African Leadership Fellows Meet In Accra On Youth Boom

By Roger A. Agana 

August 22, 2026

The inaugural cohort of Dr. Hage G. Geingob Fellows met in Accra in July for a three-day session on whether African institutions can keep pace with the continent’s youthful population.

The gathering was the second convening of Leadership Lab Yetu’s Intergenerational Leadership Accelerator, a 12-month program pairing younger and established African leaders. The Fellows program launched in February in Kigali under Leadership Lab Yetu, founded by Monica Geingos, Namibia’s former First Lady and widow of the late President Hage Geingob, in whose honour the fellowship is named.

In Accra, the Fellows heard from a range of continental figures, including Namibia’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata; Brian Kagoro, managing director of programs at the Open Society Foundations; Edmond Kombat, managing director of Tema Oil Refinery; and Francis Gatare, president of the African School of Governance. The sessions centred on a fictional government scenario designed to test how the Fellows anticipate unintended consequences and make decisions under pressure, alongside separate work on systems thinking led by leadership practitioner Martin Kalungu-Banda.

Geingos framed the session as a test of institutions rather than a debate about population trends. “The question is not whether Africa has a youth bulge,” she told the Fellows. “The question is whether our institutions can move with the same speed as our people.”

Fellow Caryn Dasah, founder of Hope Advocates Africa, said the program “has reignited a spirit of leadership,” pointing to the value of bringing leaders from different countries and sectors into the same room.

On the final day, the group visited the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum, where Kagoro led a session on Pan-Africanism as what he called a practical, cross-border responsibility rather than an abstract ideal. Geingos closed the convening with a challenge to the cohort to become, in her words, “institutionally dangerous to mediocrity” by learning to read budgets, build coalitions and hold onto their values from inside government systems.

“Africa does not need another generation that can describe the crisis beautifully,” she said. “Africa needs a generation that can hold the line and still deliver the future.”

The Fellows continue the program through virtual sessions, coaching and peer support over the remainder of the 12-month cycle.