The cliché has been that Africa is a potential that has always lived below its expectation. It is a story told of how a continent abundantly flowing with the proverbial milk and honey still wanders in hunger. Yet the African story is not all gloom. Africa is also a story of brilliance, inspiration, fortitude, global breakthroughs, invention and innovation of countries, organizations and individuals that are living hallmarks of a story that is never told; a story of an Africa that is changing, an Africa that has changed. As a millennial blessed to have met and worked with some of these change leaders, I know how sitting across the room and having a conversation about everything and nothing, makes me feel comforted in my personal journey. I want to bring these up-close and personal conversations to every African millennial. Through the Change Africa podcast, we are bringing to bare the stories of the leaders of today who are building tomorrow’s Africa.

Change Africa Podcast

Yawa Hansen and Emerging Public Leaders

Emerging Public Leaders (EPL) is a fellowship for African public servants committed to social impact. In this episode, we showcased their approach to nurturing ethical leaders in African governance and strengthening civil service from the bottom-up to accelerate Africa's development and economic growth. Yawa Hansen, Global Executive Director, Moses Cofie, Country Director Ghana, and two of its current fellows, Aliyata Uthman and Abdul Kudus, represented EPL.
We touch on the importance of nurturing a new type of policy maker that can govern effectively in a constantly evolving world of global pandemics and rapid technological advancements. Yawa and Cofie highlight these demands on future governments and EPL's approach to instilling the values of ethical leadership, critical thinking, and the spirit of change in their fellows to ensure they can meet those demands.
We explored how a merit-based selection of fellows leads to more diversity and representation and how EPL trains and supports its fellows to take on extra duties and responsibilities early on in their careers. The discussion further evolved towards the scalability of EPL's model and the importance of governance and policymaking to change the African narrative and the trajectory of our youthful continent.
The fellows describe the influence of the training they receive from EPL, how its utilization comes alive in their work, and the continued support they receive to lead not just downwards but across and upwards to be effective and impactful in their various roles. Finally, we explore the fellow's views on the required change in governance and how the EPL Fellowship has shaped their ambition to become impactful public leaders.

Fungai Ndemera

Fungai Ndemera is a trained nurse, health tech entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of CheckUp Health.
Fungai takes us on her journey from Zimbabwe to a small village in the Midlands in the United Kingdom, where she continued in her trained profession as a nurse. Armed with audacity and confidence, she would pursue her own health recruitment company only after a year of being in the UK.
Despite her upbringing in poverty, Fungai's mother instilled positivity, and hard work as guiding principles, which, coupled with a robust belief system rooted in her faith, served as the foundation of her mentality. We explore how a mindset of aspiration and ambition can be expanded to Africans in similar settings irrespective of location and economic circumstances.
Fungai illustrates how problems specific to Africans remain with Africans even if they are in the Diaspora. An example is a lack of ethnic-specific medical solutions in foreign countries that can open doors to new issues. This understanding led Fungai to start a digital-driven clinic back in Zimbabwe. By making remote health monitoring accessible specifically for diabetes and hypertension, which are the two sicknesses causing the highest fatalities in Zimbabwe, CheckUp Health was able to raise data from more than 25,000 patients. The insights from these data are now used to assist ethnic minority communities back in the United Kingdom.
Furthermore, we discuss how Africans should create not only solutions to their problems, but also new approaches based on their indigenous knowledge systems and aspire to scale them globally.

