About UpNorth180
UpNorth180 helps young people in Northern Nigeria discover possibilities they may not know exist, understand how others pursued them, and see practical paths they can explore themselves.
Our mission
To expose young people to opportunities beyond their immediate environment, and give them the knowledge, practical guidance and community they need to pursue them.
Our vision
A Northern Nigeria where young people can access the knowledge, networks and opportunities to compete and succeed globally, wherever they come from.
What we believe
Potential is not limited by geography. What young people see shapes what they go after. Change what they know is possible, and you change what they pursue.
Why “180”?
A 180° shift is the moment a young person sees a possibility they had never considered, and starts to approach their future differently.
From the founder
Why I started UpNorth180
I’m from Guyuk in Adamawa State, and I grew up in Yola. I learned chess at about four from my older brother. Around 2014, my computer teacher, Mr. Gideon Abare, taught me to write my first line of code in Notepad. I had the starting points. What I didn’t have was the exposure to see what they could become.
I was the best graduating student in my secondary school. But a comment from a teacher in SS2 about first-class graduates made me stop aiming for one. Years later, I left ABU Zaria near my third year with a second-class upper, changed to a course I actually wanted, and graduated with first-class honours.
As an undergraduate, I didn’t know internships at companies like Google, Meta or Apple were something you prepare for. Later I met students from other parts of the country who had been preparing since their first year.
That gap is why UpNorth180 exists. I keep asking one question: what could my life have looked like with the right information, people and opportunities earlier? UpNorth180 is my attempt to answer it for the next person.
Haye Binjo Emmanuel
Founder, UpNorth180
A note on expectations
One person’s path doesn’t guarantee anyone else’s. Money, schooling and other barriers are real, and a story alone doesn’t remove them. What a story can do is show you that a path exists and how someone walked it. That’s where we start.