01 / Convene
The Governance Weekend
An annual gathering in a different African city — heads of state, scholars and NGN members in one room, on the record.
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A network of the Mo Ibrahim FoundationEST. 2008
Africa's next
generation,
leading now.
The Now Generation Network convenes young African leaders shaping the continent — across business, government, civil society and the arts — to debate the future, learn from each other, and build it together.
Now. Not someday.Young leaders · 25-40By invitation
About the Network
A continent's now, not its tomorrow.
Africa is the youngest continent on earth — and the leaders shaping its next chapter aren't waiting their turn. They are already here.
Founded in 2008 by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Now Generation Network brings together a curated community of Africans aged 25 to 40 who are driving change in their fields: founders, ministers, scientists, artists, investors, civil-society leaders and public intellectuals.
Members convene at the annual Ibrahim Governance Weekend, collaborate year-round on commissioned research, mentor one another, and contribute their voices to the Foundation's work on governance, leadership and the African future.
NGN is not a conference or a club. It is a working network — for the people who are already doing the work.
What we do
Four pillars. One network.
NGN members don't just attend — they convene, debate, mentor and publish. Every pillar is a way of putting the network to work for the continent.
02 / Debate
NGN Debates & Forums
Closed-door working sessions where members take on the hardest questions facing the continent — and publish what they conclude.
See programmes →
03 / Mentor
Peer Mentorship Programme
Year-long mentorship pairings inside the network. Senior members mentor newer ones. Everyone teaches, everyone learns.
How it works →
04 / Publish
Research & Advocacy
Members contribute to the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Forum reports and op-eds that shape continental policy.
Read the work →
230+
Members in the network, across every region of the continent
54
African countries — plus the diaspora — represented
62%
Women members, the strongest gender balance of any African leadership network
18
Years convening Africa's young leaders. Founded 2008.
Voices from the network
The people doing the work.
Three of the 230+ members shaping how the continent thinks about governance, growth and the future.
Portrait — Amara Okeke🇳🇬 Lagos
Amara Okeke
Founder, Lagos Civic Lab · NGN member since 2019
“NGN is the only room where I can argue with a finance minister, a poet and a public-health researcher in the same morning — and leave with something useful for my work.”
Read her story →Portrait — Samuel Mwangi🇰🇪 Nairobi
Samuel Mwangi
Director, East Africa Climate Council · NGN since 2021
“My mentor through NGN was a former central-bank governor. The advice I got from her in our first call would have cost me three years of mistakes otherwise.”
Read his story →Portrait — Thandi Dlamini🇿🇦 Cape Town
Thandi Dlamini
Lead Economist, AfCFTA Secretariat · NGN since 2023
“I joined for the convening. I stayed because the network actually publishes — what we debate at the Weekend ends up in policy briefs governments read.”
Read her story →Membership
How you join the network.
Membership is by nomination and invitation. The process is rigorous on purpose — what holds the network together is the calibre of the people in it.
- 01
Nomination
Current members and Foundation partners nominate candidates aged 25–40 demonstrating exceptional leadership in their field across the African continent or diaspora.
Rolling - 02
Selection panel
The NGN Steering Committee reviews nominations twice a year. Criteria: track record, integrity, and the contribution the candidate can make to — and draw from — the network.
Spring & Autumn - 03
Invitation & induction
Successful candidates are invited to the next Governance Weekend, paired with a mentor and welcomed into working groups aligned to their expertise.
By invitation - 04
Lifelong membership
Once in, always in. Members commit to active participation, peer mentorship, and contributing to the network's published work for at least three years.
3-year minimum
From the network
Recent thinking.
A sample of what the network has been publishing, convening and arguing about over the last quarter.
Ibrahim IndexMay 2026
IIAG 2026: African governance is improving — but unevenly, and the youngest citizens are paying the cost.
NGN members co-authored the framing essay for this year's Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which finds overall progress on Foundations of Economic Opportunity offset by sharp regression on Security and Rule of Law in six countries.
ForumApr 2026
What the NGN said at Ibrahim Governance Weekend, Marrakech
Three days, eleven sessions, one continent. Highlights, transcripts and the working-group commitments that came out of Marrakech.
Member essayMar 2026
“AI is not coming for African jobs. It's coming for African institutions.”
An NGN member from Nairobi argues that the real question for the continent is not labour displacement but state capacity.
Join the networkDon't wait for the next generation.
Don't wait for the next generation.
Be it.
NGN membership is by nomination. If you're aged 25–40, working at the leading edge of African leadership, and a current member or Foundation partner can speak to your work — we'd like to hear from you.