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By Isaac Aregbesola
Abuja, Jan. 31, 2018 (NAN)The Coordinator of Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Face2Face Network, Abuja, Mr Emokiniovo Otarigho, said the group had scaled up businesses of 30 women in Masafa village, a community in outskirt of Abuja.
Otarigho told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the network was an offshoot of YALI, an initiative of the former U.S. President Barak Obama for leadership development in Africa.
He said the group was made up young professionals, entrepreneurs, civil society members and civil servants, who used their skills, time and resources to create positive impacts in Nigeria communities.
The coordinator said this was done through volunteering, civic engagements, school rehabilitation, primary health care developments, championing good governance and entrepreneurship development.
“YALI is creating impacts in the entrepreneurship whereby the network helps to scale up people’s businesses through collaboration with members who are doing the same thing.
“Also on civic leadership carrying out projects to assist the rural communities.
“In Abuja the YALI has been able to impact the life of Masafa community whereby a number of women have been impacted.
“YALI has been able to raise money for about 30 women to scale up their businesses, establishing cooperative in that through this processes every month community member is empowered,” he said.
“The money contributed is a revolving fund, where the first women are assisted with a token and when the money comes back a new woman who is on the waiting list will be assisted.
“As soon as we finished with this community, we are moving to another community in the FCT, we have also been able to assist the physically challenged students in Kuje,
“YALI has also through the open government ng campaign, focused on equipping youth to fight corruption, for transparency and accountability,” he said
Otarigho said that YALI sourced for fund through sacrificial contribution from individual members and later used the fund for a specific project to alleviate poverty of community members.
“We source for our fund from the little sacrifice we made from our pockets when we contribute together we use it for a project, and when some people see what is being achieved through the project can also helped voluntarily.
“YALI as an agent of change is joining the conversation train to influence situation positively.
“For example, when some youths from one side of the country issue a threat for the other to leave the area, we partnered with plain network playing a critical role in stemming down the situation.
“We have a programme called the state of the nation where in the first time in history, we have these youths brought together on the same table to have a conversation and they agreed to be united.
“We are taking the lead in finding solution to major problem because we are the major stakeholders, we are more than 65 per cent of the population, we have to drive the initiative,” he said. (NAN)
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Edited Grace Yussuf