Our History

Our History

Africa Centre for Citizens Orientation is a coalition of five organizations that are committed to building active citizens. It is an outcome of thought-provoking pragmatic approach to tangling societal challenges started as Youth Crime Watch program in the year 2002, a direct result of high rates of crime, violence, drug abuse and corruption in the society. To arrest the ugly trend which has eaten deep into our social fabric, over fifty (50) young people converged together to form the Youth Crime Watch Nigeria (YCW Nigeria), which was successfully piloted in St. Teresa’s College Oke-Ado, Ibadan and Felele Community, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Having successfully organized programs and activities in schools and communities in partnership coupled with scholarship assistance given to its project beneficiaries such as women, youths and girls, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) granted the organization, a special consultative status in July 2010.

To establish YCW as a National NGO and to further inspire, mobilize, engage, network, develop and secure and to also inculcate experiences and lesson learnt in working with young people, women and girls, community leaders and policymakers, the Youth Crime Watch of Nigeria was transformed into the African Centre for Citizens Orientation duly and legally registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC/IT/NO 53808) to promote the common good of all Nigerians and Africans with a particular attention to children, youth and women, disadvantage communities and minority groups.

ACCO promotes the good and welfare of African citizens based on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity and culture of our people. We advance citizenship development, equal opportunity, and social justice through transformative education, training, technology transfer, research, and advocacy programs.

At ACCO, we applies inclusiveness initiative, human rights-based method, gender-based analysis and networked approach to deliver citizenship development, education and orientation, digital literacy, crime prevention, women/girls empowerment and digital/human rights activities that address systemic discrimination, violence, insecurity, exclusion and other forms of violations. In addition, provide opportunities for people to build knowledge and skills, and develop attitudes and behaviours conducive to inclusion and advancing rights for common good.

ACCO place high value on citizenship development, education and engagement to achieve its vision. All our programs are tailored to reach out to, engage and empower children, youth, girls/women and persons with disabilities. By engagement, we regularly consult with our target audience and infuse their inputs into our programs and ensure that they own the process, which has really help in achieving our vision of building active citizens for a just society.