The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, has reiterated his belief in the empowerment of youths with the right cultural African values, leadership and entrepreneurship skills acquisition as a veritable tool in driving a sustainable growth and development of nations across Africa continent.
Ogiame Atuwatse III, reaffirmed this in Warri on Wednesday at a dinner held in honour of the 2025 Elevate Africa Fellowship, (a group of young vibrant and innovative minds, drawn from selected African countries) who had been on tour of some states in Nigeria, as part of the exposure to learn about the culture, education and business prospects of partner nations.
The members of the Elevate Africa Fellowship had earlier in the day paid homage to the monarch at his palace (Aghofen) in Warri, where they were treated to the rich-cultural display of the Iwere kingdom and made presentations of gifts to the traditional ruler.
Speaking at the dinner held at his Warri residence, Ogiame Atuwatse III, maintained that no nation can make any meaningful progress without a conscious and deliberate youth empowerment program that would take into cognizance African uniqueness, interns of environment and cultural values.
According to the monarch; “It is imperative to bring the people to Warri Kingdom so that they can identify with our people to show them the aspect of the culture which symbolises African identity”.
On her part, Her Royal Majesty Olori Ogiame Atuwatse III, welcomed Elevate Africa Fellowship members, noting that as ambassadors of their various countries they were invited to the kingdom to show them different aspects of African’s culture in Warri Kingdom.
She said: “As founder of of Elevate Africa, it is right for us to bring them to Warri Kingdom and show them our culture. Our culture is our identity, if you don’t know who you are, you don’t know your identity”.
On his part the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Elevate Africa Fellowship, Daniel Ikuenobe, described Elevate Africa, an initiative of His Royal Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse III, the Olu of Warri, as a social impact organization working in collaboration with the media and other development partners like Royal Iwere Foundation which is run by Her Royal Majesty Olori Ogiame Atuwatse III.
He clarifies that while the Royal Iwere Foundation (RIF) focuses on empowerment, environment and education of Warri community and its environs, Elevate Africa works globally with special focus in promoting Africa continent.
According to him, Elevate Africa deals with leadership, trade and investment and cultural heritage needs of the people in the continent. He said:” We all as a group came together to identify career leaders across the continent and do transformative work”.
On her part, Bola Edward, Chief Executive officer and Co-founder of Proud Africa Root who is a part of Elevate Africa Fellowship said, they create education content and entertainment for children and teenagers who are future leaders.
She said:” We raise leaders who Africans have been hoping for and we have to start from the cradle- the children”.
Other members of the fellowship who also spoke include Mohammad Bihan from Egypt, Amayan from Tunisa and Grace Nelson from Ghana.
They all expressed joy to be part of Elevate Africa Fellowship just as they promised to contribute their knowledge in the training, education and transformation of human race especially Africans for good.
The August visitors in the month of March who specialize in different fields of human endeavours, expressed joy to have visited Nigeria especially Warri Kingdom to be part of Elevate Africa Fellowship to transform the people for good.