The Place Fellowship
A 12-week residential fellowship for exceptional young leaders who have chosen a specific place, and are willing to give a decade of their lives to seeing it transformed.
12 weeks · Residential · 24 fellows
Why this exists.
Across Africa, the best-trained leave. Secondary cities lose their most capable people to primary cities, then to diaspora. The systems meant to develop these communities have spent decades training their best people to leave.
The next generation of leaders must learn to see a place clearly, remain through its difficult seasons, and build institutions that compound.
The programme.
Set within Ogbomoso, Nigeria, a functioning model of place-based transformation built through sustained leadership, enterprise, and civic infrastructure.
01 / Movement
See the systems already at work.
02 / Movement
Stand inside them, not beside them.
03 / Movement
Carry weight that is not yet yours.
The fellowship experience.
Not four subjects to complete, but four movements that deepen one another over twelve weeks.
01 / Dimension
A rigorous intellectual and reflective process grounded in place-based thinking, leadership responsibility, and systems understanding.
02 / Dimension
Fellows are embedded within Ogbomoso's ecosystem, interacting with founders, operators, and civic actors in real conditions.
03 / Dimension
Fellows work on real problems connected to place: ecosystem mapping, venture support, and the design of local interventions.
04 / Dimension
The Fellowship is cohort-based, creating peer learning, accountability, and long-term relationships that extend beyond the program.
What fellows receive.
01 / Provision
Housing, feeding, and movement covered for the full twelve weeks.
02 / Provision
Capital for city-based projects in the Fellow's named place.
03 / Provision
Ongoing guidance, accountability, and partnership for the decade that follows.
Selection
24 leaders. Fewer than 10% accepted.
Applicants are assessed on spiritual depth, leadership track record, a demonstrable vision for a named place, character, agency, and a genuine minimum ten-year commitment. Community references verify not what a candidate says, but what they have built and who they are.
The scale of what is at stake.
700M → 1.4B
Africa's urban population by 2050
80%
of that growth will happen beyond primary cities
24
fellows in one deeply formed cohort
10+ years
of place-based work behind the programme
What we look for.
Every application is read independently by two reviewers before any discussion.
Not a region, cause, or sector. A city, a community, a people you already know from the inside.
Covenantal, not contractual. We look for people who have already demonstrated that they follow through on hard things.
You have started something, sustained it past the difficult middle, and built trust that did not come from a title.
A living, tested faith. A rule of life. The seed, at minimum, of a theology of place.
Integrity, resilience, humility, generosity, and faithfulness in small things when no one is watching.
People ahead of you, peers beside you, and people coming after you whom you are already investing in.
People who can speak to what you have actually built and who you actually are under pressure.
Applications.
The call for applications is currently closed. Keep holding the line for the places you carry in your heart.