Tony Elumelu Foundation and entrepreneurship revolution in Africa
If you have ever created a business idea or attempted running a business, you would no doubt confirm that major challenges revolve around issues bordering on funding, capacity acquisition and non-congenial business ecosystems. No wonder it is estimated that up to 95 % of entrepreneurs in Nigeria fail in the first three years.
But The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is clearly not content with this weak and counterproductive profile of entrepreneurship in Africa. The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) seeks to re-write the experiences of entrepreneurs in Africa, towards empowering African entrepreneurs to create wealth, jobs and improve general well being on the African continent.
TEEP makes available the sum of $100 million for the next ten years. The TEF states that the programme will “identify and help grow an initial 10,000 start-ups and young businesses from across Africa over the next 10 years, targeting the creation of 1,000,000 new jobs and $10 billion in annual revenues”.
That this bold and unprecedented initiative is coming from TEF, a Foundation founded by Tony O. Elumelu, a classic successful African entrepreneur, one who “was made in Africa” and also “made it in Africa”. Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, an African Investment company with interests across economic sectors, Chairman of UBA Group and Transcorp PLC major conglomerates recounts that in his over twenty years experience in banking he has met hundreds of entrepreneurs across Africa who are really handicapped by poor access to mentoring, funding and support to actualize their dreams. For Tony Elumelu and rightly too, “ entrepreneurship is how we take ownership and demonstrate leadership in our continent’s affairs … entrepreneurship means you no longer have to wait to see who will give you a job, you can seize the opportunity to secure your future…. African entrepreneurs need opportunities in the form of mentorship, capital and business ecosystems that favour their success”.
In launching this $100 million entrepreneurship programme, Tony Elumelu says his “life has come full-circle”. Considering himself a “lucky entrepreneur” Elumelu says he seeks to “institutionalize” the luck or good fortune he benefitted from early in his career through this intervention. He hopes that at the end of this “decade of entrepreneurship” TEF would “have laid the groundwork for thousands of businesses to grow and flourish across the continent, creating new partnerships and trade routes both within Africa and Internationally”
Budding African entrepreneurs living and operating anywhere in the 54 countries in Africa are entitled to apply for this TEF entrepreneurship programme which will support 1000 startups every year for the next ten years with $10,000. Entries for the 2015 edition of the TEEP will open from January 1 2015 up to March 1 2015. Targeting to receive a minimum of 10,000 applications yearly, a credible selection committee will select the best 1000 without regard to nationality, age, language, and region but with much consideration for bankable businesses that can create wealth and value in Africa.
Successful applicants will be enrolled in a 12 week learning programme. On successful completion of this programme they will be eligible to access funding which is available in two tranches – A $5million seed capital and a $5 million debt or equity capital.
No matter how one assesses the TEEP, it is certain that this intervention is not only huge in terms of sum committed but also in the numbers of the entrepreneurs it will support and jobs to be created. It is a historic and unprecedented opportunity that no budding entrepreneur should miss. For further insight into The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship programme visit: www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/TEEP .
IKENNA OBI