The Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports said that around a thousand young African people had applied online for its new Nasser Fellowship for African Leadership.

The fellowship will take place in Cairo from 8 to 22 June.

The ministry said in a press release that the candidates represented 51 African countries and their average age was 28.

The release explained that 782 applicants were 21 to 35 years old, 16 under 21 years and 53 over 35.

A hundred were selected to join the fellowship.

Egypt's ambassador to Ethiopia, Osama Abdel-Khalek, with Hassan Ghazali of the African Youth Bureau

"The fellowship aims to popularise the authentic Egyptian experience in national institution-building and to create a new generation of young African transformational leaders with a vision that aligns with the Egyptian presidency of the African Union in serving the goals of African unity through integration, training, capacity building, the development of strategic visions, as well as organising meetings for the most influential young leaders at the continental level," reads the release.

The press release noted that the fellowship had been widely covered in local and international media.

In addition, 22 international organizations and many Egyptian institutions have promoted the Fellowship via their Facebook pages, including the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Egyptian Embassy in Ethiopia, the African Union, and the Egyptian Presidency of the African Union.

According to the release, Egypt's ambassador to Ethiopia, Osama Abdel-Khalek, praised the Fellowship as one of the key mechanisms for empowering African youth.

Abdel-Khalek's comments came during a recent meeting with the Hassan Ghazali, the ministry's general coordinator of the African Youth Bureau, on the sidelines of the African Youth Forum - held from 24 to 26 April 2019 in Addis Ababa, under the auspices of the African Union."

The Chair of the AU Commission for Science, Technology and Human Resources, Professor Sarah Agbor, praised the Nasser Fellowship for African Leadership "as a platform serving the one million by 2021 initiative launched for empowering and developing youth leadership in Africa," at a meeting with Ghazali in Addis Ababa.

The 2012 initiative aims to train one million young Africans in the fields of education, employment, entrepreneurship and participation by 2021; the Nasser fellowship supports the initiative’s education track.

Agbor also praised the objectives of the fellowship which she said converge with those of the AU’s Agenda 2063, according to the release.

Ambassador Abdel-Khalek (R) addresses Nasser Fellowship meeting in Addis Ababa