Our SINA Community in Nigeria, called “Dikko Social Innovation Academy” in Katsina State has crossed its first milestone. The pioneer cohort completed the opening phase of the SINA Framework—the Confusion Stage, also known as Applied Social Innovation—and now moves into professional development where learning translates into lived practice and early ventures.
This community took root after three young Nigerians spent six months inside established SINAs in Uganda to absorb the full framework and culture. They have since been joined on the ground by two experienced SINA “Nomads,” Franco from SINA Loketa and Confidence from Jangu International, to guide the startup phase and co-create a detailed roadmap that blends trainer upskilling with the onboarding of the pioneer cohort of scholars. The Nomad approach is how SINA strengthens new and underperforming SINA Communities with focused in-person support by experienced trainers, coaches and mentors, so they can become locally led quickly.
The next stage began this week. Trainers are deepening leadership and governance, sharpening coaching skills, and aligning personal purpose with concrete enterprise work. In parallel, they are advancing their own ventures—from plastic recycling to agriculture and health—so they can mentor from recent, hands-on experience rather than from theory. New scholars enter a three-month applied program with orientation, design-thinking bootcamps, SDG exploration, and team formation. Field learning, including visits to the Craft Village, helps scholars map real customer needs, test assumptions, and iterate early solutions.
Outreach and scholar selection start later in August for a second cohort begins in October, and the sequence flows into concentration bootcamps and market testing through mid-November. The turning point will be ownership: as local trainers lead the process end-to-end, the system continues to thrive without external presence. That is the SINA way—communities are locally owned, freesponsible, and regenerative. “Freesponsibility” combines freedom with responsibility and asks each person to act with awareness of impacts on others and the environment.
Our gratitude goes to the Katsina State Government and the Katsina State Enterprise Development Agency for the partnership that makes this work possible. The Dikko team is part of a larger movement: SINA grows by replication rather than top-down expansion, spreading through people who experience the framework and then adapt it to their home context. Today, there are more than 23 locally owned SINA communities, and new teams are preparing in Nigeria, Nepal, Rwanda, and beyond.
