January 1, 2021
By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy dedicated to empowering African entrepreneurs on Friday disclosed it has spent $77 million out of the $100 million earmarked for the programme since inception in 2015 and has funded 5,000 entrepreneurs, while expanding its target from empowering 10, 0000 to one million entrepreneurs over the projected 10 years period, according to Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Foundation.
” We have spent $77 million out of the $100 million we committed to, out of that we have funded 5,000 entrepreneurs, the Foundation commits to funding 1,000 every year, we have done that every year and will continue to do that until we meet our 10,000 mark,” she said.
According to Ugochukwu, apart from the capital that the entrepreneurs receive, running the programme across the 54 African countries comes with a cost.
“Apart from the capital that goes into the hands of the entrepreneurs, which is one thing, to run a programme of this magnitude across 54 African countries, to have a platform the size of TEFConnect, which is the largest digital online platform to convene the largest gathering of African entrepreneurs, every year which attract country Presidents, the TEF forum in 2019 has five African Presidents with 5,000 entrepreneurs across Africa in attendance, so, everything that makes it possible to train the entrepreneurs, mentor them, provide the infrastructure, system and platform comes at a cost and that is why in conjunction with the 5,000 we already funded, we have spent $77 million” the TEF CEO added.
Ugochukwu reacting to a question on tracking the performance of already funded entrepreneurs, explained that managing and evaluation are critical aspects of the TEF programme; announcing the completion of the largest impact assessment exercise in conjunction with Anglo-American multinational professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers which would be unveiled at the 10 year anniversary of the Foundation.
“This was done leveraging their offices across Africa, for us it is actually critical to track the progress of our entrepreneurs, the jobs they are creating, the impacts they are having in their community and the revenue they are generating,” the TEF CEO affirmed.
She added that the TEF learns from failures and successes, ” we don’t just want to know about you when you have done well, we also want to know when you have not done well, what was the reason and what can your government do to create a better environment and what can the entrepreneurship ecosystem do to ensure that we have more successes that failures?, and so, for us it is critical to look at it holistically and to measure the impact, to mark our 10-year anniversary, we will be releasing this impact assessment,” she disclosed.
TEF dedicated to empowering African entrepreneurs, opens applications on its TEFConnect digital platform (www.tefconnect.com) today, January 1, 2021.
This year’s intervention prioritises the economic recovery of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and young African entrepreneurs, following the Covid-19 disruption to economic activities, according to a statement from TEF.
“To address the unique challenges arising from the pandemic, lift millions out of poverty and create sustainable employment across the continent, the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme will empower 1,000 young African entrepreneurs, selected from the 2020 cohort. The Foundation will also open applications to an additional 2,400 young entrepreneurs in 2021, in collaboration with global partners,” a statement made available to InvestAdvocate said.
The TEF CEO disclosed that year 2020 programme was disrupted due to Covid-19 pandemic, and out of the 230,000 appilcations received, 1,000 has been selected and notified and has been selected into the different training segments developed in the review period which include the beginners, intermediate and advanced segments. ” The top performers will go through a pitch session and if they make it, they will be selected for the $5,000 seed funding which is a different approach from previous editions every selected entrepreneur is funded,” she added.
“The Tony Elumelu Foundation now more than ever is demonstrating our commitment to unleashing the potential of young African entrepreneurs, the key to Africa’s long-term economic transformation. The pandemic has created challenges across the continent, but we know that with the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s tried and tested Programme, we can execute the largest Covid-19 economic recovery plan for African SMEs and break the cycle of poverty in Africa,” Ugochukwu said.