Young African Leaders Initiative: What NUDP Youth Leader, Ndansi Will Tell Obama

Yaounde, Cameroon—Among the one thousand of Africa’s most promising young leaders, representing all 49 sub-Saharan countries who are taking part in this year’s Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in America is Ndansi Elvis Nukam from Cameroon.

Ndansi at the Cameroon presidency, he is one of the 1000 YALI 2016 fellows

Ndansi and his twenty-three other peers from President Biya’s country arrived the US Friday last week for a six-week intensive academic and leadership course focused on Business and Entrepreneurship, Civic Leadership, or Public Management. He will be at the Wagner College of New York, one of the 36 institutions of higher education in the United States hosting the fellows.

He’s the only Cameroonian among the twenty-six fellows at the institution and will be upgrading his skills in civic leadership.

The youth leader said he is in America to hone skills and learn best practices which he will implement back home to create lasting change not only among young people but also to underprivileged communities in his home country.

“It’s amazing to see the different things that each of us here do. There are not so great but little things that are done in extraordinary ways with passion,” Ndansi said by phone from New York after meeting his course mates.

 Their stay in the US will culminate in a Presidential Summit with the White House tenant in Washington, DC. But what will he tell President Obama at the meeting if given the opportunity?

“I will first let him know he has inspired lots of youths in Africa and around the world that everything is possible if only you believe in yourself. I will also let him know that youths of Cameroon and Africa atlarge say Yes We Can! Yes we can become presidents, yes we can become the biggest entrepreneurs, yes we can become the best public managers and we need his support,” Ndansi said.

Ndansi is the lone Cameroonian among the 26 fellows at Wagner College

Ndansi Elvis Nukam has been working in the domain of community health for over eight years, and has a key interest in providing basic health care to under-served communities in Cameroon.

Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the PhD candidate in Health Economic Policy and Management hopes to expand the activities of Unite for Health Foundation, his NGO by opening micro-clinics in many more under-served communities in Cameroon in order to provide basic health care and reduce maternal mortality.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi