Nigerian Wins Harvard’s Dean’s Prize for Outstanding ALM Capstone

A Nigerian, Nonyelum Adanma Ujam, the Government Affairs Lead for Nigeria and other emerging markets in Africa at Microsoft, has been honoured with the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding ALM Capstone at Harvard’s Extension School.

This award, which recognises the highest level of academic excellence, celebrates Ujam’s exceptional scholarship while completing her Master’s degree in Global Development Practice.

Ujam said her award-winning thesis, titled “Improving Access to Basic Education: A Development Plan,” was inspired by the Alternate School Programme.

Commenting on her achievement, Ujam, in a LinkedIn post said: “The focus of my work was improving access to basic education in Nigeria, primarily targeting underserved and unserved communities. Primary education in Nigeria is compulsory and free, as provided by the Federal Government’s Universal Basic Education Policy (1999). As at 2021, the reported global figure for out of school children and youth between ages 6 and 18 was 244 million, 20 million of which represent Nigeria’s out of school children.

“My capstone explored the use of social intervention programmes as a means of incentivising school attendance, as a whole community approach to learning – from the parents, to community leaders and members. In effect, the entire community is encouraged to support school attendance.

“This work started during my time as Special Adviser to the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, through an initiative called the Alternate School Programme. A critical component of my capstone is the M and E framework that I designed, which adapted the United Nations SDGs targets and went further to localise the indicators, as a means of mainstreaming the SDGs, thus accelerating progress and enabling clearer reporting. Within the scope of the project, 8 of the 17 Goals are impacted, as well as 26 targets and 32 indicators.”

Ujam is married to Hon. Dr Chukwuemeka Ujam mni, Managing Partner of Nina Jojer Limited and former member of the House of Representatives, where he was known for sponsoring the Digital Rights Bill, among other legislative efforts. They have 4 children.