A seed capital of $2.5 million was disbursed on Wednesday to African Development Bank sponsored beneficiaries of the 2019 Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).
The founder of the Foundation, Tony Elumelu, who congratulated the beneficiaries, who were spread across Africa for the opportunity, also commended the African Development Bank (AfDB), and its President Professor Akinwumi Adesina, for their commitment to African entrepreneurship.
He said though the first tranche of $2.5 million seed capital is being disbursed to each of the beneficiaries of the AfDB sponsored 2019 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, the final and last tranche would be disbursed to the entrepreneurs before the end of Q1, 2020.
The AfDB commitment follows the recent $8.5 million disbursement from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to 2,648 entrepreneurs in the Sahel region and Africa more broadly and further accelerates the economic empowerment generated by the Tony Elumelu Foundation. In 2019, the Foundation significantly increased the scale and reach of it impact, with the number of beneficiaries of its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme rising from its annual commitment of 1,000, to 5,150, in collaboration with global and African partners.
With its commitment to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises and develop young entrepreneurs, AfDB joined the growing list of global development institutions benefiting from the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s unique model of identifying, training, mentoring and funding entrepreneurs and start-ups across Africa. The partnership demonstrates the implementation of the AfDB’s ten-year “Jobs for Youth in Africa” strategy, launched in 2016, to support the creation of 25 million meaningful jobs across the continent.
The partnership illustrates TEF’s willingness to share its infrastructure and know-how, with others who share the mission to empower young African entrepreneurs and TEF’s goal of creating millions of jobs, as well as generating billions in revenue, to catalyse economic growth across the continent.
The Foundation is currently accepting applications to the 2020 cohort of its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme on TEFConnect.com, Africa’s digital hub for entrepreneurs.