
EFFECTIVE LEADERS PROGRAM: ELP
Nurtures leaders committed to the development and common good of Africa.
ELP has two stages: The Immersion Year and NEAL.
Stage 1: Immersion Year
The immersion year prepares new intakes for a life-time leadership training, support and growth at CSAAE’s Network of Effective African Leaders (NEAL). The immersion year has two phases.
The Enculturation Phase (6 months): Introduces new members to the:
- Vision and mission of CSAAE
- Values of CSAAE including: Solidarity, integrity, creativity, punctuality and accountability.
- Theory and practice of effective leadership as well as key elements of effective leadership including leadership finance, leadership communication, creative and ethical leadership
Discernment Phase (6 months) : Helps new members:
- Explore leadership areas they are passionate about.
- Develop leadership big dream plan.
- Identify social or business enterprises to tackle specific socioeconomic problems in Africa.
- Develop bankable business plan.
Stage 2: NEAL
After the immersion year, new members are inducted into NEAL, a special community of leaders committed to the common good of Africa. Its sole goal is to take over the leadership of Africa for good. To achieve this, NEAL members:
- Run for political offices.
- Serve in government.
- Launch ethical businesses.
- Bear on each other and other leaders on good governance.
- Mentor future leaders.
- Champion social impact projects.
- Shape public policies.
Key NEAL activities:
- Education of Future Leaders: Supports university education of future leaders through scholarships.
- Open to NEAL members and their children.
- Scholarship can be for undergraduate or postgraduate studies.
- Scholarship is both need and merit based.
- Scholarship is awarded annually between February and April.
- Emergency scholarship may be awarded at any time of the year to at risk students.
- Applicants must demonstrate how scholarship would be of relevance to their big leadership dreams.
- To receive NEAL scholarship, one must be a member of NEAL Cooperative Society
- Ethics and Character Formation: Imbues future leaders with the morals for effective leadership
- NEAL members are required to sign and commit to NEAL Code of Ethics.
- NEAL members are required to sign and commit to NEAL non-compete policy.
- Breach of code of ethics is a ground for removal from NEAL and/or denial of benefits.
- State chapters organize ongoing ethics and character formation activities each year.
- Enterprise Development Support: Assists future leaders to establish social and business enterprises that tackle social and economic problems in Africa.
- Open to NEAL members in good standing.
- Provides small interest-free business loans and/or grants to start-ups or scale-ups
- Provides free or subsidized enterprise development support for NEAL members.
- Helps NEAL members access credit facilities to scale up their enterprises
- To benefit from EDS, one must be a member of NEAL Cooperative Society.
- Leadership Building Experience: Connects future leaders with established leaders for mentoring.
- One-on-one mentoring open to NEAL members in good standing.
- Group mentoring open to NEAL members and Immersion Year members.
- State chapters organize group/individual networking and mentoring activities each year.
- Leadership Skills Training: Trains future leaders in effective leadership skills
- Open to NEAL members and Immersion Year members
- State chapters organize Leadership Skills Development Trainings each year
- Provides free or subsidized leadership certifications.
- Leaders Welfare: Provides opportunities for the personal, financial and health security of effective leaders.
- Open to NEAL members only
- All welfare support come through NEAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETY
- Only NEAL members in good standing with NEAL can benefit from LWS
- Welfare support include but not limited to:
- Group Health Insurance
- Group Life Insurance
- Retirement insurance
- Group investment opportunities
- Car insurance
- Education insurance
- Housing scheme
- Zero to low interest loan schemes
- Wedding, bereavement and ill health moral and financial support
Eligibility: To join the immersion year, applicant must:
- Must be between the ages of 18 and 26.
- Must be an undergraduate or a graduate.
- Must show evidence of creative leadership experience at any level.
- Must show evidence of a strong spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Must show evidence of good character.
- Must commit to CSAAE Ethics policy.
Leadership Areas
Our leadership program focuses on leadership areas critical to development including:

Political Leadership

Media Leadership

Judicial Leadership

Business Leadership

Religious Leadership
- Political leaders include elected political officers such as presidents, governors, legislators; government appointees such as ministers and commissioners, ambassadors and DGs of parastatals as well as senior level civil servants such as permanent secretaries.
- Media leaders include investigative mainstream and new media journalists, high profile social media influencers and media moguls.
- Judicial leaders include judges and Legal activists.
- Business leaders include CEOs of national and multinational companies including senior officials at the United Nations, World Bank, and IMF as well as mega entrepreneurs
- Religious leaders include Catholic priests and bishops, pastors of mega Churches, high profile Imams and Rabbis.
- Educational Leaders include university Vice Chancellors, principals of high schools and head masters of primary schools.
ELP Timeline

