The 6th edition of Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme is currently open to application from entrepreneurs. This opportunity is open to African startup entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas or businesses in any sector, who have only existed for less than 3 years.
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This is an amazing opportunity to get funding and training for your business, so hurry now and apply. You can apply through the foundation’s digital networking hub which was created for African entrepreneurship ecosystem, TEFConnect.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme is the largest African philanthropic initiative. It was launched in 2015 with the commitment to empower entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in Africa.
Initially, the program started with a $100million commitment by the Elumelu family to empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs over a 10-year period. The aim is to create at least 1 million jobs and contribute over $10 billion in revenue to the African economy. A lot of international and local organisations has since bought into the vision and has continued to empower entrepreneurs through funding.
The foundation has successfully organised 5 editions of the program with the 6th edition set to hold in 2020. Altogether, it has empowered over 9,000 entrepreneurs in 54 African countries thus far.
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Eligibility Criteria
The opportunity is solely open to African entrepreneurs whose business is a start up and less than three years old.
The selected panel will consider applications that fulfill the following criteria;
- Feasibility of the business idea
- Market Opportunity: The knowledge and understanding of the market, customers and competitors for their idea/business.
- Financial Understanding: Understanding of the basic financial requirements of running a business, costs and revenues
- Scalability: Demonstrates potential for replication and growth of their product or service to create jobs and wealth.
- Leadership Potential and Entrepreneurial Skills: Demonstrate leadership potential capable of attracting people, customers and resources.
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How To Apply
- Visit application.tefconnect.com and sign up
- Complete the application form
- Click Submit. You will receive a notification of your result.
Please Note: If you visit the home page, tefconnect.com, ensure to click on ‘Application’ to begin the 3 step process.
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Benefits Of The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme
If your application is selected, you will have access to;
- Business Training
- Mentorship
- Seed capital and,
- Global networking opportunities.
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The Tony Elumelu Foundation
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is an African private-sector-led philanthropy focused on empowering African entrepreneurs. It was created in 2010 by Tony O. Elumelu, CON, an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, who is passionate about Africa’s economic development.
In 2018, the Foundation launched TEFConnect, Africa’s digital entrepreneurship hub to connect the entrepreneurship ecosystem and facilitate businesses beyond physical borders. Currently, the platform hosts 800,000 users.
Besides this, there are other empowerment programs that has been organised by the foundation like: Elumelu Empowerment Fund; Tony & Awele Elumelu Fund, Nigeria 50 and Elumelu Professional Programmes (EPP). However, several of these programs came to a halt in 2015 when the entrepreneurship program was born.
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In conclusion, the Tony Elumelu Foundation believes that the private sector holds the key to unlocking Africa’s economic potential, therefore it has been channeling its strength to achieving this goal.
Application for the programme is ongoing, and will close on March 1, 2020.
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