Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurs: A decade of impact

In the summer of 2020, I wrote an article titled, “Tony Elumelu: God’s Gift to Africa,” which was later published as a chapter in my book, ‘My Lockdown Diary: Reflections on Nigeria and Covid-19 Pandemic.’ At the time, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) marked its 10th anniversary and admitted its 6th cohort in the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

Elumelu is the Chairman of UBA, Africa’s global bank, and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, an African investment conglomerate with interests in financial services, healthcare, insurance, energy, hospitality, power, real estate, and technology.

Once you have a vision to do something, avoid distractions as much as possible and don’t allow anything to hold you back. Remember that there are always days of little beginnings. The holy book even admonishes us as follows: My people perish for lack of vision (Proverbs 29:18). This Bible verse is often explored at leadership development seminars. Without a long-term plan or goal (a vision), you cannot achieve anything in life.

The flip side of that coin is to acquire knowledge so that once you pick your spot, you can become an authority on the subject – your area of expertise. We must therefore constantly seek to expand the frontiers of knowledge and craft the desired vision to accelerate growth and development in any field.

This is what Elumelu has been doing: dreaming, crafting visions and acquiring knowledge. Ideas rule the world, and the TEF founder has been running with his ideas by investing in different sectors of the economy.

On top of that, he is Africa’s leading funder of young entrepreneurs.

When he moved into philanthropy, Elumelu, with the support of his wife, Awele, a medical doctor, launched the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2010. His primary objective was, and is, to create enduring prosperity and social wealth in Africa by empowering young men and women.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme began with the first cohort in 2015. I was one of the pioneer mentors.

By prioritising young entrepreneurs in Africa, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is investing in the future of the continent. These young business owners and employers have gone ahead to create over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, grossing over $2.5 billion in revenue – a significant impact in a decade.

During that period, the Foundation trained over 1.5 million young Africans on the digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over USD100 million in direct funding to 20,000 young men and women.

The initial goal was to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs in 10 years, but all that, as we can see, have changed with time.

TEF is funded by an annual grant from Heirs Holdings and supported by other companies in the group. In the first five years, TEF spent over N2 billion to achieve its objectives. Each Tony Elumelu entrepreneur is given a non-refundable seed capital of $5,000 to start their own business.

But the number of grantees grew gradually with support from partners such as Google, African Development Bank, EU, UNDP, etc. This is why Elumelu is calling for a global coalition to expand the reach and impact of the entrepreneurship programme, and unlock the huge economic potential of Africa.

“Instead of giving seed money to only 1,000 young entrepreneurs, I’m envisaging a time when we can fund 100,000 entrepreneurs,” Elumelu said on March 22 (his birthday) when the new beneficiaries – the 10th cohort of the 10-year-long TEF Entrepreneurship Programme – were unveiled at the UBA Amphitheatre in Lagos.

Elumelu says we should spread opportunities and democratise luck for our young ones. This is his passion, as he is on a mission to empower young Africans to become wealth creators. He is quick to remind anyone that luck, chance and mentorship helped him to get along on his journey to the top.

He is always excited when he listens to TEF impact stories across the continent. These captivating stories are the joys of entrepreneurship which Elumelu needs to fire on all cylinders as he embarks on another decade of transforming lives.

Indeed, most of the TEF entrepreneurs are doing well, while some are failing or have failed. That is to be expected in the topsy-turvy world of entrepreneurship. However, you only need to listen to their testimonials and see how philanthropy can be used to leverage influence and impact in the way TEF under Elumelu’s leadership has done it.

The icing on the cake is that after 10 years of impact in African philanthropy, the Harvard Business School has launched the Tony Elumelu Foundation as a case study. Harvard researchers intend to examine the role and impact of the Foundation and its unique approach to catalysing entrepreneurship in Africa.

Harvard Business School will also explore the economic philosophy known as Africapitalism created by Elumelu. Africapitalism is anchored on the strong argument that the private sector must play a pivotal role in Africa’s development, and that investment in strategic sectors must seek social and economic returns.

Other billionaires in Africa should emulate Elumelu by creating a legacy of impact in any area of human endeavour. Their interventions should aim at improving the lives of Africans by changing the existing narrative of poverty into prosperity. Humanity is a precious gift, and we have a duty to nurture and preserve it.

In 2024, over 150,000 entries were received from the 54 countries in Africa, according to Somachi Chris-Asoluka, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, but only 1,104 made the cut through a rigorous selection process carried out by Ernst & Young (EY), with 65 percent male and 35 percent female distribution.

As you would expect, Nigerians dominated the final shortlist with 53 percent, Benin republic had 10 percent, while the rest of Africa was 37 percent.

The criteria used were: feasibility of each pitch, market opportunity, financial understanding, scalability, and leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The beneficiaries of the 10th cohort have already identified what they will spend their seed money on, but I was not surprised that a majority of them (381) want to invest in agriculture and create agribusiness.

It is the only way we can boost food security and eliminate hunger and package agricultural products for export. Nigeria can become the food basket of Africa in view of our vast arable land.

On the industry distribution listed presented by Ernst & Young, we also have information technology (133), beauty & fashion (118), manufacturing (80), education (64), professional services (63), green economy (57), medicine & healthcare (41), media & entertainment (34), logistics and transportation (30), energy and utilities (28), construction (25), tourism & hospitality (23), and FMCG (18).

There are a few categories not listed in this article but when added, would bring the total number of beneficiaries by industry distribution to 1,104. It is always a struggle to come up with the final shortlist because the pitch is highly competitive.

From the over 150,000 entries received, 69.8 percent came from West Africa, 0.5 percent from North Africa, 21.1 percent from East Africa, 4.5 percent from Central Africa and 4.1 percent from Southern Africa. But this is not a West African event, neither is language a barrier. We need more participation from the rest of Africa.

Research, advocacy, and training are strong pillars of the Foundation that was set up with the following objectives: supporting entrepreneurship, enhancing competitiveness, policy intervention and leadership development.

Elumelu is fond of telling his young entrepreneurs to “hang in there and be positive about your future.” He also says we must spread prosperity in Africa. “The easiest way to spread prosperity in Africa is to identify young entrepreneurs and support them to start their own business,” he told the audience at the unveiling of the 2024 beneficiaries last Friday.

“We are happy to see our young ones prospering, and we would like to partner with other global institutions for more impact,” the TEF founder continued.

“Today is a day of impact, gratitude and reflection. God has been kind to me and my family. It is not from the abundance of our wealth that we are funding young entrepreneurs, but it is from the realisation that the spread of poverty is a threat to everyone. We cannot live alone in prosperity.

“I’m indeed happy that in our lifetime, we are able to impact the next generation.” Let us continue to spread opportunities, democratise luck and improve lives.

Braimah is a global public relations consultant and marketing strategist. He is also the publisher/editor-in-chief of Naija Times (https://ntm.ng) and Lagos Post (https://lagospost.ng), and can be reached via [email protected].