Hannah Ryder and Patrick Anam

Development Reimagined (DI)brings a cross-cultural understanding and gap support to international agencies and governments that wish to work with China, to cultivate and share knowledge for the public good. CEO, Hannah Ryder and Senior Policy Analyst, Patrick Adam joined us to dissect Africa’s working relationship with China.
We begin the conversation by enquiring from our guests about the foundations of anti-China sentiments in the world and explore what makes China a complex player in the geopolitical and economic interplays of our world. Patrick focuses on the blueprint document he led, “From China-Africa to Africa-China: A Blueprint for a Green and Inclusive Continent-Wide African Strategy towards China” to explain the approach African leaders should take in dealing with China and how to maximise the best outcomes for their nations through the lens of trade, infrastructure and human capital. Patrick underscores how the formation trade relations between Africa and China through the establishment of The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was first an African-borne initiative, and how that different may differ from other such bloc partnerships.
Hannah believes Africa should be focused on adding value to raw materials and building better regional infrastructure if aspirations like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) are to be fully realised.
While African may not nations not always have the depth of information that development partners in China need, organisations like DI assist in bridging such gaps. Ultimately, DI’s opposition is that these initiatives also need to be green and sustainable to avoid future transitions like China’s.
Hannah argues against popular opinion that Africa in not debt trapped and needs even more debt (quality debt ocused on value-addition) to power its developmental gaps that cannot be financed internally. We explore the dilution of African’s narrative in the hands of other actors and how to take on more agency in determining how the world sees us.
Hannah advocates for a public China strategy (and as well for other westerns bloc) that engage the public on the vision of such collaboration on the needs of the country and its citizenry. We conclude by exploring innovative ways to rethink developmental finance around the idea of “group lending” at a multilateral level.

Kwabena Agyare Yeboah

Kwabena Agyare Yeboah is a writer and transdisciplinary historian based in Accra.
Our conversation with Kwabena embraces the interactions of different knowledge forms and disciplines with history. For example, he traces the history of Accra’s residential segregation back to its public health origins in the 1890s to cement the idea of the inner complexities of seeming banal outcomes in pursuit of what he called “valid answers” instead of “accurate answers”. Kwabena views time as a material for analysing the past (thus, his definition of history), drawing references to how artists may use materials to tell a story. 
We interrogate Kwabena on the ownership of art and its relationship with the capitalist elite, to which he cites the historical precedence of art in Africa as a communal good. Kwabena argues that in “saving capitalism” the “academy” and practitioners must be willing to learn from the people to allow the community to wholesomely own the narrative of the art. In talking about community ownership, Kwabena believes the people already know the art around them: the materials, the processes and the stories, and advocates for a new breed of ordinary people, not professionals, emerging as art critics and writers. Our conversation segues into the inherent differences between African knowledge forms and the West’s, the claiming of indigenous discoveries as Western and the understanding of African ways of knowing, exemplified in medicine and the arts, and why history must be retold and reclaimed. We also take a historical look at contemporary art from the global stage, tracing it to its Ghanaian origins and influences
We explore Kwabena’s birth to writing and poetry, his influences and his work. We conclude with thoughts on Nkrumah’s historical complexity and an insight into Kwabena’s favourite piece of Ghanaian history; a powerful feminist sex worker and politician who may have been pivotal in Ghana’s early politics.

Elzine Gawaxab-Mushambi

Elzine Gawaxab-Mushambi is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Impact Tank, Namibia’s first social impact venture builder, building new commercially viable businesses that solve social issues.
After almost 15 years in the private sector, Elzine relocated to Switzerland but could not reconcile her privilege with the endemic scarcities of Namibia, most visible to her, access, particularly infrastructure. Moving away from the prototypical impact non-profit model, Elzine’s Impact Tank employs a methodological process to impact through sustainable enterprise building focusing on four thematic areas; human capital, food security, green economy and financial inclusion. We explore the entrepreneurial mindset of Elzine, including her research intense approach to problem identification, examine the scalability of the impact venture builder model,  the 5-step fail-proof process of Impact Tank and how it compliments the more common incubation model.
Our conversation also zeros in on some of Impact Tank’s ventures like Unearth Artisans which seeks to provide high-quality artistic work and designs for the DACH (Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH)) region, a response to the massive decline in tourism in Namibia as a result of Covid-19. Elzine also shares her perspective on leadership, her inspiration from Africa’s great leaders, her thoughts and parallels between company and nation-building, economic growth, and her vision for Namibia.
Impact Tank’s work can be followed via their website https://www.impacttank.org.na

