Tony Elumelu Foundation Releases First Tranche of $5m AfDB Partnership commitment

Banking mogul and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu, has hailed the African Development Bank (AfDB), and its President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, on their commitment to African entrepreneurship, with the disbursement of $2.5 million seed capital to the AfDB-sponsored beneficiaries of the 2019 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

The fund was released on Monday with the remainder expected to be disbursed to the entrepreneurs in the first quarter of the year.

The AfDB commitment follows the recent $8.5 million disbursements from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to 2,648 entrepreneurs in the Sahel region and Africa and further accelerates the economic empowerment generated by the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

In 2019, the foundation significantly increased the scale and reach of its 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 model of identifying, training, mentoring and funding entrepreneurs and start-ups across Africa.

The partnership demonstrates the implementation of the AfDB’s 10-year ‘Jobs for Youth in Africa’ strategy, launched in 2016, to support the creation of 25 million meaningful jobs across the continent.

TEF says the partnership illustrates its willingness to share its infrastructure and know-how with others who share the mission to empower young African entrepreneurs and its goal of creating millions of jobs, as well as generating billions in revenue, to catalyse economic growth across the continent.

The TEF is currently accepting applications to the 2020 cohort of its flagship entrepreneurship programme on TEFConnect.com.