TEF to support 3500 entrepreneurs with $5,000

At least 3,500 entrepreneurs will benefit from the $5,000 seed funding from the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme this year.

The Chief Executive of TEF, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, while speaking at a press conference to herald the call for applications said 1,000 entrepreneurs will be selected from the 230,000 applications received in 2020   for training and funding alongside the 2021 successful applicants.

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The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s $100 million Entrepreneurship Programme, launched in 2015 to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs over 10 years, is now entering its 7th year and has empowered over 9,000 young African entrepreneurs from 54 African countries.

Ugochukwu noted that while the foundation has spent $77m of the $100m target on more than 5,000 entrepreneurs, it plans to take the entrepreneurship programme beyond the initial 10 years and reach up to 1m businesses instead of 10,000 entrepreneurs.

“Looking at the impact that this programme has, we can say that it is here to stay even beyond the 10 years.

“So, beyond the 10 years, the programme will not only continue but will scale up greatly. We had an initial plan to train 10,000 entrepreneurs, we tell you now that our plan over the next 10 years is to empower one million Africans.”

Ugochukwu, who also spoke about the effects of the pandemic, said, “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.”