David Agyei-Yeboah

David Agyei-Yeboah is an experimental writer based in Accra, and the author of the recently published manuscript of exploratory essays and poems, “Kissing Memory into Skin.”
We interrogate the writer’s search for purpose in a culture of singular expectation for individuals with his unique brilliance and how the overbearing misery of conformity pushed him to pursue his art. He quit law school twice to pursue a degree in theatre arts and English. David would soon realise that he had to fight too for his voice, a style difficult to place in any category he was used to, even his favourite writers’. David distils this originality into a complete work of seemingly incomplete works in which he ponders on trauma across several personas and situational perspectives. We delve into the larger thematic of gender, motherhood, fatphobia, mental health, sensuality and sexuality, navigating how the writer’s world and experiences birthed these pieces. We read excerpts from the book and investigate the writer’s intention, inspiration and questioning of societal expectations and prejudice. 
“Kissing Memory into Skin” is an invitation to empathy and a personal journey to self-acceptance. David hopes that by “bleeding out on raw paper”, his catharsis inspires a community of readers that are encouraged to pursue their own healing.  
“Kissing Memory into Skin” is available on Amazon as an e-book here; https://www.amazon.com/KISSING-MEMORY-INTO-David-Agyei-Yeboah-ebook/dp/B09RLSZQSC

Biola Alabi

Biola Alabi is a Nigerian media and investment executive, general partner at Atika Ventures, an early-stage VC, and the deputy chair of the Lagos Angel Network.
Biola recounts her journey from a public health education to a career in media, drawing parallels between the foundational elements of both fields that are often thought to be dissimilar. We explore her work in Sesame Street and how the research-focused approach of the organization cemented her belief in the power of indigenous languages in media. She would leverage that experience at MultiChoice’s DSTV, the biggest pay TV operator in Africa to pioneer indigenous languages in the company’s programming. Biola talks about how her work with Big Brother Africa commenced a process that gave many African creators today the license to create by breaking out of the predefined notion of what it means to be African and changed how Africans spoke about domestic violence, gender equity, psychology, or trauma.
Biola’s segue from media to technology investment started from consulting for clients in early-stage investments. She describes how her encounters with African founders reinstated her confidence in the future of the continent and has since been writing cheques, first an as angel investor, then as part of the learning community of investors at the Lagos Angel Network and now her own VC firm. Biola sees technology as one of the primary tools for poverty eradication on the continent and is excited to invest in the changemakers of tomorrow who create the innovations that will change every aspect of our lives and create opportunities to escape poverty.

Teddy Totimeh

Teddy Totimeh is a Ghanaian pediatric neurosurgeon and writer.
Teddy reflects on his unconventional journey to becoming one of only 20 Ghana-based neurosurgeons, the challenges of his profession in a developing country, and the state and requirements for the transformation of the Ghanaian health care sector.
His versatile interests, ability to seek inspiration from all aspects of life and reflective writing skills allow him to vividly paint the situation of the Ghanaian health care sector and the demands on a neurosurgeon in such an environment. He describes how Ghanaian neurosurgeons have to perform across different specialties and improvise with limited equipment at hand. Amazingly, Teddy navigates these challenges with a mixture of wisdom, grit, and a mindset of collaboration.
Brain drain is a common phenomenon in many Ghanaian sectors but is even more pronounced for doctors; Teddy, however, dissects this thematic from different perspectives. He describes the fallacy of demanding foreign-based Ghanaian medical professionals to return to Ghana, which he calls immoral. Instead, he calls for private-focused entrepreneurs to disrupt the sector through medical entrepreneurship and the spirit of collaboration.
Check out his latest book, Aluta Insomnia; a collection of his essays at the intersection of his life and work, in which he is exploring the beauty and challenges he sees around him. Find copies globally at Amazon or purchase copies at Booknook in Ghana.

