Canadian International Peace Project - CIPP/YouthBank Nigerian Youth Project

The Canadian International Peace Project has partnered with YouthBank - a US based NGO on innovative pilot project aimed at street youth in Nigeria. Clara Chow, a member of the Circle of Young Canadian Leaders of the Canadian International Peace Project and a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company in Washington, DC. is a Founder of YouthBank. The anticipated success of this innovative pilot project will invariably provide a very valuable model for social entrepreneurs seeking to do similar work in other parts of the world.

YouthBank is a small business incubator for street youth in Lagos, Nigeria. Young people who would otherwise find themselves confined to odd-jobs in the informal economy will have the opportunity to earn a living wage through formal employment in community businesses, where they will develop business skills through on-the-job training and life skills through close mentoring. High performers will be eligible to pitch their own business ideas and receive funding for businesses that will one day provide them and their employees with sustainable income; they will be compensated with a wage-to-equity model that allows them to slowly take ownership while investing in themselves and their team. By providing these young entrepreneurs with business training, mentorship, and wages as they build their businesses, YouthBank will help them channel their energies into socially productive activities and contribute to the growth of small businesses in Lagos.

The YouthBank team comprises talented young social entrepreneurs in Lagos, Nigeria and American members from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia. Over the past two years, YouthBank has built a solid team on the ground in Lagos and come up with a business model that is unique and very suited to helping young people learn business skills and become entrepreneurs. YouthBank businesses will all take place in the context of the YouthBank community centre, a hub of services, education and community in the midst of the sprawl and urban anomie of Nigeria's megacity.