- European Union joins growing list of international TEF partners driving entrepreneurship development
- Joint partnership to empower 2,500 women from 54 African countries
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading
philanthropy committed to empowering young African entrepreneurs, has announced
a partnership with the European Union to identify, train, mentor and fund 2,500
young African women entrepreneurs in 2021.
The partnership will disburse €20 million in financial and technical
support for women-owned businesses, across all 54 African countries, in
addition to providing increased access to market linkages, supply chains and
venture capital investments.
The joint initiative will significantly strengthen and
deepen the EU-Africa partnership, builds on the platform and experience of the
US$100m TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, and forms part of the EU External
Investment Plan to support women economic empowerment within the EU Gender
Action Plan (GAP III).
Commenting on the landmark partnership, Tony Elumelu,
Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation said “We are delighted to partner with
the European Union, sharing our unique ability to identify, train, mentor and
fund young entrepreneurs across Africa.
This joint effort will prioritise and provide economic opportunities for
African women, whom for too long have endured systemic obstacles to starting,
growing and sustaining their businesses.
Our partnership will alleviate the funding, knowledge and market constraints
threatening the livelihoods of women entrepreneurs on the continent, to create
more income, jobs, growth and scale for women-owned businesses.”
The EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta
Urpilainen, said “This partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation will help
women participants in economic development, realise their full potential and
accelerate economic inclusion.
Empowering women entrepreneurs is a key driver for sustainable jobs and
growth, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in line with the
objectives of our African Strategy.
Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and they
deserve equal opportunities.”
The Tony Elumelu Foundation, which marks ten years of impact
this year, is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing
economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation across
all 54 African countries. The Foundation
has trained, mentored and funded nearly 10,000 young African entrepreneurs from
54 African countries, and continues to provide capacity-building support,
advisory and market linkages to over 1 million Africans through its digital
networking platform, TEFConnect.
TEF’s female success stories include Joyce Awojoodu, from
Nigeria, who launched a luxury botanically based product line and spa clinic in
Lagos, in 2015. The brand ORÍKÌ, caters
to both men and women, and strictly uses raw materials and natural ingredients
from Africa. Awojoodu’s favourite
element of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme was the mentorship, which she
described as “phenomenal”’ and “invaluable” for ORÍKÌ. In her own words, “each Tef Entrepreneur was
assigned a mentor and I could not have asked for a better one. TEF connected us. Now the mentorship continues, and I know I
will always have an ear to share my thoughts about the business with a person
who can also offer advice”.
Mavis Mduchwa, an agribusiness entrepreneur from Botswana,
founded Chabana Farms, a poultry farm providing training and work for
unemployed young people. Even though
agriculture accounts for 32% of Africa’s gross domestic product, landownership
and access to land remains a significant challenge for many farmers, especially
women. According to Mduchwa, “in
Botswana, about 80% of people survive on agriculture, and many of them are
women. But, if as a women you want to
turn it into a business, you have a challenge of finding land.” Mduchwa has used the seed capital and
training from TEF to significantly expand her operations.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the European Commission are
proud to partner to unlock the dynamic potential of African women
entrepreneurs, directly catalysing African’s economic growth and contributing
to Africa’s prosperity and social development.
The programme co-funded by the European Union, the
Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific State (OACPS), and the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), will further
scale the Foundation’s efforts in directly addressing some of the most endemic
challenges to African start-ups – skills and capacity gaps, financial
constraints and lack of access to mentoring, networks and market linkages.
Following completion of the programme, the entrepreneurs
will stay connected to partners and to each other through their lifetime
membership on TEFConnect. TEF has set up
Country Chapters in 54 African countries to support the entrepreneurs as they
grow and expand their businesses.
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