Bright Simons

In this special live episode hosted on TwitterSpaces, we spoke to Bright Simons, a Ghanaian public policy advocate, President of mPedigree, a mobile telephony platform and Vice-President of Imani Africa, a think tank. Our discussion centred around the role of government and policy in Ghana and Africa and the controversial Ghanaian e-levy as a showcase for policy formation. 
Bright backgrounds the interaction of the people and the state through an etymological flashback of the word ‘Aban' - the Twi word for Government which literally means a ‘Stone Fortress’ and how that view is true in our perception of the role of governments. He expands on the decline of patriotic discourse on policy towards more patronage politics over the last decade. 
We uncover the lapses in the design of Ghana’s e-levy, one of the most debated policies in recent years, the absence of government awareness that has birthed a policy removed from the reality of the public and critique the projected economic value of the levy. He highlighted the 3 Cs of policy; crisis, consultation (the lack thereof), and confusion, as the framework through which African governments react to issues of the economy, and how they often lead to farcical policy creation.

Nana Kofi Kusi-Boadum

Nana Kofi Kusi-Boadum is a Ghanaian rapper, pharmacist and researcher known by the moniker KooKusi. 
Kusi-Boadum narrates how his multidisciplinary interests led him to pursue a wide range of seemingly unconnected interests ranging from pharmacology, addiction research, rap to photography.  Although he had no specific career goals, he would eventually tie all his different interests together to pursue a conjoining life goal toward impact.
He unfolds his creative journey and the utilization of his personal stories to share life lessons that speak to others and himself through his rap music. In his new EP, KooKusi introspects on how his experiences and that of the society intersect with themes  like inferiority complex, which he brilliantly dissects in his song “5 foot 3”, a reference to his height, a historical source of his insecurities. He takes us on a journey on the underlying thoughts and meanings behind his tracks and how our individual “5 foot 3s” shape our views and can be a building block of societal problems.
L.isten to his EP here: 5foot3 by KooKusi - DistroKid

Banasco Nuhu Seidu & Ousman Umar

Banasco Nuhu Seidu and Ousman Umar are brothers and Cofounders of NASCO Feeding Minds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing African immigration problems and changing the direction of humanitarian aid towards enriching the minds of Africans.
Oumar describes how a lack of opportunities, education, and perceived perspectives combined with the narrative of a comfortable and easy life in Europe led him to embark on a trip north to "paradise" at the tender age of 14. His dream of a better life in Europe turned into a 5-year ordeal through African desserts, Libya, crossing the sea on self-built boats to life on the streets of Spain.
The two brothers describe how Ousmar’s experiences shaped and changed their perspectives, followed by a deep desire and vision to provide better opportunities and education to Africans in their home countries. Based on this, they established NASCO Feeding Minds, which has already made a significant impact in the lives of Ghanaians through their ICT Literary training, job creation for students, and awareness campaigns.
Find out more about NASCO Feeding Minds here: https://nascoict.org/en/

Joshua Amponsem

Environmental sustainability and community development are some of the main goals Joshua Amponsem set out to achieve when he founded the Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO).
In this episode, he talks about the journey so far as a climate activist and GAYO’s dedication towards curbing the impact of climate change at a micro level in Sub-Saharan Africa. Progress has been recorded in disaster risk reduction, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy activism, and waste management projects which Joshua continues to lead with a strong team of young Africans. He runs us through some of these projects, which many young Ghanaians are actively involved in and making progress in protecting the environment in local communities. This he believes is the right approach to hopefully mitigate the short and long term damage of climate change.
Over the years, efforts have been targeted towards pressing environmental issues through youth empowerment, skills development, public education and the amplification of African voices towards influencing climate policy.
Learn more about GAYO here: https://greenafricayouth.com/

Akotowaa Ofori

Welcome to Season 2 of the Change Africa Podcast!
We kick-off this brand new season on a creative note, featuring Ghanaian writer and storyteller Akotowaa Ofori. She has been described as a weaver of words in many forms including; fiction, non-fiction and spoken-word poetry. In this episode, she shared with Host Isaac Kojo Yedonu Aboah her background and unique experiences in the literary world, her love for writing and her perspective on the creative process.
Akotowaa has been included in the long- and shortlists for various awards, among them the 2017 and 2018 Writivism Prizes, the 2020 Toyin Falola Prize, and the 2020 Nommo Awards. Under the mononym of Akotowaa, she has been practicing spoken word poetry for several years, predominantly in Accra. Some of her work appears in the Flash Fiction Ghana anthology Kenkey for Ewes and Other Very Short Stories; in the Writivism anthology And Morning Will Come; and online magazines such as AFREADA, Jalada Africa, and The Kalahari Review.

