Tony Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), has said that promoting entrepreneurship in any society can be a tool for creating economic resilience and crisis prevention.
Elumelu stated this while hosting a reception with Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), to highlight youth unemployment and hunger in Africa, on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly meetings, in New York City.
According to him, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is set to empower young African entrepreneurs who will build resilient economies from the ground up and drive sustainable change, ensuring prosperity even in the most fragile contexts.
He said, “Entrepreneurship creates economic resilience and plays a critical role in preventing crises. 783 million people are affected by hunger worldwide – this is a humanitarian issue, a global crisis.
“At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we empower young African entrepreneurs who will build resilient economies from the ground up and drive sustainable change, ensuring prosperity even in the most fragile contexts.”
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. prosperity. In 2015, Elumelu and his family committed $100 million to launch a legacy entrepreneurship programme, to empower young African entrepreneurs.
Since the launch of the programme, the Foundation has given access to the training of over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed $100 million in direct funding to 20,000+ young African women and men, who have collectively generated over $2.5 billion in revenue and created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs across Africa.
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The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.”
The dialogue centred on providing a lasting solution to hunger and the transformative potential of entrepreneurship to eradicate poverty on the continent. With over 7,500 of Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurs drawn from the food sector, the link between sustainable access to food and entrepreneurship was clear.
McCain and Elumelu underlined the urgency and the need for novel approaches, going beyond short-term fixes, and creating sustainable, empowering solutions. Hunger in Africa is often a direct consequence of climate change and Elumelu reiterated the need for an equitable approach to climate and sustainable energy across Africa.
“We are at a pivotal moment where global hunger has reached alarming levels, fuelled by conflict, economic instability, and the climate crisis. WFP is supporting communities in need across the globe, but we cannot do it alone. Political and private sector leaders must step up now”, said McCain.
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