the healthcare system in Nigeria and Africa, just as he made a clarion call for private and public partnerships to move Nigeria closer to the attainment of the SDGs.

The highlight of the event was the Design Thinking session where attendees came up with actionable solutions on seven major challenges affecting Nigeria and Africa.

Seven Groups were created based on specific problems in different fields; Agriculture, Disability, Sexual Health, Girl Child Education, Environmental Sustainability, Technology, and Financial Literary.

Also present at the event was, Chidi Nwaogu, the CEO/Founder of Publiseer, Mr. Uwem Uwem Akpan, the Program Manager of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Onele Peter-Cole, Co-founder of Factscount, Oluwole Ajao, Digital Marketing Lead, Africa region for Novartis.