President Barack Obama is expected to meet five hundred young Africans from across the continent under one of his initiatives the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
Among these five hundred Africans are 15 Ghanaians drawn from the 10 regions of Ghana.
They are Paul Abiwu a clinician working with the Ministry of Health, Harriet Yayra Adzofu a psychiatric nurse with the Accra Psychiatric hospital, Regina Fremah Agyare a software developer, Johnannes Thomas Arthur the creative and projects coordinator with RECNOWA- a non- governmental organization, Laud Ampomah Boateng a public health physician, Ethel Cofie an IT and strategy consultant, Ruka Yaro De-Liman an entrepreneur and Frank Akowuge Dugasseh who is the district operations manager for Anglogold Ashanti.
The others are Kwasi Owusu Gyeabour with Barefoot Power, Araba Mbirba Hammond the chief operations officer for village of hope, Oteng Karikari with the Finance Ministry and Williams Kwarah the assistant implementation manager at Grameen Foundation.
The rest are Afua Serwah Akoto Prempeh an environmentalist, Dziedzorm Kwaku Segbefia the general partner of brave hearts expeditions and Moses Nganwani Tia the executive director of the savannah young farmers network (SavaNet).
These fifteen Ghanaians together with their counterparts from across Africa will quiz President Obama on a range of topics in a town hall meeting in Washington DC.
The Q and A is expected to last for about an hour.
Before President Obama meets with the YALI fellows, Secretary of State for the United States John Kerry will give a key note address, where he is expected to speak about the goals of YALI and discuss various aspects of US foreign policy towards Africa.
YALI has been running for four years now, Citi FM’s Shamima Muslim, was Ghana’s first female YALI participant.
This year, there are six Ghanaian women with the remaining number being men.
The 15 participants from Ghana have been in the US since the beginning of this year.
They have gone through some leadership training, academic course work and mentoring.
YALI seeks to create unique opportunities in Africa to put the new skills participants have acquired to practical use with the goal of propelling economic growth and prosperity and strengthening democratic institutions.
By: Vivian Kai Mensah/citifmonline/Ghana