By Kakooza Muyomba
Stanbic Bank has donated UGX 70million to the LéO Africa Institute towards supporting its Young Emerging Leaders Project, which fosters leadership skills by emphasizing empathy, clarity, knowledge volunteerism, and in their various professional backgrounds.
Cathy Adengo, the Stanbic Bank Head of Sustainability, said during the event, “We live in a constantly changing world. This demands that we are constantly learning and rethinking our approach to innovation and leadership to drive the desired change in our economy and country. The program provides unique skills on true leadership that differentiate the fellows that have gained from this training. Equipping young people with skills that are not taught in school, such as leadership, is a worthwhile cause. The bank is intentional about empowering the youth as we prepare them for the future under our corporate social responsibility function.”
The project annually inducts outstanding young thought-leaders into a fellowship program designed to train and orient values of self-advancement, integrity, social responsibility and socio-economic transformation.
To date, 68 people from various African countries, but primarily Uganda, have been trained, with backgrounds in business, media and journalism, social entrepreneurship, civil society, the arts, and university students.
Adengo said the program has been a great benefit by instilling participants with various skills that have helped distinguish them as emerging thought-leaders.
Awel Uwihanganye, the founder of the Institute said during the event, “This program has availed a solid platform where the fellows network and brainstorm on the power of ideas in transforming societies through collaborations and partnerships for development.”
During the last five years, the partnership with Stanbic Bank has enabled LéO Africa Institute to increase the number of fellows as well as improve the quality of the YELP Fellowship experience.
The fellowship teaches critical leadership skills that aim to help transform both the individual and the society around them. This is accomplished through critical reflection sessions, conversations with leaders from various sectors, peer-to-peer sharing, and readings on various leaders in Africa and around the world.
Uwihanganye added, “The trainees from across East Africa and Africa at large, have since risen to leadership positions in their various workspaces in business, media and journalism, as social entrepreneurs, in civil society, the arts and the academic world.”
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