Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, a Ghanaian journalist was among a team of journalists invited cross Africa to cover the launch of the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2015. Since then he has been a core of the foundation’s media activities. He writes to mark the fifth anniversary of the foundation.
Accra, Ghana, February 19, 2019//-It has been five years of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and its founder Tony Elumelu’s revolutionary journey of the African business ecosystem, following the launch of the programme.
The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme fashioned in the model of the Africapitalism philosophy propounded by Mr Elumelu, is said to be the game-changer for rising African entrepreneurs across the 54 African counties.
It is the largest African philanthropic initiative devoted to empowering entrepreneurs and championing entrepreneurship. The programme represents its 10-year, $100 million commitment, to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs, who will create a million jobs, and add $10 billion in revenue to Africa’s economy.
This is consistent with the founder of TEF philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions Africa’s private sector and most importantly entrepreneurs as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent.
Economic impacts
A total of 4,470 beneficiary entrepreneurs who have completed the programme since its launch, are making significant impact on the lives of individuals, countries, governments, among others.
Their businesses are therefore from creating jobs leading to poverty alleviation in their various countries.
Also, central governments, states/regions and local authorities are taxing them to undertake development projects in their operational countries.
According to the Tony Elumelu Foundation 2015 – 2017 Progress Report that seeks to analyse the progress of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, a sample of 1472 entrepreneurs from the 3,010 representing 49% of the programme alumni who took part in the survey, and represent 48 African countries, five regions and 25 sectors, added that the programme has been a blessing and life changing.
From these revenue data, it is evident that the number of entrepreneurs that generated between 0 to $5,000 before the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme was 1048 which accounted for 71% of the total entrepreneurs) and 15% of the entrepreneurs surveyed generate between $10,001- $50,000, according to the report.
“This reveals that a lot of these businesses are still small scale or still in the early stages of their growth – a reality of majority of the SMEs in Africa”.
While, the percentages of entrepreneurs that generated between $10,001 to $50,000 have increased from 15% before the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme to 28% of the total entrepreneurs after completing the Entrepreneurship Programme.
“It is also worthy to note that upon completing the Entrepreneurship Programme, the number of entrepreneurs that generate $50,000 and above have increased by 273% from 51 entrepreneurs before the Entrepreneurship Programme to 190 entrepreneurs”.
This is an indication that the entrepreneurs experienced a phenomenal growth in revenue of more than 100% after the Entrepreneurship Programme.
The Founder of the Tony Elumely Foundation, Tony Elumelu, said: “Our programme which is both sector agnostic and pan-African – empowering entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries – has directly impacted 4,470 entrepreneurs and is globally regarded as the single largest endowment to African entrepreneurs as a result of our scale, capital commitment and opportunities offered”.
“Thus, it is with great pleasure that I introduce the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme 2015-2017 Progress Report which showcases the depth of the Foundation’s impact on the businesses of thousands of beneficiaries”, Mr Elumelu added.
He continued: “The findings from this report are startling! On the average, revenue generated by our entrepreneurs increased by 189% post-graduation from the Programme, and jobs created increased by 197%.
These figures validate my conviction that the private sector must be the core driver of Africa’s economic transformation. With this report, TEF demonstrates beyond doubt, its commitment to democratising luck and access to opportunities for success for African entrepreneurs. Indeed, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is the most impactful project of my life”.
Some key performers
Osazoduwa Agboneni, CEO of Nenis Engineering Limited and a 2015 Tony Elumelu entrepreneur from Lagos, Nigeria also one of the few female mechanics in Nigeria. Osazoduwa Agboneni’s revenue since joining the programme has increased from 0 to $92,400 annually.
In 2016, Osazoduwa made partnership with UBER to handle professional vehicle inspection for over 4,000 UBER cars. Following the receipt of her seed capital, she upgraded her auto garage to have a standardised mechanical pit, she added new garage door, and engine lift, new equipment and special tools and went on to employ an additional 15 people making a total workforce of 25.
Another example is Kennedy Lamwenya, CEO of Angaza Boma (currently SunPoynt LTD) and a 2015 Tony Elumelu entrepreneur from Uganda.
Angaza Boma’s revenue since joining the Programme has increased by over 1000% from $18,000 at the start of the Programme to $292,800 currently.
Angaza Boma has developed a 19-inch LED digital solar-powered TV, which provides off-grid households with television services as well as access to clean solar lighting.
By so doing, this innovative solar powered TV system connects rural communities to information, education, entertainment, solar lighting and phone charging. So far, the company has connected at least 12,500 rural households in Kenya.
Jobs created by TEF entrepreneurs
Some of these young entrepreneur businesses have started bearing early fruits. For instance, The Gambian beneficiary of the programme started with a team of a few people to creating employment for some 146 people at his company, Tropingo Foods, a food processing company which focuses on adding value to the fruits industry.
Momarr Taal turned over $1.6 million in 2015 and currently exports to Asia, Europe, among other places. He chalked this feat through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme that he managed to make his business dream to come a reality.
Another good example of the significant increase in job creation by one of TEF entrepreneurs is shown by Exportunity founded by TEF Benin entrepreneur, Vital Sounouvou, a 2015 Tony Elumelu entrepreneur and CEO of Exportunity.
Today, Exportunity employs 32 people, a 540% increase from the 5 people the company employed at the time of joining the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
Exportunity is an exclusive virtual market that organizes and manages B2C and B2B trade in Africa. It allows producers to sell their production upstream, as well as allowing buyers from across the world to place their orders with an African-stop shop. Exportunity has been able to facilitate a large amount of transactions and trades through its platform.
It currently has a database of 85,000 companies across the continent that utilise that platform to facilitate trade and business.
It is very clear that many of the businesses on the programme have indeed experienced high growth in revenues or jobs or both, regardless of the stage of business.
There is evidence that the programme supports growth regardless of the stage of business. This is revealed in the more than 100% growth in the revenue generated by the entrepreneurs after completing the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
How will the next five years of TEF Entrepreneurship Programe be like?
That will be the 10 years of the programme’s $100 million commitment, to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs, who will create a million jobs, and add $10 billion in revenue to Africa’s economy.
For the realists, more jobs will be created by the beneficiaries of the programme for the teeming unemployed African youth who risk their lives on boats to migrate to Europe in search of menial jobs.
On other hand, the porous business climate which Mr Elumelu has been engaging with African leaders to do something about it would have been improved completely.
In sum, it is abundant clear that entrepreneurship is key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering Africans to solve their challenges without dependence on aid from western countries.
These young entrepreneurs are willing to revolutionalise all sectors of the economies in their home countries with the enabling power of technologies.
It is therefore emphatic that Africa has tremendous potential entrepreneurs with great and creative ideas that can change the course of the African continent. But they need people like Mr Elumelu to turn their ‘crazy’ creative ideas into goldmines.
African Eye Report
