About Us

About Talent Mine Academy

At Talent Mine Academy, we are committed to transforming the lives of children in low-income communities by giving them access to 12 years of fully-funded, high quality education. Our mission is to raise these children as young leaders who can solve the problems in their community.

Who We Are

Founded in 2019, Talent Mine Academy believes that every child deserves access to quality education and better opportunities, irrespective of their socio-economic background. We envision a world where every child can access an excellent education that helps them to thrive in the real world and create change, starting in their communities.

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Why We Believe In The Power of Equal Access To Education

We firmly believe in the transformative power of equal access to education. We recognize that providing children in low-income communities with quality education is not just a matter of academic enrichment but a catalyst for social change. By ensuring equal access, we empower these young minds to become agents of positive transformation in their communities and beyond.

Aramide Kayode

Executive Director

Message from the Executive Director

“Last year, we were able to enrol 17 out-of-school children into school, giving them access to 12 years of fully-funded high-quality education ”

As we reflect on the past year, I am proud of our achievements and grateful for your unwavering support. Talent Mine Academy has continued to make a profound impact on the lives of the children and the community we serve, and I would like to share with you some of our key highlights from this year. 

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Our Board Of Directors

Abimbola Dosunmu

Abimbola Dosunmu

Learning and schooling are fundamental to human development. This thought process has shaped and styled ... Read more

Adenike Sherriff

Adenike Sherriff

Adenike is an investment professional focused on investing in early-stage startups solving difficult problems. With her wealth of experience, she has contributed greatly to the success of our fundraisers

Chioma Okotcha

Chioma Okotcha

Chioma is the co-founder/COO of Payhippo. Payhippo finances under-served businesses .... Read more

Derby Chukwudi

Derby Chukwudi

Derby Ozioma Chukwudi is the current Miss New Jersey USA and a 1st generation Nigerian-American ... Read more

Dr. Roti Balogun

Dr. Roti Balogun

Roti is currently the Managing Director, Head of Talent for JP Morgan Chase, Community and Consumer ... Read more

Oluwaseun Kayode

Oluwaseun Kayode

Oluwaseun is a key voice in conversations surrounding the Improvement of Teacher Quality in Africa.... Read more

Talent Mine Team

Aramide Kayode

Aramide Kayode

Executive Director
Oluwatosin Jimoh

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Programs Assistant
Eniola Adejumo

Eniola Adejumo

Publicity Director and Social Media Manager
Godstime Okoeguale

Godstime Okoeguale

TFN Fellow
Esther Onyekwu

Esther Onyekwu

TFN Fellow
TMA Staff

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Program Assistant

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Program Assistant

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Program Assistant

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Program Assistant

Oluwatosin Jimoh

Program Assistant

Our Numbers that Speak for Us

We have numbers that push us to give in our best and make sure that we break our own records. We are happy to be growing and helping more day by day.

50+

Partners

200+

Children Empowered

100+

Families Reached

₦10M+

Raised

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Message from the Executive Director

As we reflect on the past year, I am proud of our achievements and grateful for your unwavering support. Talent Mine Academy has continued to make a profound impact on the lives of the children and the community we serve, and I would like to share with you some of our key highlights from this year.

Last year, we were able to enrol 17 out-of-school children into school, giving them access to 12 years of fully-funded high-quality education.

We also expanded our educational program to offer life skills and leadership development sessions to our children in low-income communities. In partnership with Schneider Electric and Wadi Ben-Hirki Foundation, we were able to deliver our life skills program to 235 children living in the community.

After our life skills program, our students teamed up to carry out 5 change-making projects in their communities. These projects ranged from environmental sustainability to academic mentorship programs, to community clean-ups and so on. Through their projects, they were able to impact over 5000 residents of their community.

The best project award was given to Abdullahi, an eleven-year-old beneficiary of our 12-year scholarship program.

In 2020 when we met Abdullahi, he was out of school and could not speak or read. Due to this, the children in the community mocked him and made fun of him. Daily, Abdullahi would look outside his gate in the morning and see other children going to school, but his parents could not afford to send him to school.

