Daniels Akpan is a globally recognised multi-award winning youth activist and education advocate with over 6 years post graduate experience.
Raised by an illiterate and poor parent in the slum of Zaria, Nigeria, Daniels understands what it means to be economically disadvantaged. He recounts his experiences walking over 10 kilometers to and fro school daily and how his mother supported his university education selling roasted maize in the streets of Zaria, Nigeria.
Though a glass scientist by training, his childhood experience had inspired his drive for community development and has led him to become a youth activist and education advocate.
Through determination and self development, Daniels has changed his own narrative and is helping other young people in Africa to do same. In 2014, he founded CLEDA Africa, a high Social Impact not-for-profit organization, to inspire and provide economically disadvantaged children, youths and women with skill building opportunities. Serving as Executive Director, he led CLEDA Africa to reach over 120,000 students, 15,000 teachers and 8,500 youths.
Akpan currently serves as the Director General of African Youth Academy (with campuses in 5 African Countries), an initiative of Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Fellows, to change the narrative of African leadership, by identifying, developing and deploying the next generation of African Leaders for African Development.
Daniels hold a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Degree In Industrial Design with major in Glass Science from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; a Certificate in Civic Leadership from Ghana Institute of Management and Administration, Ghana; a Certificate in Grant Writing from Appalachian State University, U.S.A; and about completing a Post graduate Diploma in Education at Nigerian Teachers Institute, Nigeria. He is also a Fellow of Young African Leaders Initiative,(YALI) Regional Leadership Centre, Ghana, an Initiative of the United State Government to develop African Youths; and a Fellow of the Prestigious Young Political Leadership School in Liberia. In 2016 He was named the Youth and Education Ambassador, by International Human Rights Commission, Pakistan. In 2017, Best Brain Foundation, a local NGO in Nigeria named him the Education Ambassador of the year. In 2017, he got accepted into the YALI Program after being rejected four (4) times. Today, he serves as the chapter president of YALI Network Face2face in Kaduna State.
Akpan is widely travelled and a highly sort after conference speaker who's mission is to make tangible impact in Africa or die trying
