April 22, 2026
Shaping Africa's Next Thought Leaders: COME Trains ACEP NextGen Cohort 10
A Five-Year Partnership in Leadership Formation
The COME Team
COME facilitating leadership training with the 10th cohort of the ACEP NextGen Resource Governance Leaders Program.
## Training the 10th Cohort of NextGen Leaders The first cohort for 2026, which also marks the 10th cohort of the ACEP NextGen Program, participated in a focused leadership training session facilitated by the COME team. The session explored key dimensions of transformational leadership, with particular emphasis on the power, place, and process of self-leadership. This cohort was one of the most engaging and reflective groups COME has worked with since the beginning of the partnership. Their questions, participation, and hunger for leadership clarity revealed a generation that is not only preparing for careers, but also preparing for responsibility.
Connecting Leadership to Africa's Bigger Agenda
As part of the training, the COME team intentionally debriefed the cohort on key takeaways from the African Union's Agenda 2063 — Africa's 50-year development blueprint, built around the vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens. For young professionals in the extractive sector, this vision is especially important. Africa's natural resources will not automatically translate into prosperity. They require ethical leadership, disciplined policy thinking, institutional accountability, and a generation of professionals who understand that resource governance is not merely technical work — it is nation-building work.
COME's Mandate in Motion
This training was another reminder that something significant is happening. Through values-based leadership, COME continues to fulfill its mandate of shaping minds, forming leaders, and contributing to the critical human capital needed for Africa's future. The ACEP NextGen Program is designed to develop young pan-African leaders through theory, real-world application, practical skills, research capacity, and innovative thinking for solving complex governance challenges. COME is honoured to contribute by strengthening one of its most important ingredients: leadership formation rooted in values, character, service, and continental responsibility.
Conclusion
Africa's future will not be built by resources alone. It will be built by people — formed, disciplined, ethical, competent, and courageous people. Through engagements like this, COME is helping shape a new generation of African thought leaders who can serve the continent with clarity, conviction, and responsibility.
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