We enrolled Abdullahi in school, and within six months, we recorded a 70% increase in his spelling and literacy rate. He also became so confident and outspoken.

However, Abdullahi was bothered about the other out-of-school children that lived in his community. This led him to team up with his friend, Aliyat, and together, they started an academic mentorship program to teach 50 out-of-school children in their community foundational literacy and numeracy.

Having access to quality education not only helped Abdullahi to become a high academic achiever, but it also gave him the community to mentor other children and become a student leader in his community.

This is why, more than ever, we are driven to reach more children living in under-resourced communities with the transformative experience that quality education gives to children like Abdullahi.

This year, we also opened our school, which serves as a safe and supportive environment where we can raise student leaders who can make better life decisions and contribute to the growth of their community.

I am truly grateful to our donors, team members, volunteers, community members and leaders, and supporters for your continued support. Thank you for being a part of our journey.

Because of you, children living in low-income communities can thrive.

Best,
Aramide Kayode
Executive Director
Talent Mine Academy

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Get the latest details on our impact stories as we change the lives of children in underresourced communities through quality education

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Oluwaseun Kayode

Director , Talent Mine Academy

Oluwaseun is a key voice in conversations surrounding the Improvement of Teacher Quality in Africa. He currently leads at Schoolinka as the CEO, an edtech company utilizing technology to create a community of highly skilled educators for African schools.

Through an online learning platform and live masterclasses led by experts, his team offers dynamic professional development opportunities for over 3,500 teachers and school leaders. Schoolinka also facilitates teacher placement within their partner schools.  Drawing from two years of hands-on teaching experience in an underserved Nigerian school as part of the Teach For Nigeria Fellowship program, Oluwaseun witnessed the dire need for enhanced teaching quality.

With ten years at the nexus of education and youth development, he has been actively engaged in various local and international educational initiatives. His leadership as Senior Program Manager at Peace First involved guiding a global team of 120 youth across six regions reaching over 30,000 young people globally.

Oluwaseun shared his insights at the Teach For All Global Conference and was accepted into the Peace First Accelerator Program. He boasts a string of accomplishments, including being a 2017 Teach For Nigeria fellow, 2019 Orange Corners Grantee, 2020 Peace First fellow, 2021 UNLEASH Global Talent, 2021 ALA Education Entrepreneur, 2022 Westerwelle Fellow, and 2023 Mastercard Foundation Edtech Fellow.

Amidst his commitments to education, Oluwaseun treasures moments spent with his family.

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Dr. Roti Balogun

Director , Talent Mine Academy

Roti is currently the Managing Director, Head of Talent for JP Morgan Chase, Community and Consumer Banking. He is a key business partner to the CCB Management Leadership Team of the bank in managing executive talent development, c-level succession, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, culture, diversity & inclusion practices for 130,000+ employees globally.

Prior to joining JPMC, Roti held multiple roles of increasing responsibility at General Electric (GE) as the Global Talent and Diversity Leader for the GE Power business, the Head of Human Resource for GE International Markets, Africa, and the Region Head of Talent & Learning.

 He spent most of his career at Ericsson Africa, with his last role as the Chief Learning Officer for Ericsson, where he spent over a decade in diverse roles spanning Technology Services, Talent Management and HR Business Strategy.

Roti is a lifelong learner with a bachelors and postgraduate degrees in software engineering, an MBA from Imperial College London, and an Executive doctorate (EdD) in Education from UPenn. He is also a member of the Association of Talent Development, International Coaching Federation, an Accredited performance consulting practitioner, and a certified Emotional intelligence coach.

He has been recognized as a global HR thought leader in the areas of talent management, learning and economic inclusion through education and diversity. Roti is a board member at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) Graduate School of Education and serves on several other global professional boards, technology start-up boards and non-profit organizations.

When education meets passion, changemakers connect opportunity and creativity, which propels transformation, and the extraordinary founder and her TMA story consistently emerge. 

