Tony Elumelu foundation alumni access seed capital, mentors, training & networking opportunities

Che Azenyui Bruno

Che Azenyui Bruno is a Cameroonian Journalist and Social Entrepreneur. He is a 2019 beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme and Founder of Digifarms Africa.

Bethelhem Dejene Abebe

Bethelhem Dejene Abebe is the Co-founder and CEO of Zafree Papers, a company that is introducing a 100% tree-free paper pulp made from agricultural waste. Based in Ethiopia, Bethelhem’s company, Zafree makes pulp, paper and paper products 100% free from trees by using agricultural waste as an input instead of wood. The company operates in two African countries, Ethiopia and Zambia, following a Pan-African Business model aiming to duplicate Zafree in different African countries.

In 2019, Bethelhem was among the 2,100 African entrepreneurs selected to benefit from the TEF-UNDP Entrepreneurship Programme, where she received $5,000 seed capital, mentorship and the TEF business training on entrepreneurship. She has also been financed by the Development Bank of Ethiopia which enabled her to procure land in Debre Berhan’s industrial park for her soon to be built factory specially purposed for her innovative business process.

Her company deals directly with over 8,000 smallholder farmers, with customers across the continent.

Olasupo Abideen

Olasupo Abideen journey into entrepreneurship came from the need that he identified in his community. As a student of chemistry and volunteer to SDGs groups, Olasupotook a keen interest in clean, renewable energy, that could be used instead of orthodox fuelling options, and one of them was Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

In 2017, Olasupo took a loan from a friend, conducted intense market research, to start his first OPAB Gas station; a cooking gas company hinged on three things service offerings; convenience, safety, and trust. With the $5000 seed capital and business he received from the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2018, he expanded OPAB Gas station service deliver.

Like every entrepreneur looking for opportunities to upscale, Olasupo also founded “Know COVID-19 Nigeria”, an online platform established to debunk fake news and provide safety, health and precautionary tips that can help Nigerians stay informed and protected.

Read more about Olasupo Abideen

Olasupo Abideen ” My greatest achievement is being a 25yr old employer who employs 35 people and has trained 475 Others”

Nigerian-Based Entrepreneur, Olasupo Abideen Launches Media Initiative to Battle Fake News

Juliet Namujju

Juliet Namujju is the CEO of Kimuli Fashionability, a Ugandan fashion label on a mission to create a world made better with recyclable fashion.

Her story started with the loss of both her parents at an early stage of her life. While growing up, her grandmother who was a tailor taught her how to sew from waste. With the funds from sewing, she was able to fund her high school education and take a short course in Fashion and Design.

Juliet’s business, Kimuli Fashionability which is founded to create an equal opportunity for people with disabilities and for environmental conservation through recycling has been featured on CNN’s African Voices Changemakers. Currently, Juliet Namujju is selling her fashion in Uganda, Germany and Poland. In the future, she also wants to open up markets in Austria or even the United States.

Read more about Juliet Namujju

Meet the woman turning plastic waste into garments

Juliet Namujju’s Kimuli “Fashionability” Embraces Sustainable Fashion to Produce Face Masks in Uganda

Interview: Meet Juliet Namujju who turns waste into amazing outfits

Barbara Kamba-Nyathi

Barbara Kamba-Nyathi is an author, social psychologist, inspirational speaker, mediator, poet, entrepreneur, and lifestyle and wellness coach. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and the co-founder and CEO of Bold Dialogue Investments P/L, an organisation that aims to empower, inspire and guide women to become the best versions of themselves.

Bold Dialogue creates an atmosphere of healing, transformation and growth. In addition to bringing women together to support, mentor, and encourage one another, Bold Dialogue hosts vision boarding workshops that enable women to bring their dreams to life, and presents master classes on various topics that enable women to rise above their circumstances. Through its online activities, the organisation engages with women across the African continent.  Bold Dialogue also offers coaching and mentorship services, and publishes a newsletter that empowers women from the bedroom to the boardroom.

