1,000 new African entrepreneurs join $100m TEEP

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has announced the selection of 1,000 entrepreneurs for the second round of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP).
Launched in 2015, TEEP is the largest African philanthropic initiative devoted to entrepreneurship and represents a 10-year, $100 million commitment, to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create a million jobs and add $10 billion in revenues to Africa’s economy.
Over 45,000 entrepreneurs from 54 African countries applied, more than doubling the number of applications received in 2015.  Successful candidates represent diverse industries, led by agriculture, ICT and fashion. The highest numbers of applicants came from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Cameroon. All five regions of North, East, Southern, Central and West Africa are represented.
The founder of TEEP, Tony Elumelu, said: “In TEEP’s first year we spent over $8 million of our $100 million commitment with $5 million going directly to entrepreneurs as seed capital and the results have far exceeded our expectations.”