By Abiola Olawale
About 1,104 beneficiaries have emerged from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF)’s 10-year flagship Entrepreneurship Programme and will be getting a non-refundable $5,000 grant as well as mentorship and training in the year to boost their businesses.
The 1,104 beneficiaries who are described as the 10th cohort, were selected from the over 150,000 applications received from all 54 countries in Africa, after a rigorous and transparent process carried out by Ernst & Young.
This new cohort brings the total number of young African entrepreneurs who have received funding, mentoring, and capacity-building support from the foundation to 20,000.
The New Diplomat reports that the Tony Elumelu Foundation has
disbursed US$100,000,000 directly to young African entrepreneurs, who have
created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa’s
economic growth and development. 46% of these beneficiaries are women,
reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to gender inclusion and equity.
Tony Elumelu, the founder and chairman of TEF, while speaking at the announcement of the 10th cohort, in his keynote address at the event in Lagos, noted that, over the past 10 years since the program was launched, it has been able to empower African entrepreneurs, drive poverty eradication and catalyze job creation across all 54 African countries.
Elumelu, who is also the chairman of the United Bank for Africa(UBA) Group, while revealing that the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme had been launched by his family’s desire to democratize luck, said: “We believe in spreading luck, we believe in democratizing luck, we believe in prosperity, and we think that the easiest way to spread prosperity in Africa is by identifying our young ones, encouraging them and helping them to start their businesses. This is why we have done this.
“Till date, over 20,000 young men and women from across Africa have received over $100 million in support of their program. We are happy to see our young ones progressing. We are happy that what we started alone as the Tony Elumelu Foundation will have been able to identify and partner with other global institutions.
“So, today is a day of impact, a day of gratitude, and most importantly, a day of reflection for me because God has been kind in so many ways. My family and I do what we do, not from the abundance of wealth, but just a realization that poverty anywhere is a threat to us everywhere and that we cannot live alone in prosperity. So, I’m happy that today, we continue to spread that prosperity- not just in Nigeria, not just in our family, but in all 54 African countries. I am indeed happy that in our lifetime, we can impact the next generation.”
