Taking bold steps towards success

Youth across Africa have for many years been encouraged to take bold decisions when it comes to taking positions in various leadership roles within their countries.

Despite having a lot of challenges especially when it comes to employment and education, some young women and men have taken a step to advocate for youth empowerment.

One among the women is Lillian Madeje, who two years ago made history at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, where she was among 80 young Africans, representing 40 countries and 60 Global Shapers Community Hubs, which became the largest youth delegation to the meeting.

As a young Tanzanian woman who has more than 7 years of experience across different industries in Tanzania, from human resource to innovation, she has been working as a volunteer on the YALI East Africa online Mentorship program and oversaw a 6 month programme of coaching 5 Local Capacity Based organizations under Leadership Enhancement Action Programme (LEAP) .

In addition, she has served as Coordinator for Women Creating Wealth, a programme under the Grace Machel Trust Network that incubates women businesses for a period of one year. She has also been a member of the GoGlobal236 platform that is a Global Network of Women Mentors to StartUps.

Apart from having a privilege of working on various projects that link technology with development, she is also a co-founder and Managing Director of Ekihya, a consulting company that works hand in hand with businesses in building processes and systems to result in greater efficiency in their operation.

Like many of us, Lillian had a dream of her own when growing up and that is to be an environmental scientist; however that didn’t happen though she was fortunate to attend college in Park University located in a typical college town Parkville, Missouri in the US.

“In all honesty I had applied to many colleges and universities in Tanzania, such as Sokoine University of Agriculture(SUA), made applications in Canada and finally the US, with rejection letters pouring in from left, right and centre as I wanted to pursue a program in Environmental Science,” she says, adding, “I had finished my Physics, Chemistry and Biology (PCB) combination at Shaaban Robert Secondary School and my results weren’t all that great, I share this not to shame myself but rather to show to others reading this that one’s journey is not determined by your high flying results at one point in time but rather a combination of many factors over a course of time.”

So from a dream of being an environmental scientist, she graduated with an International Business and Marketing degree and a minor in Economics in May of 2010. Having a growing passion about the power that entrepreneurs have in transforming the economies of nations, with an expertise in qualitative research she acquired from her degree course she decided to establish a strategy and management consulting company. That has offered her an opportunity of working with foreign investors who have been looking at entering the Tanzanian market and she provided them with research and on the ground presence.

Explaining more about her current job and what attracted her to it, Lilian who describes herself as a spontaneous, happy and an optimistic person says, “If anyone had ever told me that I would have my own company one day, I would have said they were mistaken. I saw entrepreneurship as a high risk job and I wanted something with security and stability.”

Speaking about what got her to where she is; Lilian says; “I cannot put my finger on that one thing that got me to where I am today but rather a couple of factors such as working under Modesta Lilian Mahiga, a renown inspirational speaker and for her starting to implant the seeds of leadership and confidence in my ability to be and do more than what I was delivering, to actually helping my best friend form a dream company called Ekihya, to me being here managing Ekihya.”

Explaining if her upbringing had any effect on who she is today she says she believes that one’s upbringing defines who they are but doesn’t determine what they become, that is a personal choice.

With three years of experience as the Managing Director of Ekihya, Lillian says one thing that is constant through all her pursuits of wanting to be something from back then was that she wanted to be in a position, do something that serves a purpose that is greater than her.

Lillian is currently pursuing her MBA in Leadership from the African Leadership School of Business, a first of its kind MBA delivered by an African University based in Kigali.