Babajide Okeowo
Dr Akin Akinpelu, an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council is set to impact 200, 000 university students from 14 universities across Africa with mentorship, direction, and support during his much-anticipated “Street to Forbes” campus tour.
During the campus tour, the students will be provided with information, leverages and the required attitude needed to overcome the challenges of life and help them to realise how to seize opportunities with undying and unyielding determination through a series of carefully chosen courses, interactive sessions, and emotional conversations.
Akinpelu unveiled this plan during a press briefing in Lagos recently to announce the launch of the campus tour which is scheduled to take off at the Bells University, Otta, on April 13, 2024. The event also coincided with the unveiling of his latest book, From The Street To Forbes.
It would be recalled that Dr Akinpelu has been a member of the Forbes Coaches Council since 2022. Forbes Coaches Council is an Invitation-Only Community for Leading Business and Career Coaches.
The campus tour will take Akinpelu and his dedicated team to 10 Universities in Nigeria and four across Africa.
Some of the universities to be visited during the tour included The Bells University, Ota, Covenant University, Ota, Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, University of Lagos, Akoka, University of Ilorin, Ashesi University, Ghana amongst others.
An excited Dr Akinpelu expressed his dedication to inspiring and equipping African youths to achieve their full potential.
We want to encourage the rise of a new generation of young people in Africa. And we just don’t want to hold this to ourselves and just be talking. We are backing it up with an action. And what is the action? We want to go into the schools to be able to impact the generation.
Why the schools? You are going to find the highest level of young people in the schools, people who are thinking forward and future thinking. So, it’s a good ground to be able to build and inspire and help them to get better. We chose to kick-off this project from the university because there is already a conditioned atmosphere that can almost imbibe them to embrace knowledge at the cutting-edge level.
And this is why we decided to go on an impact tour, which is called From the Street to Forbes. And the reason is because we are telling every young person in Africa that it is possible for you to be great. It is possible for you to rise.
We can create great success stories as far back as their Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, or any level that they find themselves in life. So that’s why we’re excited to talk about the commencement of this impact tour. The personal effort is an expression of my unwavering commitment to empowering African children to realize their full potential.
And I’m honored to be the initiative leader as we set out on this life-changing adventure. We’re going to be visiting quite a number of universities in Africa, maybe about 10 in West Africa and 5 outside West Africa, including East Africa. And this is going to start exactly from April 13, 2024, which is just less than a month from now.
This impact tour, called Street to Forbes core goal is to educate, to empower, to encourage, and to inspire African children. So, we set out with this single goal in mind to kindle in each participant a spark of ambition and resilience. I do this with strong passion and strong dedication and with a firm confidence in the limitless potential of our African children.
We will provide them with information, with leverages and agencies that will help them in the future. An attitude needed to overcome the challenges and help them to see how to seize the opportunities with undying and unyielding determination through a series of carefully chosen courses, interactive sessions, and emotional conversations” he stated.
He expressed his readiness and devotion towards providing mentorship, direction, and support to every student he comes across in this journey.
On his part, Dr. Oludare Akinlaja, an International Development Advisor while speaking at the event highlighted the importance of the project.
He noted that with the level of proliferation of hard drugs amongst the youth, if nothing is done to arrest the situation, the country might be heading for a crisis.
“We need to see this as a trigger point that if nothing is done, we are heading for a crisis. It will amaze you the statistics of young people in Nigeria already suffering from drug addiction and if nothing is done to redirect their focus and mindset, it will be dangerous for the country to have this large number of people channeling their energies to wrong adventures” he said.
He also reserved some praises for Dr Akinpelu for documenting his story in a book, something he disclosed as not been common amongst Africans.
“One of the major problems of Africa is that people who have good stories don’t document them. That he has decided to document his story is phenomenal so that in the next five decades, somebody will not be telling us about his story.
There needs to be a shift to always document the beautiful things that happen on our continent” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Mrs. Favour Noah Afeoluwape, the CEO of BookSmart Services, Publisher of the book described the book as an intellectual masterpiece which will inspire many.
“Every African child will get inspired from reading the book. They will also get insight on the rules of success for their own lives as it is the story of an African who through sheer doggedness and determination was able to rise and become recognized as a High-Performance Coach by Forbes Coaches Council. There is something for everyone in the book” she enthused.
She also disclosed that the book will be available on Amazon, Kindle and other platforms from the second week of April 2024.
Meanwhile, Zainab Yusuf, Head of Partnership at Erudio Hub Academy, the Education arm of Akin Akinpelu Learning Development Company. said: “One of the aims is to prioritise the transformation of education and we can’t do that without mentioning the youths. We can’t do that without mentioning stakeholders in this sector.”
After understanding the holistic nature of this project, we understand the need to partner with other school friendly organizations to deliver on this project to promote leadership in Africa” she disclosed.
Similarly, Aderemi Oluwaseyifunmi, a 400L Accountancy Student from Bells University where the tour will kick off expressed her readiness to welcome Dr Akinpelu and his team to her school for the tour.
