Tony Elumelu, the chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc has continued to uplift entrepreneurs in his drive for Africa’s economic development through his foundation, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).
For over 10 years, the Nigerian economist and philanthropist, through the foundation, has empowered thousands of women and men across the 54 African countries, by catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation.
The Foundation leverages its strong relationships in the public, private and development sectors to drive its mission of creating prosperity for all.
In 2015, the Foundation launched the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, a $100 million commitment by Elumelu to empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs over 10 years.
So far, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has trained, mentored, and funded over 10,898 young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries through its Entrepreneurship Programmes, and has provided capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 million Africans through its digital networking platform, TEFConnect.
This year, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) empowered 4,949 entrepreneurs with over $24.75 million to live their dreams and create wealth in Africa.
The 4,949 young African entrepreneurs who benefited from the TEF Entrepreneurship programme got $5,000 funding each.
The 2021 TEF beneficiaries were unveiled at a virtual event held on Friday. Since inception in 2010, the TEF has empowered about 15,000 young African Entrepreneurs across several countries. The programme has also seen a rise in women participation as about 68 percent of the 2021 beneficiaries are females.
Mr. Elumelu, tasked the entrepreneurs to be resilient. “The road to success is driven by discipline. You must continue to think of impact. There are ups and downs, but you must stay focused, disciplined and success will come your way. For all of us you see that we are successful, it wasn’t easy” he said.
Director-General, International Cooperation and Development, European Commission, Mr. Koen Doens said, the partnership of the commission with the foundation is to promote African growth especially among youths and women.
“I am extremely glad our partnership is moving into this active stage, and I am very glad that over 2400 women will benefit from the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s training programme, and will get seed capital to support their ideas.”
In recognition of the gesture, President Muhammadu Buhari has lauded Mr. Elumelu on his remarkable vision in training, mentoring, and funding entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, describing it as “a truly lasting legacy.”
The President said Nigeria remains very proud of Mr Elumelu, a global icon, whose business and philanthropic interests continue to create opportunities for growth and development not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole.
According to him, “I would like to specifically congratulate the Tony Elumelu Foundation on this extraordinary humanitarian act of funding 4,949 entrepreneurs!
“I am particularly pleased that this year alone, the Tony Elumelu Foundation will fund 1,522 Nigerian entrepreneurs from all the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory of the Federation. This unifying act by a private-sector leader is commendable and worthy of emulation by others,” the President says.
He noted that entrepreneurship and youth empowerment are important components of the work of this administration, adding; “we believe that they are the key to the future and recognize that by empowering our youth, we will build businesses that in turn sustain our economy.”