Michael Lawal

Michael Lawal is the CEO Of sendit.money, a social impact business focused on solving the pain of financial exclusion for Africans. Michael joins the Change Africa Podcast to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, philosophy on Africa's developmental lag, colonial programming, and overcoming fear. He tells his story of what inspired him to pursue this startup and the hurdles of being the renegade problem solver. Kojo and Michael segue from entrepreneurship to Africa. specifically how we can redefine colonial systems that have taken over the continent's operationalization and embrace locally made systems that work for us from our financial infrastructure, education and leadership. Michael gives his take on the phenomenon of colonial programming and how its crease is still evident in the functioning of Africa today, and how we could overcome it.

Dr. Olumide R. Oyefeso & Afam Oyema

Dr. Olumide R. Oyefeso and Afam Oyema are both passionate about maternal and infant mortality in Africa. Afam, inspired by his father's dream to make sure Nigeria and Africa at large get quality access to healthcare co-founded GEANCO. Afam earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University and his law degree from Stanford Law School and yet turned down lucrative corporate law offers in order to help his father realize a long-held ambition. Dr. Oyefeso, founder of 4 Breath 4 Life, a specialist paediatrician, seeks to make childbirth safer for pregnant mothers. He is focused on reducing health inequalities and providing access to the underserved and disadvantaged. Dr. Oyefeso and Afam together with our host explore the issue of child and maternal mortality in Africa, and how they are both combating it through their organizations.

Amadou Gallo Fall

Amadou Gallo Fall is the President of the Basketball Africa League, the premier men's basketball league on the continent. He has been at the helm of the game's transformation and acceleration in Africa for more than two decades notably as the founder of Sports for Education, Economic Development, an organization maximizing the impact of sports for social change and economic empowerment, and VP for NBA Africa. On the podcast he shares the story of his unlikely and almost forced journey in sports, and why he pursued a career using sports as a tool to uplift people from the most disadvantaged communities. Fall sees the Basketball Africa League as the natural culmination of all the works he and others have done throughout the years to elevate the image of basketball in Africa. He shares the vision of the league, its social and economic impact on the continent, as well as its organization and plans  We also explore the history, present impact and future prospects of basketball in Africa and the global game.

Amini Kajunju

Amini Kajunju is the Executive of the International University of Grand Bassam (a private university in La Cote D'Ivoire )Foundation. Amini was the first African President and CEO of the Africa-America Institute (AAI) - the oldest non-profit organization of its kind in the US - where she initiated and directed the programs in higher education and skills training, including the Future Leaders Legacy Fund, William Tubman AAI Nursing Scholarship, East African Development Bank STEM scholarship fund and the State of Education in Africa conference. We began our conversation exploring her experience at the AAI and how crucial it is to give global educational opportunities to Africa's best and brightest at the advanced level. We talk about what a world-class education is, making it Africa-relevant and the resources needed to create one. At the crux of the conversation was how we make quality education accessible for the bright but needy. Amini also shared her views on the role of both governments and private organizations in giving access to and practicalizing skill-based learning. This episode is also about the future of edtech, teacher training and motivation, mentorship, education investment, and why the Africa diaspora should consider coming back home to build the continent. 
If you would like to sponsor the podcast or recommend someone to be interviewed email changeafricapod@gmail.com

Adisa Amanor-Wilks

Adisa Amanor-Wilks is the founder and CEO of Abjel Communications, a social enterprise communications agency focused on Africa, and a former journalist of 18 years’ experience working in the public, private and charity sectors across continents. As the first Ghanaian on the podcast, Kojo and Adisa challenge the ideas of the known Ghanaian hospitality into a rabbit hole of tracing our counter-perspectives to independence/pre-colonial times, even African unity and identity.
Adisa takes us through her path to journalism with a passionate tribute to some of Ghana's giants in the industry, the role of Radio-Univers, a student-based mentorship-focused radio in constantly shaping illustrious journalists, and how rote education needs to embrace such practicality.  We talk about her decision to emigrate to the UK, why she started her communication agency, the struggles of being a single founder, and the inspirational story of the non-profit, DWIB Leukemia Trust, in which she serves as trustee.
Consider supporting our fundraiser via the link attached if you enjoyed this episode. bit.ly/fundCAPod
Visit the DWIB Leukaemia Trust at https://www.dwibuk.org/

