Elumelu Foundation supports 79 Ghanaian entrepreneurs

The Tony Elumelu Foundation, through its Entrepreneurship Programme, has supported 79 Ghanaian entrepreneurs over the last two years.

The programme, which started in 2015, provided these 79 entrepreneurs with business skills training courses, mentoring, an entrepreneurship ‘boot camp’ and seed capital funding.

This was disclosed by the Founder of the foundation and the Chairman of the UBA Group, Mr Tony Elumelu, when he delivered a speech on Africapitalism and entrepreneurship at the University of Ghana Business School.

He said the programme since its inception in 2015 has trained and empowered 2,000 entrepreneurs across Africa and would soon be announcing the next batch of 1,000 beneficiaries.

He pointed out that the foundation received 93,000 applicants for this year’s programme but could only select 1,000 of them due to the lack of resources and therefore called on other successful Africans to partner the foundation to reach out to more entrepreneurs.

“We must put in place a formalised system that will enable young people who have the zeal and initiative to become entrepreneurs develop and succeed,” he stated.

“This should be our way of investing in the future of Africa. This should be our way of contributing our quota to the development of the continent,” he added.

Entrepreneurship programme

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has committed US$100 million to identify and help grow 10,000 start-ups and young businesses from across Africa over the next 10 years.

It is a multi-year programme of training, funding, and mentoring, designed to empower the next generation of African entrepreneurs.

These businesses in turn are expected to create one million new jobs and contribute US$10 billion in annual revenues to Africa’s economy.

The start-ups selected from a pool of applicants across Africa are made to participate in a comprehensive programme which includes a customised 12-week business skills training course, mentoring, an entrepreneurship ‘boot camp’ and seed capital funding among other things.

Africapitalism

Touching on Africapitalism, a term which was coined by him, he said the African private sector had the power to transform the continent through long-term investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth.

He said the private sector had a huge role to play in Africa’s development and should therefore embrace it and lead the way.

“The private sector should invest and keep their monies in Africa and not invest or keep them in foreign accounts,” he stated.

He called on the private sector to invest in key and critical areas of the economy such as banking, energy, oil and gas, etc.

Mr Elumelu also urged Africans to come up with home-grown policies to solve the problems on the continent.

“The solution to our development must be brought by the current generation. Nobody but us will develop Africa and we hold our own destiny,” he reiterated.

Fighting poverty

The Nigerian philanthropist also called on the private sector to help in reducing poverty by increasing prosperity.

He said that could be done through a comprehensive investment support for entrepreneurs in Africa.

He said he was also in discussion with the African Development Bank to support the initiative of entrepreneurship.

“We have to fund entrepreneurs if we want the continent to grow,” he said.