ACE Charity Partners YouthHub Africa on Youth Empowerment Webinar

ACE Charity Partners YouthHub Africa on Youth Empowerment Webinar

Sunday Ehigiator

Under its focus on economic empowerment, ACE Charity in partnership with YouthHub Africa, held a three-day webinar titled ‘Career Tips with ACE Charity’, to empower youth with important insights and practical career tips for their professional development.

The recently held event came at this critical time when many more Nigerians are out of jobs and unsure of their future, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It garnered commendable youth participation from all around the continent.

Speaking at the event, the Founder, ACE Charity, Kiki James said she believed “one of the reasons the rate of unemployment is so high is largely due to the crucial fact that our youths are mostly unemployable.

“We want to encourage and transfer knowledge to our Nigerian youth, especially as we all adjust to our new normal which is a defining moment for many. More than ever, we have to unleash the genius in our young people.

‘Career Tips with ACE Charity was initiated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which understandably halted their annual Careers at Hilton program where youths are placed in various departments at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja for four weeks to gain relevant work experience and learn 21st century skills that will enable them become a lot more employable. This program includes daily mentorship sessions for the enrolled youth.”

The event was attended by hundreds of Nigerians from states across the country, as well as youths from other African countries, and was a series of master sessions by seasoned experts in different specialties to suit the varying interests of the youth.

These specialties included youth entrepreneurship, development, careers, health, finance and law.

Also in attendance as panelists were the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Media, Tolu Ogunlesi; the Founder, Connected Development Nigeria, Hamzat Lawal; the Country Representative of Malala Fund, Crystal Musa, CEO of Big H Studios, Henry Oji; and Technical Director RMNCH, Chemonics International, Mariya Saleh.

Others were the Program Coordinator, Nigeria National Resource Charter, Tengi George-Ikoli; Founder of Teal Africa, Kanyin Adio-Moses; Co-founder, Emerging Young Entrepreneurs Initiative (EYE AFRICA), Abubakar Abdullahi; Senior Manager, Corporate Finance, North South Power Company, Kehinde Fanimokun, and Team Lead, Facility for Oil Sector Transformation, Ademola Adigun.

The panelists shared stories about their career journeys and taught the attendees several professional development topics like problem solving, goal setting techniques, having value and integrity, drive, determination and discipline and many more. The sessions were highly informative, enlightening and inspiring for the attendees.

Sharing his experience, one of the participants, Moses Plangkat, described the session as eye-opening.

“This is an eye opener to everyone who was privileged to attend. We hope to make good use of what was shared by all panelists. To the panelists, you are all geniuses working towards building geniuses. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to participate in this webinar session.”

Speaking on some of the achievements of the organisation, Kiki James said, “ACE Charity has had a long history of empowering youth through several economic empowerment programs.

“Since 2017, we have empowered 24 women with fashion design and tailoring skills which are coupled with finance and business skills.

“The program duration is six months per four students, which gives enough time for them to develop their craft through our Business Empowerment Program for Women (BEPW).

“It is our hope that Nigerian youth can apply all they have learnt during the Career Tips webinar which hopefully will enable them to become more employable as they find better employment opportunities.”

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