BusinessTony Elumelu Foundation Holds Prospects For US-Africa Deal

Tony Elumelu Foundation Holds Prospects For US-Africa Deal

There are strong indications that Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), a leading philanthropy and non-profit organisation, empowering African entrepreneurs, especially the youth, from all 54 African countries, will serve as a vehicle to actualise the dream of industrialising the continent and lifting its people from poverty, as recently enunciated in the recent US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington.

The three-day Summit (December 13-15) was hosted by President Joe Biden to demonstrate the US government enduring commitment to Africa. It was also aimed at building on what the US describes as shared values to better foster new economic engagement, advance peace, security, and good governance, promote education and youth development, among others values.

The US department of state wrote on a page dedicated to the Summit on its website, that “Africa will shape the future – not just the future of the African people, but of the world.” It further says Africa will make the difference in tackling the most urgent challenges and seizing the opportunities we all face, but how and when this will become a reality, is yet unanswered.

This is where the role of TEF becomes imperative and urgent having laid the foundation for this objective since 2010 when the Foundation was created and having demonstrated that achieving the goals is possible. A pioneer member of the Global Impact Investment Rating System (GIIRS), the Foundation has so far empowered over 10,000 African entrepreneurs across 54 African countries through its philosophy of Africapitalism.

Africapitalism is the economic philosophy developed by our Founder and Chairman, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, CON, and is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development.

According to the Foundation, Africapitalism is a call-to-action for businesses to make decisions that will increase economic and social wealth, and promote development in the communities and nations in which they operate. Such a decision will ultimately help businesses become more profitable as the communities they serve become well-off consumers, healthy and better-educated employees, and even entrepreneurs who go on to become suppliers and service providers.

“Africapitalism means we cannot leave the business of development up to our governments, donor countries, and philanthropic organizations alone. The private sector must be involved in the business of development.” This has been demonstrated through many entrepreneurial initiatives that have impacted meaningfully on the economic renaissance of the continent.

In 2015, TEF consolidated its various programmes and Initiatives and made investing in Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders a priority. According to the Foundation, the future of TEF centres on the provision of structured, robust, and multifaceted support to entrepreneurs around Africa through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

In 2021 alone, TEF selected 4,949 entrepreneurs from across Africa for its 2021 Entrepreneurship Programme. It explained through a statement that the 2021 beneficiaries were selected from a pool of over 400,000 applications, based on their innovation, performance, and growth potential to create jobs and eradicate poverty on the continent. The beneficiaries consisted of both new start-ups and existing small businesses who had undergone world-class business training, mentorship and coaching and will have a life-time access to the Tony Elumelu Foundation alumni network.

Elumelu also joined partners to empower 100 million Sahel youths in 2021 in a project tagged “Generation Unlimited (Gen U) Sahel” which would focus on the provision of relevant skills, opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact for people in the Sahel region. The programme is an initiative that is aimed at maximising opportunities in the Sahel, towards equipping 100 million young people with the skills needed to thrive by 2030.

The Sahel region includes Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

Mr Elumelu said his foundation, which has empowered thousands across the 54 African countries, was proud to be co-implementers for the Gen-U programme. He noted that the foundation has funded 10,898 entrepreneurs across Africa, who have gone on to create further 400,000 direct and indirect jobs across the continent.

“In 2019, we partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to identify, train, mentor and fund 2100 young entrepreneurs in the Sahel region and this include Northern Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger , Chad, Cameroon and Mauritania.

“Again in 2020, we partnered with UNDP to fund and train 1860 young Malians, who face threats of conflicts, insecurity and poverty, as well as loss of livelihood from climate change through our intervention, we were able to create small businesses and generate economic growth in the youth, channeling their creativity and skills to transform the sahel region,” he said..

The U.S. Africa Leaders’ Summit concluded with a pledge of $55 billion-dollar investment in Africa, plus a hint of a presidential visit to the continent. The White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan said that the U.S. is committed to investing in the African continent compared favourably to other countries. The money will go to “a wide range of sectors to tackle the core challenges of our time,” and is being distributed in close partnership with Congress, Sullivan said.

Analysts believe that building on the milestone by TEF to accelerate economic development of the continent through entrepreneurship is the best way to pursue the US strategy towards socio-economic development of Africa.

A Labour Economist, Mike Abbah, urged the US and African leaders to leverage on the milestone recorded by TEF to ensure a seamless implementation of their programme because the $55 billion promise is a mere intention. They own the skill, the expertise, the equipment and the knowledge.

“There is a structure on the ground already, and that is what the TEF has achieved all these years. If the US is determined to achieve the objective of the US-Africa Leadership Summit deal, they should co-opt Tony Elumelu and adopt the philosophy of his Africanomics. I am confident that TEF holds the key to the success of the US government’s $55 billion initiative in Africa,” said Abbah in a telephone chat.

He apparently echoed Elumelu’s message at the 2021 TEF Programme: “To our African leaders – these young, intelligent, energetic, hardworking, resilient Africans are ready to go. We need to keep creating the right enabling environment to enable our young ones to succeed. We must realise that their success is success for all of us on the continent.

“We must prioritise them because nations and continents that prioritise their people, succeed. To my fellow business leaders, let us realise that in the 21st century and beyond, it is about impact, legacy and about how we work together to power people out of poverty. It is such a great feeling to see 5,000 young Africans also commence their own entrepreneurial journeys today.”

About the Author

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Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.

Sam Diala, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.

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