New · Launching 2027
Learn. Build. Lead.
Our mission: To break the cycle of poverty by giving young people both the means to stay in school and the life skills schools don’t teach.
Aims, Objectives & Vision · Edition 1 · October 2026 · 12 pages · PDF, 2.5 MB
The Initiative launches in 2027. Figures above are plans and goals, not results yet.
Who we are
The Ikegbunem Ugochukwu Initiative exists for the young person who has the hunger and the ability to learn, but not the means.
We pay school fees, yes. But school fees are only the doorway. Our real work is to change how young people think: to show them that they can build something of their own, that they can lead, and that their future does not have to be decided by money, by shortcuts, or by anyone else.
Our mission
To break the cycle of poverty by giving young people both the means to stay in school and the life skills schools don’t teach.
Our vision
A generation of young Nigerians, men and women, who think for themselves, build for themselves, and lead their communities with integrity.
Our focus
The Initiative will focus most on girls and children, because we want to help women get an education.
Year one · 2027
20
students in our first cohort
We are deliberately starting small. Twenty young people supported well will teach us far more than hundreds supported thinly, and will give us a model we can trust before we grow. We will scale as time goes on.
What we will do
Young people who are equipped to learn, equipped to build, and equipped to lead — and a better way than the quick money of internet fraud.
We pay school fees for young people who genuinely want to learn, so that money is never the reason a willing mind stays out of the classroom. We also provide basic education in health, money management, business and family life: the practical knowledge that shapes a good life but is rarely taught in school.
We teach young people to think outside the box and to build things for themselves using the tools of today: artificial intelligence, coding, game development and other technology. Where a young person already has a skill, such as farming or a trade, we help them build on it and grow it, step by step, into a real enterprise.
We are raising a generation of smart young men and women who will become the next leaders of their local governments and beyond. We teach them to think and decide for themselves, to reject vote-selling, and to choose leaders on merit rather than on party, tribe, family ties or money.
Strictly non-partisan. Our civic education promotes integrity, independent thinking and responsible citizenship. The Initiative does not support, endorse or campaign for any political party or candidate.
Aims & objectives
Pay school fees for committed young people who are hungry to learn, beginning with a first cohort of 20 students in 2027.
Teach the use of AI and other tech tools, coding, and game development, so that young people can create value and build things for themselves.
Provide laptops and other learning tools to the students we identify as genuinely needing them.
Help young people turn existing skills, such as farming and trades, into growing enterprises, with guidance and support along the way.
Show young people a dignified, lasting path to success, and steer them away from internet fraud and other illegal activities.
Provide basic education on health, money management, business and family life.
Train young people to think independently, to vote responsibly and on merit, and to go out and educate others to do the same.
Develop and refine a teaching programme and system in Ezeagu that can be repeated, local government by local government.
Once the model is proven, build a dedicated training centre to deepen and expand our work.
The founder’s story · Ikegbunem Princewill Ugochukwu
“Twice, education slipped out of my hands for one reason only: money. Not ability. Not hunger. Just money.”
I was born to good parents. Amazing parents. But we did not have money. What we had was a father who loved to read, who taught me to read early, and who made sure I had everything I truly needed. And we had a mother whose love held us all together. Much of who I am today began with the two of them.
Getting to school meant walking — about five to six kilometres there and the same back again. By the age of ten or eleven I was also working to help support my parents: carrying blocks on building sites, and making and selling Zobo, soya milk and buns from a trolley to help my mother keep the family going.
I finished secondary school with a very good result. But there was no money for university. So I gave that season to God, serving as a full-time missionary in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, and in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
If my father taught me to read, my mother taught me how to live. She taught me how to be a good man. She taught me how to love. Everything I try to be as a husband and a father, I first learned from watching her.
My mother did not have the chance to go to school when she was young, and she was not as learned as my father. But she never stopped learning. At an older age, she made the decision to go back to school, and she earned a certificate in catering. I watched her grow from someone who could not read into a woman who reads well and speaks very good English. Today she does business with companies, and she is thriving.
“I watched my mother learn to read as an adult. I know that it is never too late, and that learning can change a life at any age.”
My father sold his own property so that I could go back to school, and I won a place at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, to study Aircraft Maintenance Engineering — one of 15 admitted from 2,009 candidates. Once again, I had to leave — not because I lacked the ability, but because I could not afford the fees.
So I went back to the hustle. In 2017 I made my first venture into farming, planting cassava and raising goats. It taught me something I now want every young person to know: you can start with what you already know how to do, and grow it into something real.
Step by step, I began to build — first Ikegbunem Princewill Ugochukwu Ventures, then a first contract as an auditor for FamilySearch International, and today the One100 Group. None of it came from privilege. All of it came from work, from faith, and from the foundation my parents laid.
And I have not given up on my own education. I went back to school at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, to study Economics. I want every young person we reach to believe it is never too late, and never beneath them, to learn.
My story is still being written, and so is the Initiative’s. More about me
Where we begin
We are starting in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, whose headquarters, Aguobu-Owa, is home to the founder’s own community of Agunochi, Ozom. Beginning at home means we know the communities, the schools and the families, and we can see the impact of our work up close.
Stage 1
Outreach
Going into communities and schools to find and listen to the young people we can help.
Stage 2
Workshops
Practical, hands-on sessions in tech, enterprise, life skills and civic education.
Stage 3
Programme & tools
A structured curriculum, plus laptops and tools for students who need them.
Later
Training centre
A permanent home for our work, built once the model is proven.
Where we are going
We will not rush. We prove the model works at home, then expand carefully — two local governments at a time — so that quality never suffers.
Phase 1 · 2027
Build the model in Ezeagu
Launch with 20 students. Run outreach and workshops, develop our curriculum, provide tools, and learn what works best.
Phase 2
Expand across Enugu State
Take the proven model into new local governments, two at a time, adapting it to each community.
Phase 3
Reach the South-East and wider Nigeria
Grow steadily across the region and the country, establishing our training centre along the way.
Phase 4 · Long term
Beyond Nigeria
Carry the model, and the leaders it has raised, to other countries.
For us, success is not measured by how many school fees we pay. Gathering money and paying fees is the easy part. Success is a young person who thinks differently: who builds something of their own with technology or with a skill they already had, who rejects shortcuts, who chooses leaders wisely, and who goes on to lift others in their community.
Mission, vision and aims defined; Initiative brand identity created; first edition of the Aims, Objectives & Vision document published.
Programmes begin in Ezeagu Local Government Area with a first cohort of 20 students.
Learn. Build. Lead.
To learn more about the Initiative, or to support, sponsor or partner with our work, please get in touch.
