As application for the 2017 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme closes this week, CHUKS OLUIGBO looks back at the programme’s successes in its first two years and what the future holds.
This week, precisely at midnight WAT on Wednesday, March 1, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will close applications for the 2017 edition of its annual Entrepreneurship Programme, which has been adjudged Africa’s largest business incubator and which President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone last year described as “a genuinely innovative approach to philanthropy in Africa”.
The application portal for the programme opened January 1 and has been accepting submissions. Though it is difficult to say specifically how many applications have been received for now, there is no doubt that the number is going to be huge judging from past experience.
Since its inception in 2015, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme has proved to be a game-changer as it has continued to gradually but consistently empower the next generation of Africapreneurs.
The programme is a $100-million, 10-year project with a clear objective to identify 10,000 African start-ups and entrepreneurs with ideas that have the potential to succeed and provide them with business skills training, mentorship, seed capital funding, information and access to a vast network of African entrepreneurs.
Annually, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme plans to select 1,000 African entrepreneurs to participate in a 12-week training programme in Lagos, where they will be mentored in a sort of entrepreneurial boot-camp and at the end, each selected entrepreneur receives $5,000 as seed capital to assist them in developing their ideas and business plans and, in the process, create millions of jobs and revenue for the continent. It has successfully done this in its first two years and is poised to repeat the feat this year.
At its debut in 2015, over 20,000 applications were received from 52 African countries, out of which 1,000 were selected. In 2016, it gathered momentum, recording over 45,000 applicants out of which another set of 1,000 entrepreneurs from 51 African countries were selected, bringing the total number of those who have benefitted from the programme so far to 2,000.
For Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, the Entrepreneurship Programme is an expression of his conviction that true philanthropy requires a disruptive mindset, innovative thinking and a philosophy driven by entrepreneurial insights and creative opportunities. As such, all his efforts are geared towards ensuring “shared prosperity in African economic development and opportunity” by empowering young Africans to be self-sufficient.
“We aim to create 1 million new jobs and $10 billion in additional revenue for the continent by democratizing and institutionalizing the same ‘luck’ that I had as a young African; the same luck that led me to this moment,” Elumelu said in a keynote speech at the 2016 annual Harvard International Development Conference (HIDC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“Additionally, we are identifying and advocating for policy reforms to enable not just the Elumelu entrepreneurs but all African entrepreneurs with the will to succeed. This will eliminate a lot of the corruption or dependency on political largesse to successfully start and operate a business. And they are hungry for it,” he said.
With employment opportunities ever shrinking, and with governments and large corporates clearly lacking the capacity to provide employment for the millions of young Africans entering the job market every year, Elumelu sees empowering “our youths on the continent to create their own jobs and take charge of their future by starting their own businesses” as imperative.
“Many of them are so talented and merely need a chance to take off. They are designing apparel and apps, educational models and agriculture supply chains, etc. But they are shut out of the formal economy by bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles, policy gaps and lack of access to capital, markets and training. I believe that Africa has the potential to produce 1,000 more UBAs, more MTNs, and even our own Steve Jobs through private sector investment,” he said.
Speaking on the success of the maiden edition of the programme, which she said exceeded expectations, Parminder Vir, Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, told CNBC Africa in an interview, “If this was a feature film, it would be up for an Oscar – that’s how big the Tony Elumelu Foundation has become and how much it has touched and brought Africa together as a continent.”
Perhaps the most eloquent testimony to the success of the annual Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme since its inception is the story of Momarr Mass Taal, CEO of Tropingo Foods, who, according to Elumelu, has turned his first $5,000 seed capital received from the Foundation in 2015 into a $1.2 million revenue business.
But apart from Taal, there are no doubt many other successes from the programme – those whom the programme has had enormous positive impact on their businesses and careers as entrepreneurs – whose stories are yet to be told. A look at the programme’s website reveals several testimonies by past beneficiaries. Here are some of the testimonies:
“Tony Elumelu Foundation has empowered our commitment to put smiles on the faces of environmentally responsible citizens by creating value from their everyday waste,” says Chioma U.
“The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme has been wonderful for me. I have now acquired an office space, created 5 jobs and 2 employments & developed my company website and online gallery shop,” says Stephen I.
Runice C. says, “I am delighted to be a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur. The Foundation’s support both financially and in recommendation has been instrumental. I am indebted to Tony Elumelu.”
“The seed capital has helped us to restore our production line. Much thanks to my hero, Mr Tony O. Elumelu, our great CEO, and to the great team at TEF for all the opportunities,” says Chinedu N.
And for James M., “My life has positively changed since I received the seed capital. My business is doing extremely well and I have now employed 3 people. Thank you, TEF.”
Just like the debut edition, the 2016 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum, which held in Lagos, once again provided an opportunity for the second set of 1,000 young entrepreneurs to share and gain knowledge, build cross-border partnerships and connect with investors and policymakers, thereby fostering intra-African innovation and collaboration.
Elumelu in his keynote speech at the forum reminded the new crop of entrepreneurs that “you are a generation of wealth creators, who share our commitment to the economic and social transformation of Africa”. He, however, regretted that while it may be exciting looking at the 2,000 entrepreneurs that have so far benefitted from the programme in its first two years, there were about 63,000 others some of whose ideas were equally brilliant but who couldn’t be selected.
“They deserve a chance too. They deserve every chance we can give them. And so I have carried them with me from Dakar to Dar-Es-Salaam, and from Kampala to Kigali to Cape town, to have this conversation with our political leaders and as I have brought hundreds of young Elumelu entrepreneurs before them to remind them that alongside their social welfare priorities should exist economic opportunity priorities – because extreme poverty and economic opportunity can rarely coexist in the same place,” he said.
This, according to Elumelu, was why in addition to its advocacy and research, the Foundation threw out a challenge to all stakeholders – from the public sector to the private sector, to civil society, multilateral organizations and individuals – invested in Africa’s economic development – to state how they would take action to support African entrepreneurs and improve the enabling environment for entrepreneurs to succeed. This, thankfully, is also bearing fruit as, according him, it is already securing a buy-in from governments and private sector players.
As the application portal closes this Wednesday, interested African entrepreneurs with business ideas that have the capacity to transform Africa still have a three-day window to apply.
Recall that the 1,000 entrepreneurs for each year are selected based on the viability of their idea, including market opportunity, financial understanding, scalability, and leadership and entrepreneurial skills demonstrated in the application.
Eligibility criteria include that the business must be based in Africa; it must be for profit; it must be 0-3 years old, and an applicant must be at least 18 and a legal resident or citizen of an African country.
