Zanna Samaila

Short Bio – Zanna Samaila

Zanna Samaila is a community development practitioner who is passionate about youth development and empowerment. He has over five years of experience in social enterprises and civic engagement, specializing in business and entrepreneurship, social accountability and governance. He is currently the Community Engagement Manager of Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability Initiative (ST&A), a non-governmental organization whose mission is to empower and work with communities to demand accountability, improve service delivery, and promote democratic governance using technology through which he engineered the Citizen-led tracking initiative, a data-driven social accountability project.

Citizen-led tracking started in October 2019 has impacted over 890,000 rural lives in 86 marginalized communities in Northeastern Nigeria. In 2022, Citizen-led tracking emerged as one of the finalists for Young Global Changers Recoupling by the Global Solution Initiative in Berlin, Germany. A finalist for the 2021 African Civic Action Prize by Africtivites in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, top 20 Best Digital Innovation on Democracy and Governance by the African Union in 2020 and 30 Most Inspiring Digital Innovation on SDGs by Portos Spindle in the Netherlands.

In addition to his role at the Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability Initiative, Zanna also serves as Livelihood Officer in 2022 under the USAID-funded project, coordinating the strengthening of women and youths enterprises for sustainable income generation and economic empowerment, which has contributed to poverty reduction among over 3000 business enterprises in BAY states of northeastern Nigeria through training on soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and business management. In December 2022, the project creates an enabling ecosystem for microenterprises' growth and expansion in conflict-affected states.

Zanna is a 2022 UNLEASH Ambassador and Mentor in the UNLEASH plus program, providing teams with the tailored support they need for transforming their prototypes into impactful ventures. He is also a 2020 ONE Champion, and a member of the African-Europe Partnership Task Force. A Diplomatic Fellow of the Federation of International Gender and Human Rights.

Zanna is motivated to empower young people in rural and marginalized communities to have equal opportunities because of his background having grown up in a rural community with limited opportunities to harness his potential.