African Entrepreneurs Invited to Apply for Capital and Business Management Training

By Khalifa Hemed
Published January 10, 2022

Tony Elumelu Foundation invites African entrepreneurs with business ideas or existing businesses under five years to apply for US$5000 seed capital, mentorship, and business management training.

Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, the organisers say, has since 2015 empowered 15847 entrepreneurs across Africa with non-returnable seed capital of US$5000 each; twelve weeks of business management training; access to experienced mentors; and membership to Africa’s largest entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The foundation says the opportunity is open to entrepreneurs operating in any sector across Africa and that applications are to be made on tefconnect.com website.

“We are constantly blown away by the quality of businesses that come from Africa every year. This motivates us to scale our efforts to empower even more entrepreneurs on continent. The innovation, knowledge and resilience of African entrepreneurs is central to charting Africa’s socio-economic transformation and meet the continent’s development objectives. We are also proud of the increase in female participation on our Programme, especially with the 2021 cohort where we witnessed a record 68% selection of women entrepreneurs,” says Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, Chief Executive Officer of the foundation.

AV Elumelu, the Founding Trustee of the foundation, says: stated: “Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, we seek to democratise luck. Hard work plays an important and undeniable part in success, but one must not discount the role of luck – someone being willing to take a chance on you or business idea by empowering you through training, mentorship or funding. Our hope is that, through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, we would help the next business leader or captain of industry be whom they are meant to be. This is our own way to give back and also to empower the generation coming behind us so that they can go even further than we have. As a parent, one’s desire is for your children to do better than you and so you will provide the resources and materials that they need to ensure that they go far in life. Similarly, at the Foundation we are equipping the next generation with the tools they need to succeed.”