A senior Kenyan government official, Shadrack Mwadimehas been chosen to lead a continental apprenticeship network, replacing its founding Nigerian chair in what marks the organisation’s first transfer of power since it was established.
by Isqil Najim
Shadrack Mwadime, Principal Secretary for Labour and Skills Development in Kenya’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, has been elected Continental Chairperson of the Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network, known as SASASNET, for a two-year term.
The election was held during the network’s third Annual General Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on the sidelines of a major regional conference from 2 to 4 June 2026.
Mwadime who holds the CBS honour, Kenya’s Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear, a presidential commendation awarded for distinguished public service replaces Professor Idris Muhammad Bugaje of Nigeria, who served as the network’s founding chairperson. It is the first time SASASNET has changed leadership since its creation.
As Continental Chair, Mwadime is expected to spearhead efforts to deepen collaboration among Sub-Saharan African countries in promoting quality apprenticeships in line with the International Labour Organization’s Recommendation 208. The recommendation provides a global framework for apprenticeship systems that are inclusive, industry-driven, and anchored in decent work principles.
His election comes as Kenya continues to implement reforms aimed at strengthening skills development and transitioning workers from informal to structured apprenticeship systems.
Delegates from member countries across Sub-Saharan Africa used the meeting to pay formal tribute to Professor Bugaje, crediting his three-year founding tenure with building the institutional foundations that enabled Nigeria to host the SASASNET Secretariat and secure the organisation’s official registration.
“His tenure was marked by dedicated and focused leadership that laid a strong foundation for this continental initiative,” the meeting noted in a statement signed by Secretary General Hon. Ousman Sillah.
Opening the doors wider
The Abuja conference built on the outcomes of the 2nd Regional Conference held in Mombasa in 2025, which attracted delegates from 24 African countries and culminated in the adoption of the Mombasa Declaration, a framework aimed at strengthening apprenticeship systems across the continent.
Beyond the leadership vote, delegates approved constitutional amendments designed to widen the network’s membership. Under the changes, all African countries become eligible to join SASASNET regardless of language removing a barrier that had effectively limited full participation to English-speaking member states.
The reform reflects a growing recognition that the challenges of skills mobility, informal apprenticeship reform, and workforce certification are common to the whole African continent, not only its Anglophone south.
The AGM ran alongside the 3rd Annual Regional Conference on Quality Skills and Apprenticeships, which produced its own significant outcome. Delegates from across the region adopted the “Abuja II Statement of Action 2026” a ten-pillar declaration committing governments, employers, and development partners to transform how Africa trains and formally recognises its technical workforce.
Among its headline commitments, the declaration backed the continental rollout of Recognition of Prior Learning systems, which would allow experienced artisans, mechanics, and craftspersons to obtain official certification for skills acquired through years of informal practice without repeating formal schooling cycles they have long since outgrown.
It also committed participating states to operationalise an AfCFTA Skills Passport, intended to allow certified workers to move and work across African borders without their credentials being challenged.
Both initiatives carry direct relevance for the engineering and construction sectors, where large numbers of skilled tradespeople currently work without qualifications that cross borders or survive a change of employer.
SASASNET is a pan-African network of government ministries, technical and vocational education institutions, employers’ organisations, trade unions, and civil society bodies. Its stated purpose is the harmonisation of regional vocational standards and the scaling of quality apprenticeship systems across the continent.
Nigeria’s role in founding and hosting the Secretariat gave the organisation its earliest institutional foothold. Mwadime’s election, and particularly the concurrent constitutional reform extending membership to all of Africa, signals an intentional shift toward broader continental ownership away from a founding-country anchor and toward a genuinely multilateral body.
The significance of a smooth power transition should not be understated. Many organisations of this kind do not survive their founders’ departure intact. That SASASNET has now completed a structured handover, simultaneously adopted constitutional reform, and issued its most substantive policy declaration to date suggests a network moving out of its founding phase and into something more durable.
Mwadime takes the chair at a moment when the network’s ambitions and the scrutiny attached to themare arguably higher than at any point since the organisation’s formation.
SASASNET, the Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network, has its Secretariat in Nigeria. Its membership spans government ministries, TVET institutions, employers, trade unions, and civil society organisations across Sub-Saharan Africa.