Going well beyond its initial promise, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has provided mentorship and a seed grant of $5,000 each to more than 27,000 entrepreneurs. The foundation’s 12th cohort is more than triple the size of its initial group of 1,000. More than half are women, up from roughly a fifth in the early years.
Applications still far exceed the number of openings, so the foundation has turned training materials into free online programs that have reached over 2.5 million people. Alumni have started ventures in everything from agriculture to video games, cumulatively generating $4.2 billion in revenue, according to the foundation’s count.
The program has grown with the help of partnerships with the U.N. Development Programme, the European Commission, as well as French and German development agencies, and corporate philanthropies like Google.org and the Ikea Foundation.
Tony, who has long criticized Africa’s dependence on foreign aid, sees such partnerships as a more sustainable approach to growth. “We should not intervene in Africa in a manner that makes us perpetually dependent on it,” he says, but instead “in a manner that prepares us to take care and look after ourselves with dignity.”
Meanwhile, philanthropy isn’t a fad for 63 year-old Elumelu.
The founder and chairman of Heirs Holdings, an investment conglomerate with interests in power, oil and gas, real estate, agribusiness, and financial services sectors, has been one of Nigeria’s top philanthropist for more than a decades, giving away over $100 million.
Elumelu, who was once listed as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2020, has been a game changer and builder of the grassroots.
He is a leading proponent of ‘Africapitalism’, a belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development through long-term investments, as well as entrepreneurship and regional connectivity.
This latest TIME prestigious recognition reflects his transformative impact of entrepreneurship-led development across Africa and the growing global relevance of Africapitalism —the belief that Africa’s private sector, especially its young entrepreneurs, must lead the continent’s economic and social transformation.
Since 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has:
✔ Empowered over 2.5 million young Africans though access to training on @TefConnect
✔ Disbursed over US$100 million in seed capital to 27,000+ entrepreneurs
✔ Helped create 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs
✔ Lifted 2.1 million Africans above the poverty line
✔ Positively impacted over 4 million households across the continent.