Ausso Leadership Academy launches #Take5toGiveBack to impact governance at the grassroots

Nigeria’s leading business and entrepreneurial mentorship platform, the Ausso Leadership Academy (#ALA) has launched the #Take5toGivebackprogramme in a bid to extend the ultimate mentorship experience to grassroots government decision makers in Nigeria. The initiative was launched as part of her one-year anniversary commemoration.

#Take5toGiveback, a brainchild of the Alumni of #ALA aims to impact Local Government Chairmen and other decision makers within the Local Government Areas (LGAs). The program entails soliciting sponsorships from Corporate Bodies and well-meaning High Networth Individuals to sponsor at least five decision makers from select LGAs to attend each cohort of the #ALA Signature Masterclasses to imbibe the mentorship framework for effective governance that will improve their communities; It cannot be gainsaid that to make any meaningful progress towards job creation and shared prosperity, Business must move in step with Government and Regulators rather than each operating in silos.

The mentorship framework will cover three distinct areas; the first being Driving Alignment through inspirational leadership and courageous followership, delivering a project through relentless execution and imbibing the virtue of serving the electorate. The second focus area is Winning On Delivering Value,leading and managing change and setting up for socio-economic growth, while the third focus area is Imbibing Corporate Governance and Ethics, re-imaging the workplace for greater productivity and leaving an endearing legacy.

This initiative will empower decision makers at the Local Government Area to enact and enforce enabling regulation as well as breaking down the barrier between Government and Business, to foster inclusive growth at the grassroots, thus ensuring shared prosperity.

#ALA set the ball rolling by offering a full scholarship to Hon. Bolaji Madamidola (Chairman, House Committee on Education, Youth and Sport Development, Iru-Victoria Island LCDA) of the Eti-Osa Local Government Area. Seeing the benefit of the impact, Hon. Madamidola convinced his cohort to assist in extending the benefit to his other colleagues in the LGAs, and hence the initiative was born. Other Legislators that have attended #ALA as Guest Delegates are Hon.Tayo James and Hon. Rotimi Ojutamo, both of Eti-Osa LGA.

Speaking at the occasion of the launch during the anniversary celebration, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Ausso Leadership Academy, Austin Okere noted that the strides of the academy in just one year is a validation of its founding purpose, which is to “mentor entrepreneurs to institutionalize and scale their businesses geometrically in order to maximize the jobs they create and ensure shared prosperity”. He passionately appealed for full support to the#Take5toGiveBack initiative, to enable more members of the legislature and decision makers in government to benefit from the #ALA impact.

Thanking all stakeholders for their commitment and support, he remarked that “one year from inception, ALA has remained true to its purpose and we have enjoyed ever-increasing recognition and endorsement by key stakeholders.

“This is highlighted by the visits of the Hon. Min. of Industry, Trade and Investments, Dr. Okey Enelama, Former Minister of Communications and Technology, Dr Omoobola Johnson, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs Aishah Ahmad, the CEO of the three exchanges, Mr Oscar Onyema (Nigerian Stock Exchange), Mr Bola Onadele (FMDQ) and Mr Bola Ajomale (NASD), the former DG of the National Pension Commission, Muhammad K. Ahmad (OON), the Deputy British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Laure Beaufils, and many others.”

“We are indeed grateful to everyone that has committed themselves to this initiative, and we continue to count on you in our quest to mentor the giants of today and tomorrow, especially those in government on whom we depend for an enabling environment for business growth”, he concluded.

In his testimonial, Mr Udukheli Izibuno, an Alumni of the Academy said “every aspect of this institution has been carefully designed for the next generation of people that will do great things. I think #ALA is properly designed and properly targeted to attract these set of entrepreneurs and leaders.”

In the past year, the Ausso Leadership Academy has Mentored about 102 Entrepreneurs, representing 10 major corporates from diverse industry sectors and about 44 medium enterprises. The academy has hosted 47 Champions of Business and Entrepreneurship to share their experiences and impacted about 400 Guest Delegates with its open Sessions; in line with her commitment of building a strong Community of Nigerian Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs.

Using its online content platform, #BusinessInsightsWithAO, ALA has produced over 50 video episodes on salient business and leadership issues to an audience of over 77,000 viewers on YouTube and other social media.