Lucy Nshuti Mbabazi

Lucy Nshuti Mbabazi leads Advocacy and Partnership for the UN's Better Than Cash Alliance in Africa and was previously AVP at Ecobank and Country Manager at Visa Rwanda. In this podcast, we explore Lucy's personal journey transitioning from Uganda to Rwanda after the genocide. After having been disconnected from her country and the continent after high school, Lucy tells an emotional story of how she had to painfully reconcile with her past, and rediscover a new love for her country and the continent. And when she finally did, Lucy has committed to driving change in Africa's financial sector in democratizing access to digital platforms and tools that helps Africa's unbanked participate in the digital economy. We also talk about her passion for science education and her work pioneering that through Ms. Geek Africa. Consider supporting our fundraiser via the link attached if you enjoyed this episode. bit.ly/fundCAPod

Viola Llewellyn

Viola Llewellyn is the CEO OF Ovamba Solutions Inc, an award-winning African “TradeTech” company that creates culturally attuned technologies to serve formal and informal African SMEs in the trade & commodities sectors. Ovamba’s solutions combine innovative Sharia compliant structures with eCommerce, logistics services, and technology to drive financial inclusion and promote growth. Our converation with Viola begins with her journey back to Africa, reshaping her narrative about the continent and loving it for what it is, while she still pursued what she wanted it to become. We spoke about how embracing our problems can be the gateway to innovating solutions to them, with Ovamba finding ways to redefine commerce in underserved Islamic communites. Viola talks about the imperative of high achieving women to find support from the men in their lives, and how she found that first in her dad, and then her husband. We discuss our penchant for moderacy as Africans, and why should be unrepentent about our ambition. It's conversation about introspection, women empowerment, education, mentorship and a whole lot more. Consider supporting our fundraiser to build a mini home studio to improve the listening experience of the podcast via the link attached if you enjoyed this episode. bit.ly/fundCAPod

Charles Moyela

Charles Moyela is the Board Chairman of Junior Achievement Africa, one of the leading education-focused non-profits with programs across 16 countries. He is an accomplished, civic-minded award-winning communication specialist with a passion for telling authentic African stories. Our winding conversation on this episode delves into everything from the vibrations of Lagos and its role as the economic epicenter of Africa, press freedom, youth activism, education and employment (honing in on JA's Africa Youth Survey), and his personal life and unlikely journey into journalism.

Elizabeth Bintliff

Elizabeth Bintliff is the CEO and Head of School of the Global Village Project. Elizabeth has more than a decade’s experience in scaling international development organizations in education, poverty and hunger alleviation. She takes us on a personal journey of her life, her love of arts, sensational stories about her father and grandmothers, and many exciting stories she’s never told. Support this podcast by becoming a Patreon at http://bit.ly/Changeafricapodcastpatreon

Carl Manlan

Carl Manlan is the Chief Operating Officer of the Ecobank Foundation. Carl joins us on the Change Africa Podcast to discuss the African informal economy, rethinking the theoretical last mile, and approaches to solving the major challenges of the continent. Carl explores how we can rekindle young people’s belief in the continent by taking us into his personal journey and that of his family. Kojo and Carl also discuss education, healthcare, the Ebola epidemic, and his relationship with his father. 
https://www.patreon.com/changeafricapodcast

Intro - Let’s Tell The African Story

Change Africa Podcast is a weekly long-form conversational style dialogue with inspiring changemakers who are leading Africa's transformation. We seek to inspire, educate and transform young African leaders, specifically millennials, who see themselves standing in the shoes of change leaders we bring to our podcast. New episode every Wednesday.

Intro - Let’s Tell The African Story

Change Africa Podcast

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Intro - Let’s Tell The African Story

Change Africa Podcast

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