Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will on November 12 announce the 2021 beneficiaries of the annual TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in Lagos.
The beneficiaries — 4,800 African entrepreneurs chosen from all 54 African countries — will be unveiled at the event which will also be streamed online.
This year’s beneficiaries have been chosen from a pool of over 400,000 applications, selected based on their innovative and impactful business ideas.
In line with the foundation’s mission to catalyse entrepreneurship in Africa, the selected beneficiaries will consist of both new start-ups and existing young businesses in varying operational stages across different sectors.
As part of TEF’s objectives to ensure that African entrepreneurs are well equipped to build investable and profitable businesses, each beneficiary has undergone world-class business management training and mentorship conducted exclusively on TEFConnect, the foundation’s proprietary digital platform that provides capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 million Africans and counting.
The platform’s unique training curriculum covered insightful topics such as Starting Your Business, Business Management and Fundamentals, Leadership and Business Growth, Marketing Strategy, Product Design, and Selecting and Building a Team, among others.
Commenting ahead of the announcement, TEF CEO Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu said: “This year, with support from our global partners, we will be scaling our impact and empowering nearly 5000 entrepreneurs. A major priority for us at the foundation for 2021 remains the economic recovery of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) following the Covid-19 disruption to economic activities.
“We are very excited to be unveiling the 2021 cohort of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship programme. I believe the $5,000 we are giving to each entrepreneur will address some pressing demands and reduce the burden brought about by the pandemic.”
She added, “Year after year, we are greatly inspired by the tenacity and quality of business ideas that come out of Africa. This only proves that young Africans need organisations like the Tony Elumelu Foundation who are willing to take a chance on them and their ideas.”
Through the $100million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme which launched in 2015, the foundation, among other things, gives beneficiaries $5,000 non-refundable seed capital, and networking opportunities to promote their businesses to a global audience.