Thursday 18th September, 2024: Applications are now open for the second edition of Paradigm Initiative’s Ajegunle Legacy Scholarship, giving brilliant students an opportunity to secure funding to further their education.
Named after the community, the initiative will support four young Ajegunle residents by providing them with full scholarships for their studies in Nigeria. The scholarship is divided into two categories. One category, the Ajegunle Legacy Scholarship, supports two young persons (male and female) in getting advanced software development training annually.
The second category, the Taiwo Bankole Prize, will annually support two young people (one male and one female) from low-income families residing in Ajegunle to acquire a university education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) or law. This Prize is in honour of the late Taiwo Bankole Ogunyemi, who dedicated his life to positively impacting the lives of young people and had a mission to change the world. He was one of the foremost volunteers at PIN’s LIFE programme.
Paradigm Initiative (PIN) launched the scholarship fund in 2023 to give back to the Ajegunle community and recognise notable individuals who have played vital roles in the organisation’s early beginnings in Ajegunle.
Last year, four winners secured the funding opportunity. Anthony Maduamaka Ihejiamatu, a Chemical Engineering student at the University of Lagos in Nigeria, won the Taiwo Bankole Award while Adeniran Esther, a student of Project Management Technology at the Federal University of Technology Akure in Nigeria, clinched the same award for the female category. Ogar Gideon Robert secured a win for the male category under the advanced software training (Ajegunle Legacy Scholarship) while Idowu Sarah Sylvester emerged tops in the female category under the same scholarship.
PIN traces its roots back to Ajegunle, Nigeria, where it started operations in 2007 from a tiny cybercafe known as Stadnet. From there, Paradigm Initiative expanded its operations to five out of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and now has a presence in five other African countries- Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Speaking on the importance of education at the inaugural award ceremony, which brought together last year’s beneficiaries, ‘Gbenga Sesan, the organisation’s Executive Director, highlighted that, “Education is the solution to generations of need, education can be the key to opportunities that break the chain of poverty in certain families.”
This initiative is in line with the organisation’s mission to connect under-served youth with digital opportunities. It has been pursuing the same since its existence under the LIFE (Life Skills, ICT, Financial Readiness and Entrepreneurship Skills) Legacy Programme, impacting the lives of more than 150,000 under-served African youth since then.
The link to the application, which closes on 7th October 2024, can be accessed here.
About Paradigm Initiative (PIN)
Paradigm Initiative is a non-profit organisation that shapes policy, defends rights, and builds capacity in the digital environment to create a digitally inclusive and rights-respecting world.
Across our regional offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe and beyond, we work to connect under-served African youth with improved livelihoods through our digital inclusion and digital rights programmes. Our programmes include the LIFE Training Programme and Life@School Club Programme. We have also built online platforms that educate and serve as safe spaces for reporting digital rights violations. These mediums, in the form of reports, short films, and educational online platforms, include Ayeta, Londa, and Ripoti.
PIN is also the convenor of the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF), an annual forum that brings together key stakeholders in tech, academia, media, government, and civil society. The 12th Edition will be held in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 2025.
For more information, reach out to media at enquiry@paradigmhq.org