The Kabiesi Fellowship was founded on a single belief: Africa's most pressing problems will be solved by Africans who are deeply equipped, fiercely networked, and grounded in purpose.
We are not a scholarship. We are not a grant. We are an intensive, human investment — in people who already carry the spark, and need the right conditions to become fire.
1
Fellows & Alumni
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Programme Graduates
1
Countries Represented
5+
Years of Impact
In a small room in Lagos, a conversation between friends about what African leadership could look like planted the seed. The fellowship was not yet a programme — it was a question: what if we invested in people the way institutions invest in infrastructure?
With no external funding and a global pandemic raging, Cohort 1 convened — twelve extraordinary individuals from seven countries. They met over Zoom, shared resources, and held each other accountable. Three launched startups. Two published research. All of them changed.
Word spread. Applications tripled. We formalised our curriculum around three pillars: craft, community, and courage. Partners joined. Mentors volunteered their time. The fellowship became something fellows built together, not something handed to them.
Fellows from East, West, and Southern Africa brought new perspectives and challenged our assumptions. We launched our first in-person summit — three days in Abuja that reminded everyone why physical presence still matters.
Alumni returned as mentors. Fellows co-authored papers, co-founded ventures, and co-created policy briefs. The fellowship had become an ecosystem — living beyond any single cohort or programme.
We launched the digital portal, opened fellowship tracks in film, research, and innovation, and began building infrastructure that will carry the next decade of fellows. The work is just beginning.
We hold ourselves to the highest standards while remaining humble enough to learn from everyone around us.
We do not aspire to replicate what exists elsewhere. We build from our own wells — culture, history, wisdom, and context.
We plant trees under whose shade we may not sit. Fellows are equipped for careers and lives, not just projects.
The alumni who mentor. The partners who open doors. The fellows who share their networks. This culture of giving forward defines us.
We do the work. Whether it is writing, building, researching, or leading — we pursue mastery with patience and discipline.
The most enduring thing we offer is not a credential but a people — fellows for life who show up for one another.
By 2030, we aim to have developed over one thousand fellows across every sector that shapes African life — technology, governance, creative arts, science, and enterprise.
Not because a thousand is a round number. But because we believe that with the right people in the right rooms, the ripple effects are incalculable.