Emmanuel Agunze
Founder, The Makoko Dream Foundation

Emmanuel Agunze is the Founder of The Makoko Dream, an initiative which provides children of the Makoko community with access to education and life skills in order to address the issue of child labor.

His organization has reached out to over 10,000 Makoko indigenes via various intervention programs. So far, over 900 children have been placed in schools via tuition-free Nursery and Primary Schools in Makoko, set up and run by The Makoko Dream Team. He created a “water school bus” – a custom-made canoe that transports children of the Makoko waterside to and from school, free of charge.

Mr. Agunze is a 2017 Nelson Mandela Graca-Machel Innovation Awards Youth Activist Finalist for his role in creating change in his local community. He is also a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and a 2018 Ashoka Africa Changemaker Fellow (CXC GHANA). He is an Alum of Civic Leadership from Indiana University, Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana, USA, and a product of the Kelley School of Business, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; he is also a Lily Family School of Philanthropy 2018 Certified Fund Raiser and Negotiator, in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

In July, 2019, Mr. Agunze became a certified graduate of the Non-Profit Leadership Management Program from the prestigious Lagos Business School, Ajah-Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.

He is a 2020 African Men in Development Award winner and a 2020 Opportunities Hub Most Influential Young People Award recipient.

In 2021, The Makoko Dream, which he founded, won the 2021 Sigma Awards for the project #MapMakoko that was made possible by the Makoko Dream Girls, trained by the Code for Africa Team in partnership with Makoko Dream, Pulitzer Center USA,  Uhuru Labs, Humanitarian Open Street Maps, African Drone and Guardian Nigeria.

He served as an Executive Member of The United States Government Exchange Alumni Association (USGEAA) Lagos, Nigeria, that is comprised of over 20 Alumni Associations of the US Government such as the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship, Full Bright Scholars, International Visitors Leadership Program, IVLP, and The Mandela Washington Fellowship, amongst others. Here, he served as the Secretary of Finance, where he advised the Association on Funding Strategies.

emmanuelagunze@gmail.com

Facebook: Emmanuel Agunze
Twitter:@Agunzeemmanuel
Instagram: @Emmanuelagunze.