Social Entrepreneur – UpholdAfrica

The Center for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Business Management Development (CEL-BMD) Africa- The Pan African Professional Center is an international center of choice for skills and competency based professional executive training, development and consultancy which cut across all levels of industry from senior executives to high school graduates. Currently, CELBMD offers the following services: professional executive training/development, entrepreneurship and leadership training program, capacity building seminars and conference, graduate assistance program, corporate training and consultancy, small business management free consulting. Its programs are designed to incite problem solving skills, innovative thinking and exchange of ideas. The professional executive training and development programs have been designed to address some of the immediate issues facing many organizations and business executives today. Through its professional executive training and development programs, CELBMD Africa has trained and certified 8500 executives, leaders, job-seekers and entrepreneurs in 26 African countries. The organization has also empowered 16000+ people through its conferences and capacity building seminars.

Javnyuy Joybert- CEO, CELBMD Africa

Javnyuy Joybert is the founder and CEO of CELBMD Africa. He is a young African from The Republic of Cameroon. Javnyuy is a man who wears many hats. He is a preacher of the gospel by divine orchestration, empowerment coach, social entrepreneur, motivational speaker and also doubles as the senior trainer/consultant at CELBMD. According to Javnyuy, the idea to start CELBMD was triggered by his experience after graduating high school in 2009.

After high school my single mum could not afford my university tuition and I was so eager to further my education and become the banker I have always wanted to be. So I could not go to school and at the same time I did not have the employability skills that employers needed from job seekers. I now started asking questions why is there no organization that can train me with the skills I need to make me employable at a very cheap fee that I could carry out odd jobs, pay and earn these skills within a very short period of time, maximum 3 months courses.

According to Javnyuy, he started doing odd jobs in Bamenda City. He washed cars, worked in building construction sites, cleaned and served as commercial motorbike rider, until he was able to earn his Bachelors of Science degree in Financial Management in 2012. “After acquiring my degree I got my first job as a finance clerk in a microfinance institution and at the same time started working on developing an organization that will put the thoughts I had in 2009 into action to affect young people like me across Africa. And CELBMD Africa was born.”

Since its inception, CELBMD has been recording tremendous success across Africa. It has ambassadors from various African countries. Outstanding young Africans who have continued to carry on the vision of CELBMD Africa through the great work they are doing in their respective countries. CELBMD also boasts of registered training centers in 18 African countries (Malawi, Uganda, Botswana, Tanzania, Somalia, Zambia, Djibouti, Nigeria, Ghana, DRC, Rwanda, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Kenya and Cameroon) Through these programs the organization has been transforming Africa by transforming the minds of Africans.

The organization has been nominated for so many awards and have won a couple of awards too. Winner of Princess Kuja Recognition Awards 2016 for Community Development organized by a New York (USA) Base Marie-Claire Kuja Foundation, UK Base Kinnaka’s Blog Gola Project Awards 2016. Javnyuy was also nominated for the 2015 Africa Youth Award – Category: Grassroots Transformation and 2016 Africa Youth Award – Category Male African Youth of the Year.

On his goals and aspirations, Javnyuy says,

The African Continent is at a point in time where they need competencies such as creativity, problem solving, initiative, and transformational leadership capabilities. To promote sustainable development and economic empowerment in Africa, African leaders as a matter of now must implement new educational models unlike the one that has been existing with little or no transformation effect. Therefore CELBMD Africa aim at accelerating Youth Empowerment/Development in areas of creativity, problem solving, entrepreneurship, leadership, effective business management practices across Africa for sustainable growth in Africa. CELBMD Africa projects are designed to point young people in the right direction to enable them play constructive quota in continent/nation building. Currently we are working on our 2025 vision where we envision seeing CELBMD Africa operating in all 54 African countries and training/empowering 100 000 Africans through our Professional Executive Training/Development and Capacity Building Seminars and Conferences.

Talking on what drives him, Javnyuy says, “I have a mandate to contribute my best to make sure that I leave a better Africa to the future generation better than the one I inherited from my single mum. This drives me daily.” Javnyuy understands the benefits of a mentor-mentee relationship. Because of this, he says he is open to being a mentor to anyone. Anyone who is interested can reach him via his Facebook page @Javnyuy Joybert.

To learn about CELBMD Africa and its programs, you can visit their website CELBMD Africa

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While serving as a Youth Corps member in a remote village in Edo state, Nigeria, Ajayi Oluwafunminiyi birthed the idea of Read and Think Initiative. On discovering that most students in the rural community lacked purpose and a sense of direction, Ajayi thought of a way to promote literacy and career awareness among the young students. According to him, “Some saw no reason for schooling, some others perceived it as punishment and this made teaching and learning difficult and ultimately the purpose of schooling was defeated.”

Ajayi, a graduate of Transport Management from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso and a member of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport whose core area of skills are research and data analysis put his research skills to use in figuring out the challenges facing these students and the best way to reach them.

Ajayi Oluwafunminiyi

Ajayi discovered that many people find themselves on the wrong job and live below their true potentials because of the choices they made earlier on without the right information. He conducted a survey to sample the opinions of students concerning their reasons for being in school and the factors influencing their choice of career. With the understanding he now has, he is driven to help others especially students who still have the chance to get it right early. He has been able to reach out to about 1000 students through the initiative’s monthly outreaches to schools. The aim of the initiative is to “promote literacy and career awareness by sensitizing, enlightening, re-orientating and motivating students in order to prepare them for purposeful scholarship and resourceful citizenry.”

The initiative held its first campaign across three villages. Ajayi says, “Apart from the sensitization, there was an essay competition where the winner won a scholarship. An indigent but talented J.S.S 1 student was also awarded a scholarship. This was a huge success and the experience motivated me to do more when I left the village.”

The initiative projects to reach out to at least 100,000 Nigerian students on a yearly basis in both rural and urban centers. The initiative plans to organize a yearly essay and debate competitions on topical issues bothering on career choices and self-awareness among schools where winners will be rewarded. In addition to that the initiative also aims to reach out to the less privileged by sponsoring the education of truly indigent students who exhibit a great deal of talent and potential such that such talents do not just go to waste and intends to do this on a yearly basis.

Ajayi added that he has an understanding of the talent mix and personality traits. Using the analysis of John Holland’s theory of personality types, he realizes he is a social type. He falls into the category of people who like to teach and address people. He enjoys doing this a lot and according to him it is his area of strength. With a positive outlook on the future and a determination to create a positive change in his society, Ajayi says, “Our next plan is to reach out to physically impaired students. We realize they face tremendous challenges in learning, so we intend to contribute the little we can in making resources available to them.”

To volunteer or donate to this initiative, contact @Ajayi Julius Oluwafunminiyi on Facebook.

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