Elumelu Foundation gives $24.75m to 5,000 African SMEs

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has empowered about 5,000 entrepreneurs with over $24.75 million to live their dreams and create wealth in Africa.

The 4,949 young African entrepreneurs who benefited from the TEF Entrepreneurship programme got $5,000 funding each.

The 2021 TEF beneficiaries were unveiled at a virtual event held on Friday. Since inception in 2010, the TEF has empowered about 15,000 young African Entrepreneurs across several countries. The programme has also seen a rise in women participation as about 68 percent of the 2021 beneficiaries are females.

The Founder of TEF, Mr. Tony Elumelu, tasked the entrepreneurs to be resilient. “The road to success is driven by discipline. You must continue to think of impact. There are ups and downs, but you must stay focused, disciplined and success will come your way. For all of us you see that we are successful, it wasn’t easy” he said.

Director-General, International Cooperation and Development, European Commission, Mr. Koen Doens said, the partnership of the commission with the foundation is to promote African growth especially among youths and women.

“I am extremely glad our partnership is moving into this active stage, and I am very glad that over 2400 women will benefit from the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s training programme, and will get seed capital to support their ideas.”