Unlocking Africa’s Entrepreneurial Spirit through Tony Elumelu Foundation
Tony Elumelu
Unlocking Africa’s Entrepreneurial Spirit through Tony Elumelu Foundation
Africa has always been described as a continent with untapped potential. The continent is notable for its rapidly expanding consumer markets as well as its huge youth population. This provides opportunities for start-ups and young Africans who have entrepreneurial spirits to thrive.
Access to finance and mentorship, however, are some of the constraints that confront fledgling entrepreneurs in the region. This is a gap the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has been trying to fill in the past 10 years. The TEF recently announced that applications are now open for its 2025 Entrepreneurship Programmes.
The Africa’s leading champion of entrepreneurship application opened January 1, 2025 and would be on till March 1, 2025, and applicants are encouraged to complete and submit their applications well ahead of the deadline.
The 2025 Entrepreneurship Programmes is an opportunity for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs across Africa to apply for a chance to receive world-class training, expert mentoring, and non-refundable seed capital funding to scale their businesses.
The Foundation stated that the flagship TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is open to all entrepreneurs across Africa with innovative business ideas or existing businesses not older than five years.
“This year, there is a special emphasis on businesses leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and green initiatives. Applicants must be at least 18 years old,” it stated.
The programme also opened for the IYBA-WE4A Entrepreneurship Programme.
“Launched by the Tony Elumelu Foundation in partnership with the European Union (EU) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), IYBA-WE4A stands for Investing in Young Businesses in Africa – Women Entrepreneurship for Africa and is exclusively for women entrepreneurs with green business ideas or existing green businesses in Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, and Togo. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, with businesses not exceeding five years in operation,” it explained on IYBA-WE4A Entrepreneurship Programme.
For the Aguka Ideation Programme, the TEF explained: “The Aguka Ideation Entrepreneurship Programme is a partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNDP Rwanda and the Rwandan Ministry of Youths and Arts to support young Rwandan entrepreneurs between 18 -30 with business ideas with a seed capital of $3000, with the aim of nurturing and developing innovative concepts into viable enterprises.”
Applications are to be submitted through TEF’s proprietary digital hub, TEFConnect.
On eligibility, “the programme is open to African entrepreneurs with scalable business ideas or existing businesses not older than five years. Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
“To learn more about the TEF’s transformative work and the success of our African entrepreneurs. Applicant can explore: impact report, which highlights the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s achievements and contributions to Africa’s economic growth; African Entrepreneurs’ Success Stories, showcasing the inspiring journeys of Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs and annual reports that offers insights into the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s strategies and outcomes,” it added.
Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has provided up to 2.5 million young Africans with access to training on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over $100 million in direct funding to over 21,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 800,000 direct and indirect jobs, and generated over $4.2 billion in revenue.
Founder of the TEF, Mr. Tony Elumelu, said the organisation has so far lifted over two million individuals out of poverty in Africa. Elumelu disclosed that 2.5 million Africans had accessed training through TEFConnect, an online portal.
The chairman of Heirs Holdings Group made the assertions in his keynote remarks at the Legacy Builders Palm Beach Conference, with theme, “Democratising Luck”, in United States of America (USA).
He stated that TEF had disbursed more than $100 million in direct funding to over 21,000 beneficiaries, who had created 1.5 million jobs, and generated $4.2 billion in revenue across the continent.
According to Elumelu, young entrepreneurs have the potential to transform the continent. He stressed that in 2015 his foundation committed $100 million to identify, train, and fund the businesses of African entrepreneurs over 10 years.
“Because of that belief that entrepreneurs hold the key to unlocking Africa’s untapped potential. They are the innovators, the dreamers, and the builders who can transform not only their own lives but entire economies,” he added.
Elumelu said his journey in life had been shaped by a combination of luck, opportunity, grit, and resilience.
He stated, “I am where I am today because I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time — I was prepared to seize the moment when luck presented itself. However, I believe luck and opportunity should not be reserved for a select few.
“We cannot claim to be rich when there is pervasive poverty that is evident all around us. This belief has always been guided by a question that fuels my purpose: how do I extend the same opportunity I had to young Africans who have not been as fortunate? How can I democratise luck?”
Elumelu said the youth in Africa inspired him, as they created jobs and eliminated poverty. He said their impact was being felt in their communities and across the continent as they came up with solutions that were transforming Africa.
He said, “My greatest fulfilment comes from the legacy we are building, the lives we are transforming, and the profound impact of what The Tony Elumelu Foundation now represents. However, there is still more to be done. Every young African with a dream should have a fair shot at realising it.
“Democratising luck is not just about finance—it is about knowledge-sharing, about mentorship, about building networks that support and uplift. We must create a continent where young entrepreneurs are not paralysed by systemic barriers, but propelled forward by opportunity. We will bring back hope.
“To those who have achieved success, I say this: we must do more. Become a mentor, an investor, a champion for those who only need a chance. Africa will not rise by chance—it will rise because of deliberate action, because of people who refuse to accept the status quo and choose, instead, to create the future we deserve.
“I am not interested in looking backward – I don’t look at historic causes of our problems – but at the current solutions.
“I invite each of you to explore how you can be part of our mission to drive meaningful and sustainable impact. Together, we can transform the African continent, one entrepreneur at a time.
“Join us as we democratise luck, and we will create a future where every African can dream—and achieve.”
Elumelu, strongly believes that entrepreneurship is a vital tool for eradicating poverty in Africa. More importantly, for him, entrepreneurship would get youths in the continent busy and keep them out of social vices as well as create employment opportunities in the continent.
According to the Chairman and Founder of Heirs Holdings, Africa’s development requires massive private global capital to fire and power investments in the area of infrastructure, to create employment and eradicate poverty.
Elumelu said the TEF has been quite phenomenal in terms of trying to lift young Africans out of poverty and to help create massive employment in the continent.
“What the TEF is doing is trying to democratise luck and trying to improve access to economic opportunities, remembering our own story – trying to ensure that we are able to support those who have ideas. Unfortunately, we are not able to support everyone,
“We see successes, and we hear stories of how these young men and women from Africa are succeeding. And when I hear their stories I tell myself that indeed the future of Africa is in these young ones. “I tell my friends that there is the need to partner to do more. – wealth for one is not enough, we should democratise access to wealth, we should make sure that Africa, like I always say, is the next frontier, and that our young ones are prioritised and are given hope and opportunity, so that they do not go into extremism,” he said.
Elumelu’s philosophy of “Africapitalism” is based on the premise that the continent cannot grow solely through the government, and that the private sector should actively invest even when — especially when — socio-economic conditions are tough.
“We can sit here today and the easiest part of the conversation would be to talk about all the things that have gone wrong, all the things that people have failed to do.
“But therein lies the philosophy of Africapitalism. For far too long, we have blamed foreign powers. We have blamed our own leaders. But what are we as the private sector doing to make things better? It’s a call on the private sector to stand up and show the way. Let us show the way through what is in our own power. We have the power to make investment decisions,” he said in a recent interview on Financial Times.
