Over 100 of Africa’s most accomplished young leaders and change-makers met in Abuja prior to the start of World Economic Forum on Africa to share ideas on how they can improve life in their home cities and countries.

Meeting under the theme BOLD Solutions, participants to SHAPE Africa – the annual meeting of Forum’s Global Shapers community – developed a website (www.chibokgirls.com) to tell the story of the kidnapped Nigerian girls to support the efforts of the authorities and the community to bring them home.

Other solutions include the development of: a Global Shaper farm network; an Africa-wide social media initiative to track the multifaceted effects of investing in people; an eco-funding platform, which will rally multinationals to donate funding to entrepreneurs; and the creation of a Global Shapers Business Network, which will act as a common marketplace for African Shapers.

The Global Shapers Community is an international network of young, dynamic and socially engaged leaders between the ages of 20 and 30. The community consists of over 73 Hubs across Africa, with at least one in every country.

In addition to the Global Shapers, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance of Nigeria, Jubril Adewale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive of Oando, and Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum, participated in SHAPE Africa. All three offered support and advice to the Global Shapers on how to bring their mission forward.