Taking Project Management to the Grassroots in Africa

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Taking project management to the grassroots in Africa is one of the major plans in my “Project Management for Africa” Initiative, and some persons have been asking me how I plan to accomplish this or what line of action would be taken.

This grassroots plan focuses more on the educational sectors in Africa. Before one becomes a project management graduate in Africa, there are 3 levels of education that one needs to pass through:

1st: The primary education (elementary schools)
2nd: The secondary education (high schools)
3rd: The higher education (polytechnics, colleges, or universities)

We’re looking forward to creating awareness campaigns that would match each level of education. Our aim is to have or create more “passionate” and professional project managers and less “accidental” project managers’ in the future in Africa.

The Primary Education: We are looking forward to designing children-like flyers or pamphlets, not to ‘directly’ promote project management, but to create a list of some popular professions, of which project management will be included. Each profession that’s listed will explain the roles they play in the society in written and pictorial format. For example, “I want to be a Doctor because Doctors cure the sick,” “I want to a Lawyer because Lawyers…..,” “I want to be a Project Manager because Project Managers….” By the time these children get to the secondary school level, some would be aware that there are professionals called Project Managers who pursue their career in the field of project management. Title to be used: “Children, What Would You Like To Be When You Grow Up?”

The Secondary Education: If you pursued and accomplished your project management professional status in Africa, let me ask you: “Were you aware of the project management profession during your secondary school days?” I never heard about the profession during my secondary school days! We are looking forward to designing informational papers that would target students at the secondary levels. Topic: “Who are Project Managers and What Roles Do They Play in the Society?” or any suitable title.

The Higher Education: If you’re a project management practitioner in Africa, tell me: “At what stage of your life did you became aware of the project management profession?” I first got to hear about the project management profession when I accidentally came in contact with a student who was pursuing a degree program in project management technology at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Nigeria. Then, I was planning on gaining admission into the institution. From then on, I picked interest in the profession, gained admission to study the course and now pursuing a career in the field of project management. I’d a lot of research on project management, met project management practitioners in Nigeria and networked with project managers around the world via social media, and it helped developed my passion for the profession. But, I must also tell you that during my 5 years of pursuing my degree program in FUTO, I met and discussed with a lot of project management students. Some “accidentally” got admission into the department and right till the last moment, were never interested in pursuing a career in the field of project management. Some who were very much interested in pursuing a career in project management were kind of confused about where or how to get started when they graduate. Some, who were also interested, have done their research, knew a lot about the profession and have mapped out a career path in the profession. I noticed that there was a low-level of awareness and lack of flow of information as regarding projects and project management in Nigeria, so I started this blog during my final year in school with the aim of helping to create more awareness and promote the profession in Nigeria. My aim now is to take it beyond Nigeria and focus on Africa at large. Not an easy task but also not an impossible task! So, through my initiative, I’m looking forward to working with project management departments in various higher institutions across Africa. The initiative will not be offering training, but career and counseling advice to project management students in Africa. The initiative also aims to distribute informational materials which will contain featured articles, career advice, stories, interviews, news, research, events and book review on project management. This informational materials will be distributed at a token price to the students. We want our project management students in Africa to be proud and have passion for the profession and also have a clear view of how they can pursue or advance their career in the profession upon graduating.

So these are our grassroots plans for the initiative and we need your support and/or sponsorship to make it a success. Each sponsor will have the privilege of placing an advert on any of our informational materials. We are also looking forward to creating a website for our “Project Management for Africa” Initiative.

Please note that some of our plans would only be made known to our supporters and sponsors via email until the main website is launched. So if you’re interested in supporting or sponsoring any of our plans, please fill in the form below:

[contact-form-7 id="2400" title="PM for Africa"]

Together, we will transform Africa through project management.