Who: Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme
What, Why, When: The Tony Elumelu
Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) was established by The Tony
Elumelu Foundation (TEF) in 2015 with funding of US$100million over
a 10-year period to promote entrepreneurship across multiple
sectors in Africa. The purpose of the TEEP is to identify and
empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs and in the process, create a
million jobs as well as adding US$10bn in revenues to the
continent's economy. TEEP is to achieve this in part by linking
African entrepreneurs with several stakeholders including
governments, corporates, intermediary organisations as well as
investors. In response to this, by March 2016 over 45,000
entrepreneurs from the 54 African countries applied for the fund.
Following the completion of a 12-week online workshop, Nigerian,
Kenyan and Ugandan start-ups1 accounted for more than
three quarters of 1000 entrepreneurs that emerged as some of the
beneficiaries of the fund.
Outlook: With the African population
projected to double from the current figures of 1.2 bn to 2.5 bn by
2050, the need for governments to create the requisite enabling
environment for job creation cannot be overemphasised2.
Equally, by the middle of the century, the number of young people
in Africa will also expand considerably3 coupled with
the pressures of youth unemployment which presently stands at
12%4 across sub-Saharan Africa.
TEEP's allocation of seed capital to start-ups or entrepreneurs
is not restricted to the youth alone, but extends to individuals
with innovative business ideas between18 to 54 years. Tony Elumelu,
Chairman of various organisations including UBA Group plc, is
filling a critical gap for entrepreneurs by providing start-up
capital. In March 2016, TEEP had disbursed US$8m, with US$5m in the
form of seed capital to entrepreneurs. With the increasing
roles that digital and knowledge economies are playing in driving
global GDP, TEEP has the potential to make a significant and
positive impact across Africa in support of SMEs, which account for
80% of all jobs on the continent.
Footnotes
1
http://tonyelumelufoundation.org/teep/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/TEEP_1000_NAMES_2016.pdf
2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34188248
3
http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html
4
http://acetforafrica.org/highlights/unemployment-in-africa-no-jobs-for-50-of-graduates/
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