The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Madam Owen Omogiafo says the intake of female entrepreneurs into the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, the largest African philanthropic initiative has improved this year.
According to her, out of the 1,000 entrepreneurs selected for the third edition of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, 39 percent of them are female entrepreneurs, up by 36 percent.
“Last year, 68 percent of the programme were male entrepreneurs, while 32 percent were female entrepreneurs. But this year, we have 61 percent being male and 39 percent female entrepreneurs from 52 African countries including Ghana”, Madam Omogiafo told African Eye Report in Accra, Ghana where she was attending British Council Enterprise Africa Summit.
She added nine countries this year had 100 percent female representation in the top 1,000 namely Algeria, Angola, Comoros, Cape Verde, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sudan, and Tunisia.
Madam Omogiafo used the opportunity to explain the recent selection of the 1,000 young African entrepreneurs from over 93,000 entrepreneurs, from 55 countries and territories in Africa.
Touching on what accounted for the increase female participation, she said: “We have targeted marketing programmes aimed at encouraging more women to apply for the programme. The Foundation also had webinars, seminars conducted over the Internet to attract more women to enter for the programme”.
Additionally, some alumni of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme organised workshops on their own volition to encourage more women to participate in the programme. All these activities have led to the increase of the female enrollment, Madam Omogiafo stated.
When asked whether the Foundation was going to give a quota to female entrepreneurs in the next editions of the programme, Madam Omogiafo answered in the negative. Explaining that the Foundation’s selection shall base on merit forever.
Next Steps
After the announcement of this year’s 1,000 entrepreneurs on 2rd March which brought the total number of beneficiaries to 3,000, The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s COO said the entrepreneurial journey of the new entrants had just begun.
“So, the 1,000 who were just announced are now on the journey to becoming full-fledged Tony Elumelu Foundation’s TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. They are just people with the ideas”.
Madam Omogiafo explained that; “of the 1,000 entrepreneurs, most of them are in their idea stage. So, after being chosen, the Tony Elumelu Foundation does a due diligence on the 1,000 selected entrepreneurs”.
The purpose of the due diligence, according to her is first to establish the true identity of each entrepreneur to confirm who the person is, and he or her business idea. Secondly, to induct them into the TEF Programme, and thirdly, to let them know the various documentations they need to be provided to the Foundation.
Madam Omogiafo added that after going through the due diligence stage, they will be registered online on the TEF Hub which has the objective of becoming the largest virtual ecosystem for African entrepreneurs.
From here, the 1,000 selected entrepreneurs will start a 12-week training programme in the first week of May to equip these start-ups with the basic skills required to launch and run their businesses at early growth stage.
It covers several topics including starting and scaling a business, business development, marketing strategy, effective management, product design etc.
During the same period she said, each of them will have a mentor assigned to them. The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme model, according to her provides a credible technology-enabled platform for access to world-class mentors from across Africa and international.
These mentors have faced similar challenges and are able to steer up the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme startups on a successful path. “These mentors’ role is to guide them on the journey of entrepreneurship”, Madam Omogiafo stressed.
Besides these, “during the 12-week and beyond, we have webinars to further train and share tips, lessons, best practices, and the general words of encouragements”. In addition to this, a bespoke compendium of materials, case studies, videos, tasks, templates and interesting articles.
This includes the 12-week series on the Tony Elumelu (TOE) Way, shared concurrently. It expounds the core business values of the Founder, Tony Elumelu, with an aim to building the right character in the entrepreneurs.
After the 12-week training programme, Madam Omogiafo eloquently said the entrepreneurs are required to write their business plans at the end of the 12-week training session. The written business plans will contain a much-detailed plan of their business ideas.
Their business plans are reviewed by Accenture, a leading global management consulting and professional services company which provides strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations services, which gives the 1,000 selected entrepreneurs feedback on the business plans which they will be implemented, she told the website.
So, all these steps culminated into the annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum which has been described as the largest gathering of entrepreneurs in Africa. It is normally held in Lagos, Nigeria in the month of October.
“We use the forum to create networking opportunities for the young entrepreneurs, further skills enhancement, engagement with policy makers, and building new relationships for themselves”, Madam Omogiafo emphasised.
She was quick to add that having successfully gone through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, each entrepreneur receives two tranches of seed capital, totaling US$10,000. A first stage non-returnable seed capital of US$5,000 is given to each entrepreneur . While the second US$5,000 is either a loan or equity, and is tied to clear milestones in a well articulated and relevant business plan.
After successfully going through the whole TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, all the selected 1,000 entrepreneurs receive certificates personally signed by Tony Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. They also receive entrepreneurship toolkits.
Madam Omogiafo used the occasion to call on other corporate organisations to sponsor more entrepreneurs to participate in the programme.
She reiterated that the Foundation’s long-term investment in empowering African entrepreneurs is emblematic of Tony Elumelu’s 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.
Instructively, established in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy in Africa championing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs across the continent.
The Foundation’s flagship initiative, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, is a 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train mentor and fund 10,000 entrepreneurs, capable of changing the face of business across Africa.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
