Prototype a Mentorship Matching Tool for Out-of-School Youth in Kaduna

Kaduna State has one of the highest concentrations of out-of-school young people in Nigeria, driven by insecurity in southern Kaduna, poverty, early marriage, and a mismatch between school curricula and local labour markets. Many of these young people are not idle; they work in agriculture, petty trade, or apprenticeships. What they lack is structured access to adults who can help them navigate the next step, whether that is a skilled trade, a small business, or a vocational qualification. Formal mentorship programmes in Nigeria have historically targeted university students or young professionals in Lagos and Abuja. They rely on smartphones, LinkedIn profiles, and English fluency, making them inaccessible to youth in secondary cities and rural areas. A mentorship model that works for Kaduna needs to operate through USSD or WhatsApp, accommodate Hausa as a primary language, and connect with local structures like trade associations, mosques, and church groups. Your task is to prototype a mentorship matching tool suited to this context. Use Figma, Marvel, or even annotated paper screens to produce a clickable prototype of the core matching and communication flow. Then write a one-page operational model explaining how the social enterprise would recruit and vet mentors, onboard young people, and sustain the programme financially beyond donor funding. The strongest submissions will show that they have thought about trust and safety in a context where young women meeting adult strangers carries real social risk. They will also be honest about the technology constraints and explain design choices accordingly.