Age

17

Country of Residence

Nigeria

Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?

I have never been a particularly punctual student, though for good reason. A few weeks into last semester, when I sent my quick apology in advance of being late to my math class, I imagine my professor opened the message with little surprise. My excuse, however, was more compelling than usual. I had spent that morning in jail. In fact, I had spent more than one Friday morning that semester in jail. I had accompanied someone I knew to help settle a dispute. While sitting through the slow bureaucratic rhythm of the process, made even more difficult by repeated demands for bribes, I couldn’t help but notice the faces. Week after week, I saw the same pattern of young Nigerian men, not much older than me, waiting on cases tied to cybercrime. “Yahoo boys,” “419,” people called them, dismissively, as if those labels explained everything. To me, they didn’t. Beyond accusations of laziness or greed, I saw real talent with nowhere legitimate to go. These were boys who understood computers, who could navigate systems most adults couldn’t, but had never been shown that those same skills could build instead of steal. Nobody had ever handed them a laptop and shown them the good that could come of it. That experience taught me that direction is also a form of digital divide, and that was the moment Boys in ICT was born.

How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.

We encourage others to join Boys in ICT by letting them see the change for themselves. Young people who go through our sessions become our best advocates, because they can tell friends and neighbors what technology did for them. When Musa from Angwan Yellow shares that he now works as a graphic designer, he shows youth in his community what is possible. I also bring volunteers and partners into the communities so they see the problem firsthand: young people with little access to technology and no positive direction on how to use it. So far, we have engaged about 30 young people and a team of 4 volunteers through our first workshop. Our upcoming outreach with Updraft Engineering, a U.S.-based nonprofit, is the next step in bringing more people in. Going forward, I will invite past participants back as volunteers and assistant instructors, so the youth we teach become the ones teaching. I will train them to start Boys in ICT chapters as school clubs or community initiatives, and I will share participants’ stories with schools, community leaders and local businesses so more people understand the problem and see the results. Everyone who joins becomes part of young people helping other young people.

How many people are on your team?

5

Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?

So far, Boys in ICT has reached about 30 young people through our first workshop, supported by a small team of 4 volunteers. While those numbers may seem small, the impact is clear. We watched young people’s view of technology change in real time. Instead of seeing a computer only as a tool for fraud, they were exposed to a world where computers are something they can use to learn, create, work and build opportunities for themselves. We introduced them to basic computer skills and gave them resources to continue learning beyond our sessions. Musa from Angwan Yellow remains our star story. Within two months of our outreach in his community, he got a job as a graphic designer and was using the money he earned to support his family. We can’t take credit for teaching him everything he needed to become a graphic designer, but seeing him turn what he had been exposed to into an opportunity showed me the kind of impact I want Boys in ICT to create. We are now preparing for a workshop in partnership with Updraft Engineering, a U.S.-based nonprofit. As we grow, we will reach more communities and give more young Nigerians their first positive experience with technology. A call from +234 will no longer be a Nigerian prince or a yahoo boy, but a startup founder, an engineer, a boy who has learned to build systems, not break them.

Project Category

My project is an existing project that I started

Project Stage

Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)

Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence

What if the next call from +234 wasn't a Nigerian prince, or a yahoo boy, but a startup founder, an engineer...a boy who has learned to build systems, and not break them?

Project title

Countering The Yahoo Narrative...

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?

Nigeria has one of the youngest, most tech-curious populations in the world, yet most young people here grow up without ever touching a computer in a classroom. In many public schools, “computer studies” is taught entirely on a chalkboard, with diagrams of keyboards instead of actual keyboards. Talent is everywhere, but access? Not so much. When boys with real aptitude for technology have no legitimate outlet to build or create, some get pulled toward cybercrime, chasing quick money through scams rather than skills through structured learning. This is partly why a nation of such promise has become shorthand, globally, for scams rather than the innovators it could just as easily produce. This matters to me because I’ve watched it happen up close, to peers, to boys in my own community, to kids who are brilliant with a phone screen but have never seen a line of code. A lack of direction, mentorship, and hands-on exposure at the age when curiosity is still open to being shaped is a recipe for disaster. Boys in ICT exists to close that gap early. I believe every boy deserves a fighting chance to prove that talent, aimed the right way, builds futures.

