Tony Elumelu Foundation supports entrepreneurs
The Tony Elumelu Foundation has been released $10 million for 1,000 entrepreneurs who will qualify for the 2016 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) across Africa to expand their businesses.
The initiative will offer qualified entrepreneurs across Africa access with seed funding of $5,000 to grow their businesses.
Application for the programme is scheduled to open to entrepreneurs and legal residents of 54 African countries with an average age of between 21 and 40.
The founder of the foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, announced that when he met the Ghanaian beneficiaries of the programme in the 2015 class of the TEEP.
First edition
Thirty-six Ghanaian entrepreneurs benefitted from the 2015 class which was the first edition of the TEEP and each received US$5,000 from the Tony Elumelu Foundation based in Nigeria after active mentoring, business training and entrepreneurship boot camp and regional networking across Africa.
The seed capital is to help the entrepreneurs to nurture their ideas and make it viable and ultimately make their businesses successful.
The Ghanaian entrepreneurs are part of 1,000 from 51 African countries who are in the 2015 class of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP).
In 2015, the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) empowered 1,000 African entrepreneurs, selected from over 20,000 applicants, with start-up investments, active mentoring, business training, entrepreneurship boot camps and regional networking across Africa.
The 1,000 entrepreneurs formed part of the Tony Elumelu Foundation $100 million TEEP to train and give seed capital for 10,000 entrepreneurs over a period of 10 years. The programme aims at creating businesses that could generate at least 1,000,000 new jobs and contribute at least $10 billion in fresh annual revenues across Africa.
Eradicating poverty
Mr Elumelu indicated that applications for the grant for entrepreneurs would open on January 1, 2016, and could be made by any type of for-profit business based in Africa and which has been in existence for less than three years, including new business ideas.
According to the philanthropist, the initiative intends to grow businesses through skills training, mentoring, access to seed capital funding, information and membership in Africa-wide alumni network.
“I set out to institutionalise luck with the foundation and give back to the continent that made me,” he stated.
Considering the poverty level on the continent, he said it was time the private sector supported governments to eradicate poverty, hence the programme.
In the 2016 edition, he encouraged more females to participate in the event because women economic empowerment was very paramount to the economic development of the continent.