ABUJA – Mr. Jude Feranmi, a frontline aspirant for Ijesha South House of Reps aspirant under the platform of PDP, has been named as a fellow of the prestigious Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Institute to represent Nigeria with two others – Eric Idiahi and Kola Oyeneyin.
The African Leadership Institute focuses on building the capacity of visionary and strategic leaders across the continent. The programme is aimed at developing exceptional leaders from all spheres of society. The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship, in partnership with Oxford University, offers a multifaceted learning experience to the 20-25 fellows lucky to be selected every year.
Jude Feranmi was one of the 20 fellows chosen for this year’s cohort and one of three from Nigeria. The successful cohort was chosen from a pool of over 330 nominations received by AFLI. Every year, the AFLI calls for nominations for outstanding and strategic leaders from different areas of the society on the African continent to apply to the highly sought-after fellowship.
The other Nigerians also selected are Kola Oyeneyin and Eric Idahi. Kola Oyeneyin is a Partner at Volition Capital and Founder of Venia Group – a venture creation and development company. He is also an alumnus of ’20 Harvard Kennedy School and a Fellow of Harvard Center for Public Leadership.
Eric Idiahi is a co-founder and partner of Verod Capital Management Limited. Verod Capital is a private equity firm with over $350m under Management focused on investing in companies across various sectors, including Consumer Products, Services, Manufacturing, Agribusiness, Financial Services and Energy. Prior to founding Verod Capital, Eric was the co-founder and managing partner of Fountainhead Media Group, an investment and advisory firm focused on the technology, media and telecoms sector in Nigeria. Eric previously worked at Financial Derivatives Company Limited. He is a Director of Tangerine Life Insurance, Tangerine Pensions, Central Securities Clearing Systems Plc, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Greensprings School Limited and Transnational Academic Group, Ghana. He is also on the Board of Regents of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University and Lancaster University, Ghana. He received a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Houston, Texas and an MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Oxford, England.
Before his selection into the Fellowship, Jude Feranmi, a frontline aspirant for the Ijesha South Federal Constituency seat, where he is seeking to replace Hon. Babatunde Lawrence Ayeni of the APC in the House of Representatives has been on the campaign train canvassing for support to clinch the party’s ticket. The announcement of his selection for the prestigious Fellowship by Dr. Jackie Chimhanzi, the Executive Director of AFLI, came amid his campaign.
Jude Feranmi is the founder and CEO of Republicraft Consultancy and the convener of the Raising New Voices Initiative. As a consultant, Jude Fearnmi has consulted for several government agencies, civil society organisations, and companies with a focus on the tech ecosystem, governance, and public policies. Jude Feranmi is also the legislative engagement lead for the Nigerian Startup Bill (NSB) from the office of the Chief of Staff to the president of Nigeria.
Jude, who is most notable for his passion for Nigeria and good governance and tech-driven policy advocacies, founded the Raising New Voices initiative in 2018 with the hope of improving the level of governance in Nigeria. In 2019, his organisation crowdfunded the campaign of 25 House of Reps candidates of which Hon. Simon Karu, representing Kaltungo/Shongom Federal Constituency in Gombe State was one of them.
In a continuous pursuit of the organisation’s principal mandate of raising a new breed of leaders, RNV began a leadership Fellowship Programme, the New Voices Citizens Fellowship (NVCF) to train young leaders in the areas of good leadership and advocacy for positive change. The three-year-old programme has so far trained 30 young leaders from the 30 local governments in Osun State.
Nigerians who have previously been fellows of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Institute include; Adebola Williams, Omoni Oboli, Seun Onigbinde, Chude Jideonwo, Serah Makka, Aminu Umar Sadiq, and Temi Marcella Awogboro. Others include Bosun Tijani, Jude “M.I” Abaga, Sadiq Usman, Samson Itodo, Debisi Araba, Uzoma Nwagba, Nneka Eze, and Akintunde Oyebode.