Website URL(s) or social media handles.

What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.

Over the next year, I want to take Boys in ICT beyond our first workshop and reach more young people. Our immediate next step is an outreach we are planning with Updraft Engineering, a nonprofit based in the United States. Learning from an experienced organization will help us improve our sessions before we carry them into more communities. I will keep going into underserved communities where young people may not normally have access to these opportunities, returning regularly so learning builds over time. I also want to strengthen what happens after the workshops by staying connected with participants, seeing what they go on to learn, and understanding how they use the skills and resources we give them, because the biggest impact often happens after we leave. To keep the project personal as it grows, I will bring on more volunteers and partners. Longer term, I want to train other young people to start their own Boys in ICT chapters, as school clubs or community initiatives, so the solution outlasts me. Partnerships that expand our resources and funding would help us do this. We need laptops and internet data for classes, take-home learning materials, transport to reach remote communities, and training and starter kits for new chapter leaders. My goal is to use young people to reach young people, and help them see where technology can take them.

Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?

What makes Boys in ICT different is that we start by changing beliefs. Many technology programs focus mainly on teaching skills such as coding or computer science. We take a different starting point. We go to underserved communities where young people have limited access to technology or positive examples of how it can be used. Instead of waiting for them to find us, we bring the opportunity to them. Our workshops introduce basic computer skills and expose participants to the positive possibilities of technology. We then provide resources so they can keep learning afterward, whether that leads toward coding, graphic design or other digital skills. A workshop is not the end of their learning but a window to greater opportunities. We also serve as a community, a safe space they can return to whenever they need it. What truly sets us apart is that we work to change the direction of a young person’s life. In many of the communities we serve, the technology young people see around them is tied to fraud, and that becomes the path they imagine for themselves. We want them to see technology as a way to create, work, solve problems and support themselves and their families. A single skill, learned at the right moment and pointed in the right direction, can change where a boy ends up in five or ten years. Our approach also works because the team and I are young ourselves. We understand the boys’ world, and they understand ours. They don’t see authority figures lecturing them; they see people like them already walking the path they could take. That closeness builds trust and helps them believe change is possible for them too.

Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.

Boys in ICT identifies underserved communities where young people have limited access to technology and no positive direction on how to use it. We don’t run a single event and leave. We return to each community on a recurring schedule, so learning builds over time. We organize regular classes and workshops where participants move through sessions in stages. The first sessions introduce computers and what they can be used for. Later sessions build on that with practical skills like graphic design, basic coding and other digital skills. Every class includes hands-on time, and participants finish with something they made themselves, so their first impression of technology is that it is a tool for creating. To encourage learning between sessions, participants receive free resources and a small project to work on outside the classroom, so their progress continues between classes. We provide ongoing support by staying in contact with participants, checking their progress and answering questions, so curiosity turns into real skill. As participants develop skills, we connect them to local businesses that need work like design, data entry and basic web support, so their skills become income. Musa from Angwan Yellow joined our outreach in his community and kept learning on his own with the resources we shared. Two months later, he got a job as a graphic designer and was supporting his family. He didn’t learn everything in our classes, but we gave him a strong foundation and a reason to keep going. Our goal is to change what young people believe technology can do for them. With Boys in ICT, technology moves from a tool for defrauding others to a way to create, learn, work and solve problems.

Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?

I lead Boys in ICT with a team of four, and each person owns one area. Toluwase Olayemi organizes and runs our workshops. Kamillah Awonusi handles logistics, including venues, equipment and transport. Elijah Momoh leads recruitment, inviting youth, volunteers and partners. Annabelle Lott leads planning and follow-up with participants. I oversee strategy and partnerships. We meet regularly to review progress and decide together.