The Tony Elumelu Foundation has announced the launch of a US$100 million entrepreneurship programme, aiming to create 10,000 businesses spanning the African continent.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) is intended to create at least one million new jobs, and aims to contribute at least US$10 billion per year to Africa’s economy.
“The opportunity and challenge in Africa is scale – in our people, our resources and our horizons. In my business and philanthropic journeys, I have always sought ways to help inspire a generation across our continent. This programme brings together my own entrepreneurial experience and my fundamental belief that entrepreneurs – women and men across Africa – will lead Africa’s development and transform our futures,” said Tony O. Elumelu, CON, founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.
“The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme will offer a structured, multi-year opportunity to access funding, knowledge and perhaps most importantly mentoring, on a scale that is unprecedented in Africa – it is our opportunity to empower a generation,” he said.
The Foundation said the new programme is backed by “a commitment to giving startups and entrepreneurs with a dream the funds, the mentorship, and the network, to become the next generation of global business titans from Africa.”
1,000 startups will be selected from applicants invited continent-wide, with the successful applicants to participate in a comprehensive training programme, which is designed to prepare the entrepreneurs to build successful businesses capable of adding value.
The programme will include seed capital funding, a 12 week business skills course, mentorship, an entrepreneurship bootcamp, participation in the Elumelu Entrepreneurship Forum, among other benefits.
“Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone to African development and the key to local value creation in Africa. I am determined to ensure that Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs have the platform they need to turn their entrepreneurial aspirations into sustainable businesses that will drive economic growth and job creation across Africa,” Elumelu said.
Applications can be submitted between January 1 and March 1, 2015, via the progamme’s website, http://www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/teep/. Applications are accepted in English, French or Portuguese.
