58 Ghanaian Young Entrepreneurs Selected for $100M Tony Elumelu Programme

Flash back: From (l-r), Mr Tony Elumelu, TEF beneficiary from Ghana, and President of Ghana

Accra, Ghana, March 25, 2019//-58 young Ghanaian entrepreneurs have been selected for the fifth edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Programme.

This is the largest number of Ghanaian beneficiaries since the inception of the programme in 2015. The number of beneficiaries from Ghana was 24, and 40 in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Out of the 58 Ghanaian beneficiaries for this year (2019), African Development Bank (AfDB) sponsored 33 and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored eight , while the Foundation sponsored the rest.

They are among 3,050 beneficiaries of the leading African philanthropy committed to empowering young African entrepreneurs, drawn from all 54 African countries, selected to join the fifth cycle of the $100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

The announcement was made recently at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja in Nigeria, following a presentation of the selection process by Accenture Development Partners. This year, over 216,000 applications were received, an increase from last year’s 151,000.

Nearly 90,000 were submitted by female entrepreneurs, an increase of 45%, illustrating the Foundation’s strategy to achieve greater gender balance, according to a press release issued by the Foundation.

The selected Entrepreneurs will each receive nonrefundable $5,000 of seed capital, access to mentors, and a 12-week business training programme, directly focused on the needs of African entrepreneurs.

On July 26 – 27 2019, they will gather at the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum, the largest annual gathering of African entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurship ecosystem on the continent.

TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, who celebrated his birthday on 22nd March 2019, said: “Every year, we face an almost impossible task – to select 1,000 entrepreneurs, from the hundreds of thousands that apply. Our entrepreneurs are hungry to effect change.

We know we are only scratching the surface, we see the depth of entrepreneurial talent, that all of us – government, business indeed African society, must harness to transform our economies and livelihoods. We must rally together to empower them and accelerate the change we want on the continent”.

The incoming CEO of TEF, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, said, “The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme has successfully empowered 7,520 entrepreneurs in its first five years of the 10- year programme.

Marking the fifth anniversary of the 10-year programme, this year’s selection includes 2,050 entrepreneurs, supported by the Foundation’s partners in addition to the Foundation’s annual commitment of 1,000, bringing the total number of entrepreneurs empowered by the Foundation to date to 7,520.

African Eye Report

 

 

 

 

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