Paradigm Initiative introduces Ajegunle Legacy Scholarship

Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a non-profit social enterprise, has inaugurated a scholarship programme for brilliant students from less privileged backgrounds and residing in Ajegunle, a suburb of Lagos State.

At the inauguration in Ajegunle, the Executive Director of PIN, Mr ‘Gbenga Sesan, said that the scholarship was a way of giving back to the Ajegunle Community..

Sesan said that the scholarship was also a way of recognising individuals who played vital roles in PIN’s early beginning in Ajegunle.

He said that the organisation established the Ajegunle Legacy Scholarship, named after the area, to support resident students/youths in acquiring university education.

According to him, the scholarship is to help youths to secure university education in technology courses such as Information Technology (IT), software development and computer engineering.

“The project has two arms: the prize and the scholarship arm.

“The prize arm will support two young persons, a male and a female, from low-income families resident in Ajegunle to acquire university education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or Law, annually.

‘’This prize is named after the late Taiwo Ogunyemi, one of the foremost volunteers at PIN’s Life Programme now known as LIFE Legacy Programme.

“The award is aimed at immortalising the late Ogunyemi’s name for the role he played in improving the lives of young people across Nigeria, especially in Ajegunle.

“The scholarship arm, on the other hand, will also support two young persons (one male and one female) from low-income families residing in Ajegunle to get advanced software development training annually,’’ Sesan said.

According to him, PIN named the prize arm of the project after the late Mr Taiwo Bankole Ogunyemi, one of its foremost volunteers in Ajegunle.

Sesan said that the prize was in recognition of the sacrifices Ogunyemi made toward ensuring that young people living in under-served communities such as Ajegunle would have access to skills and opportunities that would enable them to improve their lives.

The executive director said that PIN had, for more than 15 years, been connecting young under-served Africans with digital opportunities and ensuring protection of their rights online.

He said that PIN started operations in Ajegunle in 2007 in a small cybercafé, known as Stadnet, before expanding its footprints across Africa.

Sesan added that the organisation, advocating digital rights and inclusion on the continent, had offices in Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to him, the other offices are in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya from where it coordinates its operations across Central, East, Southern and West Africa and beyond.

Sesan said that through the organisation’s flagship LIFE Programme, PIN had impacted the lives of more than 6,700 under-served African youths with improved livelihoods through digital opportunities and protection of their online rights.

The Chief Operating Officer of PIN, Nnenna Paul-Ugochukwu, said that the prize would cover four years of university education to study any course in STEM and law in any public university in Nigeria.

Supreme reports that the LIFE Legacy Programme is a capacity-building initiative designed to improve the lives of under-served youths in host communities.

LIFE is an acronym that stands for Life Skills, ICTs, Financial Readiness and Entrepreneurship.

The programme targets youths, who do not have the financial capacity to acquire relevant ICT, entrepreneurial and other skills that can help them to compete effectively in workplaces.