New Telegraph

Tony Elumelu Foundation funds 5, 000 African SMEs from 54 countries

Buhari lauds Foundation for programme

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, has selected 4,949 entrepreneurs from across Africa for its 2021 Entrepreneurship Programme. The 2021 beneficiaries were selected from a pool of over 400,000 applications, based on their innovation, performance, and growth potential to create jobs and eradicate poverty on the continent. Consisting of both new start-ups and existing small businesses, the 2021 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs have undergone world-class business training, mentorship and coaching and will have a life-time access to the Tony Elumelu Foundation alumni network.

Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu shared, “To you young African entrepreneurs – work hard, dream dreams, and be very disciplined. You must continue to think of impact. The entrepreneurship journey is not linear – there are ups and downs, but by staying focused and resilient, ultimately success will come your way. The future of our continent is in your hands. What you do as entrepreneurs will go a long way in lifting Africa out of poverty. I am happy that our female entrepreneurs are doing very well, with 68% representation this year.”

He added: “To our African leaders – these young, intelligent, energetic hardworking, resilient Africans are ready to go. We need to keep creating the right enabling environment to enable our young ones to succeed.” Speaking at the event, Director- General, International Cooperation and Development, European Commission, Mr. Koen Doens stated: “I remember very well, a few years ago in Brussels when I first met Tony Elumelu at one of the events his Foundation was organising. Both of us were struck by how there was such a clear match between his vision on how he could support African entrepreneurship and the European Union’s own vision on how we wanted to support African entrepreneurship.

Ever since, our partnership has embodied this same spirit that ultimately African growth cannot neglect the huge potential, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit that harbours so many Africans, especially young people and women. Tony Elumelu Foundation CEO, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, disclosed that the Foundation had trained ten times more young African entrepreneurs than it trained from 2015 to 2019 combined.

“Today in 2021, we will be paying out a record US$24,750,000 directly to the hands of African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries,” he said. Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari lauds Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony O. Elumelu, on his remarkable vision in training, mentoring, and funding entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, describing it as “a truly lasting legacy.” “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.

Read Previous

Direct Primaries: Stop vilifying govs – PGF DG

Read Next

Federal govt disburses N58bn to poor Nigerians in 2 mths

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *