I emerged finalist for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African Leaders at just 23, as opposed to the required minimum eligibility age of 25 - 35.

Here's why.

In the undying words of Nelson Mandela, “education is the greatest weapon that can be used to change the world”.

Due to the anglophone crisis which started in 2016, I lost a year of schooling – an event that reshaped the course of my entire life. Several years later, after graduating with a degree in Software Engineering, and taking several training courses and fellowships on leadership and entrepreneurship, I discovered that I was the ideal person to solve this problem.

UNICEF highlights that more than 2 million learners in Central and West Africa do not have access to education because of conflict within the region.

Harnessing my engineering acumen and entrepreneurial capacity, I created a tech-based solution to this – e-Mentor. My company aims at using Extended Reality Technologies to solve the problem of an attack on access to education, providing possibilities for higher quality as well as affordable education in the process.

Okay Okay.

Enough with the boring anecdote. What does this have to do with you, you ask?

Simple. Identify a problem and find a solution to it.

Find a problem you have faced and attempt to solve it. Believe me, other people have or are facing that problem. In the process of that, not only will you be rewarded, you will also contribute building something that is bigger and better than yourself.  

In the paraphrased words of Robert T. Kiyosaki, “poor people are selfish. They only care about their fleeting desires, seeking to fulfil them. If you solve a problem for people, you get rich. If you find the cure of cancer today, you will become a trillionaire instantly”

After working on my company for several months, winning several competitions such as the TotalEnergies Startupper Challenge, the Silicon Mountain Pitch Contest, and the Moonshot Awards, I applied and was shortlisted as one of the 100 interviewees, from an application pool of more 1800. I took my interview at the US Embassy in Cameroon (my first time to enter the embassy 😊).

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is a flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative aimed at investing in the next generation of young African Leaders. In an effort to make opportunities like these accessible to young people, I created a course called Accessing Global Opportunities which provides mentorship, support and guidance on how to go about applying for and preparing for interviews.

The course has equipped more than 60 young Cameroonians with hands on skills who are “taking the bull by its horns” and changing the narrative.

Get access to it Here.

Also, visit My Youtube Channel where I share personal and entrepreneurial development tips, highlighting different aspects of my leadership journey.

This is a photo of me looking fresh for my interview. :)

Remember “successful people make decisions based on where they want to be, while unsuccessful people make decisions based on where they are”.

Which one are you? Decide today!

Connect with me on LinkedIn and let’s work on your next tech project.