Gideon Olanrewaju
Gideon Olanrewaju is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and educational development practitioner who founded Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi), a non-profit organisation that provides quality informal and alternative learning systems in rural communities. The AREAi initiative has facilitated access to education for over 6,000 disadvantaged children in Nigeria.
Gideon Olanrewaju thrives on a mission to see every child, regardless of socio-economic status or geographical location have to access to quality educational opportunities in Nigeria. In line with this, he founded the Aid to Rural Education Initiative (AREAi) in November 2014, to improve learning outcomes for poor and vulnerable children from low-income families and in poor communities.
Also, in response to mass school closures in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gideon led Digilearns, an emergency edtech learning intervention that delivers government-approved learning content in the form of a textbook, revision materials, quizzes and mini-lessons, via SMS and USSD, to basic-feature mobile phones that do not require internet connectivity. This solution attracted substantial funding to enable learning for disadvantaged children in remote communities across Nigeria including winning one of the forty-three COVID-19 emergency grants provided by the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. It was also awarded a One Young World Covid-19 Young Leaders Fund, supported by Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation and United Way. The low-cost technology solution is currently being used by refugees, indigent students and vulnerable children across numerous orphanages and communities across Nigeria.
Gideon’s online and offline advocacy efforts are centred around key themes of educational development such as education finance, safe youths and youth involvement in local and global education policy-making. He has participated and represented Nigeria at prestigious meetings such as the World Education Forum in Incheon, 66th UN/DPI NGO Conference in Gyeongju, the 16th UNESCO Asia Conference on Quality Education in Bangkok, 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi, 7th UNESCO NGO Forum in Riyadh, Under-30 Young Change-makers Summit in New York, and spoke at the 1st World Youth Forum Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and the 8th UNESCO NGO Forum in Paris.
Gideon completed a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Ladoke Akintola University of Nigeria, Ogbomosho, Oyo State (2015). He also holds a master’s degree in International Education and Development from the Center of International Education (CIE), University of Sussex, United Kingdom and a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Non-profit Management from African Leadership Academy, South Africa Lagos Business School respectively.
Gideon is the recipient of the following accolades:
- 2017 United Kingdom Chevening Scholarship Awarf
- 2018 Nominee for the Future Award Africa Award Prize for Education
- 2019 Nominee, SMS 100 25 under 25 Award, Education Category
- 2019 Crans Montana New Leaders of Tomorrow award
- 2019 100 most Influential Young Nigerians Awars by Avance Media
- 2019 Zenith Bank Heroes of our Time Award
- 2020 Royal African Youth Leadership Awards