May 28, 2021/TEF

The TEF Circle

EDITOR’S NOTE

In the quest to eradicate poverty, human agency cannot be overlooked. As key economic players on the continent convene at UBA’s Africa Conversations 2021, with conversations geared towards economic recovery and global domination, Director at One Africa, Edwin Ikhuoria, has some intriguing light to shed on policy and advocacy in his exclusive interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation for the May edition of TEF Circle.

Edwin echoes that in Africa, nobody is more willing to get out of poverty than the people who are in poverty. He takes us back to his journey that began with a grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2014, and the reason it was a defining moment in his career. Furthermore, Edwin belabours the urgency with which we must address structural barriers preventing entrepreneurs from creating the kind of jobs that they should be creating or doing businesses at the level they should be doing.

This month, in celebration of Africa Day, we profiled 50 entrepreneurs in Africa to connect with, in our annual TEFConnect initiative.  In business, Zambian, Njavwa Mutambo, shares his remarkable ambition to transform Africa’s Informal Restaurant Industry through his Kenya-based start-up, Kibanda Topup. With most of the African population eating from small and medium restaurants that are largely informal, this Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneur discovered the value in providing seamless logistics for food delivery.

Over the last decade, our founder, Tony O. Elumelu CON, has reiterated the need for an Africa beyond aid, while championing a new and sustainable approach to impact and development. In our Circle Watch, we revisit his exclusive sit-down with Arise TV, where he provided insights on investment, advocacy and policy with unrivalled clarity, expanding further on how nearly 1.3 billion people living on the continent can indeed operate the most attractive markets in the world.

We are committed to keeping African entrepreneurs expertly informed on business solutions that enable enterprise. In this issue, we offer stringent steps in identifying market gaps and the appropriate resources and capabilities needed to fill them. TEF entrepreneur Emmanuel Nturanyenabo shares a testimonial laden with pride and impact from Rwanda, as his business, Teebah Film Village envisions becoming Africa’s leading Multimedia enterprise portraying local stories to drive impact on the continent.

We hope you enjoy reading!

GLOBAL BUSINESS OUTLOOK

Catch up on this year’s 2021 UBA Africa Day Conversations which brought together some of Africa’s leading policymakers to showcase the best of Africa while exploring our continent’s reimagined relationship with the world.

Watch this interview with Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony O. Elumelu(CON), on AriseTV’s The Morning Show where he discussed business, economy and investments in Africa, corporate governance and gender inclusion and equality.