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The Tony Elumelu Foundation to Announce Selected Entrepreneurs for 2019 Programme on March 22, 2019

Mar 18, 2019   •   by   •   Source: Proshare   •   eye-icon 3467 views

Monday, March 18, 2019   6:00PM / By The Tony ElumeluFoundation

 

·        Over 1,000 Africanentrepreneurs from African 54 countries to participate in the 2019 Cohort

·        Event to be livestreamedon TEFConnect – Africa’s digital entrepreneurship hub

 

TheTony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading African philanthropy committed toempowering African entrepreneurs, will announce the selected applicants for the2019 cohort of the Foundation’s flagship Entrepreneurship Programme on March22, 2019. The event, which marks the 5th round of the Foundation’sEntrepreneurship Programme, will take place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel,Abuja. 

Everyyear, the Tony Elumelu Foundation opens its application portal to Africanentrepreneurs, with businesses of less than three years old. Through its$100million Entrepreneurship Programme, the Foundation empowers 1,000entrepreneurs annually, who receive $5,000 in non-refundable seed capital,access to mentors, a 12-week training programme and opportunities to promotetheir businesses to a global audience. All applicants receive access toTEFConnect, Africa’s digital entrepreneurial hub, which provides access tonetworks, training, further capital sources and business opportunities. 

Asa means of cascading its proven entrepreneurial tool kit to the huge numbers ofapplicants, the Foundation launched in 2018, TEFConnect, the digital networkingplatform for African entrepreneurs. The platform, which has currently over400,000 users, providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to network, receivetraining and forge business partnerships to scale their businesses beyondphysical borders. 

Inthe five years since the Foundation launched its Entrepreneurship Programme, ithas empowered 4,000 African entrepreneurs directly and an additional 470 entrepreneurssupported by the Foundation’s partners. The Foundation recently appointedIfeyinwa Ugochukwu as CEO effective from April 1. Mrs. Ugochukwu succeedsParminder Vir, OBE, who will continue to lend her experience and expertise as amember of the Foundation’s Advisory Board. 

Theincoming CEO, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, emphasised the importance of partnership inreaching additional entrepreneurs beyond the Foundation’s annual commitment of1,000 entrepreneurs. 

“Eachyear we see a significant uplift in applicants. Our execution partner,Accenture Development Partnerships, are currently reviewing and finalising theapplications. Over 215,000 African entrepreneurs applied from across 54 Africancountries, up from 151,000 applications last year, with an increase in femalerepresentation from 62,000 in 2018 to 90,000 in 2019. These rising figuresdemonstrate the burning desire of the African entrepreneur to develop ourcontinent, and we must urgently convert this passion into viable businesses todevelop our continent. 

OurProgramme has developed a robust mechanism for directing capital effectivelyand efficiently, to those who can deploy it in local communities with thegreatest impact. We are looking forward to working with partners to collaboratewith us, to scale the platform and process we have created. Empowering Africanentrepreneurs must be a shared responsibility to create economic prosperity forall”, she said. 

Speaking on the Entrepreneurship Programme, Osato Noah, West AfricaLead, Accenture Development Partnerships, said: “Wehave worked with the Tony Elumelu Foundation since the inception of theEntrepreneurship Programme. In 2015, the first round of the Programme saw usreview 20,000 applications for the Foundation and this year we reviewed over215,000 applications. The sheer diversity and speed at which applications havescaled in the last four years have been incredible. We commend the Tony ElumeluFoundation for their commitment to the transparency of the programme, andAccenture is proud to partner in the delivery of this Pan-African project.” 

TheSelection Announcement will also feature a Nigerian TEF Alumni Meet up, as wellas an interactive dialogue with TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, CON.

 

Proshare Nigeria Pvt. Ltd.

 

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