About Jessica Ohaka
The story behind the work. First-generation graduate, basketball player, Chartered Economist and Accountant, and Founder of R-WEF — eight years building youth development systems across Africa.
I decided early that I was going to change the world I found myself in. Eight years later, I am still going.
I have sat in C-suite boardrooms and community programme rooms in the same week.
The gap between where decisions about young Africans are made and where young Africans actually live is not just geographical. It is experiential. And it is the gap I have spent eight years trying to close.
From a 16-year old to a global systems builder
I am the first-generation graduate of my family. Growing up, I made a decision early that I was going to fulfil my purpose and change the situation I found myself in. Not wait for someone else to change it. Not survive it. Change it.
I started volunteering in international development at sixteen. Before it was a career. Before I had a title or a strategy or any idea how far this would go. I just kept showing up in spaces where young people were being failed by systems not designed to see them, and asking what could be done differently.
Before I turned nineteen, I had gone global. I was working with international organisations, navigating professional environments that were new to me, figuring things out in real time and quietly building the conviction that would eventually become R-WEF.
Sport gave me the grounding I needed
What most people do not know about me is that sport gave me my ground.
I was a basketballer. The court taught me discipline, teamwork, the ability to keep going when the game is not going your way, and the understanding that individual excellence means nothing if the team around you is not set up to succeed.
I carry those lessons into every programme I design, every team I build, and every organisation I support. The mindset of an athlete, consistent, adaptive, collective is underneath everything I do professionally.
MindYourself Program. 20,000 Young People. Two Years.
One of the most formative chapters of my career was leading the MindYourself programme at Dream Sports Africa; a mental health initiative for young people across Nigeria.
Over two years, I served as Programme Manager for a project that worked in collaboration with the Secondary Education Board, reached approximately 20,000 young people across 40 secondary schools in Nigeria, and operated with a budget of over $100,000 USD; a budget I managed and was accountable for.
That experience shaped how I think about scale, about systems, and about the real relationship between mental health and economic uncertainty. I watched young people whose prospects felt impossible carry that weight in their bodies. I watched it affect their ability to learn, to plan, to believe in a future.
That is not a mental health problem in isolation. It is what happens when economic instability and mental health go unaddressed together. R-WEF was built directly from that observation.
Titles that tell you how I think.
I originally studied Economics. I went on to become a Chartered Economist (ACE) and a Chartered Accountant (ACA), both before turning twenty-four. I am also a certified data analyst.
That foundation matters more than the titles suggest. It means I approach youth development not just as a social cause but as a systems and economic challenge. I understand budget structures, programme economics, monitoring and evaluation, and the language funders speak, as well as the language young people live in.
Built at Twenty three. Because it did not exist.
I founded Reboot Wellbeing and Empowerment Foundation at 23 because I needed a space that held mental wellbeing and economic pressure together in the same conversation, designed by and for young Africans. And that did not yet exist.
R-WEF is a pan-African nonprofit working across three pillars: mental wellbeing systems, pathways to empowerment and meaningful work, and thriving communities and ecosystems. We do not separate those conversations because young people do not experience them separately.
A recognition. Not a destnation.
Building for young Africans, not around them
I am currently a One Young World Scholar under the Z Zurich Foundation programme; a recognition of the work I am doing in youth development and my commitment to building systems that last beyond any single programme.
It is not theoretical for me.
I have seen what happens when economic uncertainty and a lack of clarity about the future go unaddressed in young people’s lives. I have seen it in the communities I have worked in. I have seen it in the data. I have seen it in myself.
The relationship between employability, the future of work, and mental health is not theoretical for me. It is personal. That is why R-WEF does not separate those conversations. And it is why I will keep building until the systems around young Africans are finally designed to see them.
Five convictions I build from.
The principles behind every programme, partnership, and decision.
01
Young Africans are not the problem. The systems around them are.
02
Decent work is not aspirational. It is a design decision.
03
You do not build for young people. You build with them.
04
Mental health and economic empowerment are the same conversation. Treating them separately produces weaker outcomes.
05
Visibility is not vanity. It is the bridge between the work you are doing and the people who need to find you.
On Paper.
Chartered Economist (ACE)
Chartered Accountant (ACA)
Certified Data Analyst
BSc Economics
First-generation graduate
One Young World Scholar
Z Zurich Foundation
Founder & Executive Director
Reboot Wellbeing and Empowerment Foundation
Google for Nonprofits Verified Partner
R-WEF
Programme Manager — MindYourself, Dream Sports Africa
2 years, 20,000+ young people, $250K+ budget
Global Executive Assistant
International Association for Suicide Prevention
Published author
24 Before Forever
8+ years in international development
Starting at sixteen
The work is not finished.
I am building toward a future where young Africans do not have to leave behind their wellbeing in order to pursue opportunity.
I want to be in the rooms where policy decisions about young Africans are made; sitting as a practitioner, a strategist, and a voice that has been on the ground. I am positioning for global platforms, fellowships, policy boards, and international convenings where that work can be scaled.
The work is not finished. It is just getting started.
If you care about youth development, mental health, leadership, or systems change in Africa, I would love to connect.