I am full of gratitude to be a small part of the purposeful mission and its advisory team and to learn from her everyday

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Derby Chukwudi

Director , Talent Mine Academy

Derby Ozioma Chukwudi is the current Miss New Jersey USA and a 1st generation Nigerian-American born in Dallas, TX, raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and now resides in Hoboken, New Jersey. On September 29, she placed Top 20 at the 72nd Miss USA competition in Reno, Nevada. 

She is on a mission to inspire the next generation of leaders by leveraging her multi-talented background, encompassing communication, strategy, pageantry, financial education, and community development.  

 

She is passionate about advocating for financial literacy among young people to prepare them for a future of financial freedom and choices.  Broadly, she believes everyone should dream and dream BIG – she is excited to continue empowering people and reminding them that their dreams are valid.

She is a member of the Global Investment Strategy Team at JPMorgan Private Bank in Midtown, New York. Derby graduated cum laude from Berea College with a BSc. Degree in Business Administration and B.A. degree in Economics.She has also been featured on Yahoo Finance, Moneywise.com, Essence, JPMorgan, Women’s Wear Daily, Business Insider, and Bella Naija. Outside of work, she is an award-winning Toastmasters public speaker passionate about creating awareness for financial education.
 

She invests her time in volunteering within her community, mentoring young adults, and empowering people, reminding them that their dreams are valid. 

I believe that every child deserves access to quality education. Talent Mine Academy is a product of genuine care, love, and passion to see every child thrive regardless of where they are coming from.
 
I am always looking for opportunities to partner to be an agent of positive change and impact in my community. Talent Mine presents that opportunity to drive the change we want to see when it comes to education reform and providing access to every child in Nigeria.
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Chioma Okotcha

Director , Talent Mine Academy

Chioma is the co-founder/COO of Payhippo. Payhippo finances under-served businesses in Africa.

 After starting her career with a short stint in finance and consulting, she transitioned to the world of public policy and impact. 

Since then, she has analyzed social policies in Paris and Cape Town, designed programs to support the launch of an education non-profit start-up in Lagos, and supported the NCDC through the Tony Blair Institute. 

Today, she forms part of a group of Nigerian women in the tech start-up space that has raised over $5m in early-stage funding. With a passion for impact, she’s leading Payhippo to provide millions of small businesses with capital and business solutions to run and grow their businesses.

Access to quality education must be fair for all children. Aramide and her team are making this happen everyday. 

Chioma’s sleeves are rolled up to support and guide the Talent Mine Community to make a difference in the lives of underserved children

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Abimbola Dosunmu

Director , Talent Mine Academy

Learning and schooling are fundamental to human development. This thought process has shaped and styled the career of Abimbola Dosunmu, who is a renowned Educationist and Management Consultant in educational services. 

With over two decades of professional experience that covers cross-discipline and global best practices, Abimbola Dosunmu has masterminded improved learning at several schools through curriculum and assessment development, qualitative leadership, and strategic management. 

With a profound interest in academics, Abimbola has scaled from a vibrant Class Teacher who taught with passion and dedication at Montessori House in Ikoyi to becoming an Assistant Head of Junior School at Children’s International School, Lagos with the responsibility of leading strategic management and operational excellence at the School. 

From the design of a world-class learning and development strategies which ensured maximum student and teacher performance, Abimbola has effectively impacted the achievement of organisational and educational development. 

Along with her professional experience, Abimbola Dosunmu is a well-read professional who has a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition from University of Ibadan, Montessori Teaching Diploma from the College of Modern Montessori, South Africa, Postgraduate Diploma in Education from University of Lagos, Nigeria, and a Master of Science in Multidisciplinary Studies from University at Buffalo, SUNY, New York in the United States of America.

Her vision is to see that every Nigerian child reads, writes and makes informed decisions which will in turn cause a shift in the society and create a positive change. 

She volunteers/ collaborates with organizations like TFN( Teach for Nigeria) to coach teachers, TAL (Touch A Life) to help support teenagers to university and Dabira Lydia Initiative to assist children in primary and secondary school, WRAP, EduAid, Embrace, Schoolinka, Talent Mine Academy and other NGOs.