Youth Leadership Development Programme (Nigeria)

Participants of the YLDP go through self-paced courses developed on the programme’s three pillars: leadership, active citizenship and community/sustainable development group mentorship sessions with expert social innovators and change makers who will guide them as they implement impactful change projects, inter-school debates on national issues, funded community change projects, and virtual learning sessions to develop their mindsets and equip them to be the change agents the country needs.

The Youth Leadership Development Programme will help young people become contributing members of society and empower young people to actively engage in addressing issues of national concern while fostering peer-to-peer learning and community building.

Focus Areas

• Facilitating good governance
• Resolving fundamental national questions

Programme Central Courses

• Self Leadership
• Transformative Leadership
• Ethics & Values
• Diversity, Tolerance, & Inclusion
• Problem-Solving
• Civic Education 101
• Advocacy 102: Enabling Youth Voices – From Hype to Action
• Community Organizing
• Sustainable Development Goals: The Goals, The Targets, and Your Role
• Public Policy

Tracks

• Sustainability: Hearts and Hands for Change
  • Participants in the sustainability pathway consist of teams of 5-10 people from the same tertiary institution who will carry out community change projects focused on the NYFF’s current thematic areas. In this track, participants are equipped with knowledge to engage community actors, raise funds and carry out projects that bring about sustainable change in their communities.
• Advocacy – The Youth Leadership Debates
  • Raising Voices for Change
    • The Youth Leadership Debate Competition is about giving confidence to the voices of the youth, leveraging their voices as an effective tool to bring about a transformed Nigeria.
    • The Youth Leadership Debate Competition aims to provide capacity building to select young people across tertiary institutions and support them to critically evaluate information, advocate from a point of knowledge, and collectively shape their vision for Nigeria, hence equipping them to be active citizens.
    • The competition is open to teams of 3 students each from tertiary institutions across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The inter-varsity competition features online campaigns and campus tours publicised by the theme – #TheNigeriaWeWant.
    • Finalists on the Youth Leadership Debates will be required to utilise a percentage of their prize money to carry out advocacy-based community change projects.

Funding Information

• Sustainability: Hearts and Hands for Change
  • Teams that sign up for the Sustainability Track are eligible for up to ₦350,000 in grants to carry out their chosen change projects.
• Advocacy – The Youth Leadership Debates
  • First Prize – ₦2,500,000 + other benefits
  • Second Prize – ₦1,500,000 + other benefits
  • Third Prize – ₦1,000,000 + other benefits

Eligibility Criteria

• Youth Leadership Development Programme
  • Participants must be between 18-35 years of age
  • Participants must be undergraduate students at any tertiary institution in Nigeria
  • Participants must be available to participate in the programme for the 5-month period
  • Participants must commit to at least 85% total participation in the programme
  • Participants must have a working mobile phone/personal computer and access to stable internet at all times during the programme
  • Participants must show proof of studentship at the claimed tertiary institution (course form for the current session/ID Card)
  • Participants must be open to travel at any stage of the programme (careful considerations are made so that participants do not miss out significantly from academic activities)
  • All participants admitted into the programme after completing the applications must undergo the 10 compulsory virtual courses before proceeding to the track divisions of their choice
• Community Change Project Track
  • Candidates interested in the Community Change Project track will submit their application by either submitting a proposal highlighting a problem in their community that they wish to solve or selecting a proposed project idea submitted by another candidate from their institution. The proposed project idea must be in line with one of NYFF thematic focus areas for 2025 – Facilitating good governance and Resolving fundamental national questions
  • A Community Change Project Team can consist of between 5-10 students. Once a project has reached its maximum number of members, it will become unavailable for selection. In this case, a candidate must consider another proposed project or submit one for themself.
  • Participants will undergo 3 specialised modules to further prepare them for change project execution.
  • At the end of the virtual learning sessions, participants are expected to update or renew their change project proposal, where necessary.
  • The proposal should identify potential stakeholders (enablers, beneficiaries and funding sources) and locations for the change project.
  • Participating teams stand a chance to pitch for and win from any of the different grant categories to augment funding for their projects.
• Youth Leadership Debates Track
  • A team of 3 students from the same tertiary institution will first apply by registering an advocacy idea or signing up for a registered idea.
  • The second selection stage for this track will include the submission of a video of not more than 5 minutes with at least 2 of the debating team members addressing any policy issue under the key thematic areas.
  • Debate entries should focus on the following areas:
    • Facilitating good governance
    • Resolving fundamental national questions
  • Video should be uploaded on any social media platform, and the link to the video should be provided on the application form.
  • Evidence, such as course forms, of each team member enrolled in the institution would be required.

For more information, visit Nigeria Youth Future Fund.