There’s a better way to develop Africa than aid– Elumelu

Billionaire businessman, Tony Elumelu, has expressed a commitment to eradicating poverty on the African continent through the empowerment of entrepreneurs.

Elumelu said this on Friday at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme and announcement of the 2024 beneficiaries of the programme which held at the UBA building in Marina, Lagos.

The founder TEF added that the motive for the foundation was to show practical example to the world that there is a better way to develop Africa than through foreign aids.

According to African Arguments, since 1960, Africa has received billions of dollars in aid. In the last 30 years alone, one estimate puts aid to the continent at $1.2tn, though distributed very unevenly across the continent.

Elumelu said, “This is just phase one and we are just getting started. Unless and until we eradicate poverty in Africa by Africans leading and showing the way, we cannot stop. We have 1.2 billion people in Africa, the poverty level is very high, our young ones are over 60 per cent, and we need to create jobs for them. We need them to empower to create jobs for themselves. That is why we do what we do. We are just getting started, we aspire to increase our impact and scale. We want to do more.”

Responding to questions about the future of the foundation, Elumelu said that TEF keeps track of beneficiaries and how they are doing.

“For us, what gets measured, gets done. We track how the beneficiaries are succeeding and impacting humanity, society and their communities. They have generated $1.2bn in revenue in their businesses. All have not succeeded but we told ourselves from the beginning that it was not about 100 per cent success, that even if 40, 50 per cent of our beneficiaries succeed, let’s through them eradicate poverty but more importantly show others. We are trying to crowd others into this space of entrepreneurship. We are trying to encourage other Africans and global citizens that we are in the 21st century there is a better way to give, a better way to develop Africa than just aid.

“If you ask for impact, we have created jobs, we have grown businesses but more importantly we have shown the light, we have told people in Africa our young people need support, mentors, and financial support to help them start their business and collectively we can develop Africa in a manner that is truly sustainable in the 21st century.”

Elumelu, whose birthday was on Friday revealed that the announcement of the 2024 beneficiaries of the Entrepreneurship Programme was a worthwhile avenue to mark his birthday.

“Today, I’m plus one and both my family and I, thought there was no better way to celebrate than announcing the 2024 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme beneficiaries. 1,104 beneficiaries as you heard from our partners from EY. These 1,104 young men and women from 54 African countries will each receive $5,000 non-refundable seed capital. We believe in spreading luck, we believe in democratising luck.

“We believe in spreading prosperity and we believe that the best way to spread prosperity in Africa is by identifying our young ones, encouraging them and helping them to start their own businesses. This is why we have done this. Awele (his wife) and I started this journey 10 years ago. We sought to democratise luck and improve lives. We are happy with the results we are seeing today.

“Today, over 20,000 young men and women from across Africa have received over $100m in support of their projects. We are happy to see our young ones progressing. We are happy to see that what we started alone as Tony Elumelu Foundation, we have been able to identiy and partner with other global institutions.

“Today is a day of impact, a day of gratitude and most importantly a day of reflection for me personally because God has been kind in so many ways to me,” he said.

He added that the foundation was set up not out of abundance but a desire to spread prosperity, saying, “My family and I do what we do not from the abundance of wealth but the realisation that poverty anywhere is a threat to us everywhere and that we cannot live alone in prosperity.

“Today, I’m happy that we have continued to spread that prosperity not just in Nigeria, not just in our family but in all 54 African countries. I’m that in our lifetime we are able to impact the next generation.”

In his presentation at the event, EY Partner, Damilola Aloba, who disclosed the beneficiaries and the methodology used in selecting them said that the 1,104 beneficiaries were selected from the 54 African countries.

He said “TEF appointed EY to review the 2024 applications. There were 1485 applications from Nigeria, 240 from Benin Republic and 825 from the rest of Africa. We looked at the feasibility of the ideas, business plans, financial knowledge of the applicants, leadership of the business and their entrepreneurship skills.”

A shortlist was arrived at which consisted of 590 applicants from Nigeria, 109 from Benin Republic and 405 from the rest of Africa.

TEF was founded in 2010 and the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme was launched in 2015. Since the, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly $100m in direct funding to over 20,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Also speaking during the event, the co-founder of TEF, Dr Awele Elumelu, expressed delight at the success of the foundation and urged the beneficiaries to utilise the opportunity in shaping the future of Africa.

“It’s been a wonderful journey so far. From the beginning, we had a clear vision of eradicating poverty and empowering African men and women. We have indeed fulfilled a promise today. I express my gratitude to all the participants from 2015 when the programme started,” she said.

A beneficiary of the TEF in 2015 and founder of Mama Moni, Nkem Okocha, appreciated the foundation for the opportunity and its impact in Africa.