Barbara, who hails from Zimbabwe, is passionate about accompanying women along their healing journeys, guiding and coaching them towards emotional freedom. She is a woman who knows emotional pain too well, but has learned to work through life’s darkest storms and emerge stronger and more purpose-driven than ever before. She has survived cervical cancer, endometriosis, a hysterectomy, a divorce, abuse and also lives with an autoimmune disease. Barbara relates to women from all walks of life, experiencing various struggles. She understands what it is to be stripped of everything you had, and who you thought you were, and then redefine and rebuild your identity according to your own rules.

In recognition of her work towards women empowerment, she was named one of Amahle Magazine’s 25 most influential women in Zimbabwe for 2020.

Zion Oshiobugie

Clever Minds is a consultancy firm offering training and educational services to children in rural communities at affordable prices.

Zion and his team has provided education, skills training and entrepreneurship, lunch and school supplies to over 105 underprivileged /Orphaned children in their nursery and primary school in Warri, Delta state Nigeria.

They are currently supporting 20 other low-cost schools with training, books and other items to help them obtain a quality education.

Momarr Taal

Momarr Mass Taal is the founder and managing director of Tropingo Foods, which is currently the largest processor and exporter of processed foods in the Gambia.

Tropingo was founded in 2014 as a food processing company and they currently process and export dried mangoes and groundnuts from Gambia to different places around the world, such as Nigeria, Senegal, the Netherlands, and China. The company has over 140 employees out of which 120 are women and his company’s yearly turnover is approximated to be $1.6 Million.

Momarr’s entire effort in the processing and export of fruits and nuts is geared towards ensuring that crop loss becomes a thing of the past as far as the continent of Africa is concerned.

Olivia Onyemaobi

Olivia is the Founder and CEO of Pad-Up Creations a social enterprise in Nigeria manufacturing chemical-free washable and reusable sanitary pads.

Her company has provided over 1 million girls and women in 13 African countries with access to sanitary pads that will last them a minimum period of 1 year while creating 93 permanent jobs.

She has also trained over 400,000 girls and women on menstrual hygiene management and reproductive health to help give them a sense of pride in their periods irrespective of their economic class or location.

Mavis Nduchwa

Mavis is the founder of found Chabana Farms, a successful agribusiness enterprise focused on the integrated farming of cattle, poultry, piggery, donkeys, vegetables, and horticulture.  The idea for Chabana Farms was started when Mavis noticed the extreme problems her community was facing –lack of jobs for women and youth and frequent food shortages. The vision of Chabana is to not only provide food for the nation of Botswana but to empower individuals in her community.

Chabana Farms currently occupies 247 acres, generates an average of $1.5 million in profit and employs 20 workers to run its operations. She has also recently been awarded a $2 million contract to supply jugo beans to the local market by the government of Botswana.

Read more about Mavis Nduchwa 

The journey so far: Mavis Nduchwa, CEO, Chabana Farms

Mavis Nduchwa – The startup story of a young Botswana agripreneur on a mission to demonstrate that women farmers in Africa can make a difference

Jessica Rakotoarisoa

Jessica is the founder of Nomad-Life, which is a business that provides a range of accessories and products that are environmentally friendly. Her products are handmade from natural fibers and recycled materials from Madagascar by women from marginalized communities. One of her most recent creations is her Photovoltaic Bag, which uses innovative technology to allows its users to charge their electronic devices right in the bag. With the investment from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, her company’s R&D investment has improved to include sustainable processes, production, raw materials; and also implements a recycling, green and reduction waste program. With Nomad and her partners, she aims to enable social inclusion within all stages of the production process and to encourage other Malagasy young entrepreneurs to think sustainably in their businesses.

Chioma Ukonu

Chioma is the founder and COO of Recycling Points a waste recycling Social Enterprise that motivate post-consumers to recycle by creating value from their everyday waste. With her team, she has been able to develop a POINT-BASED incentive model with which they collect recyclable material (cans, glass bottles, newspaper, etc.)  from registered post-consumers and in turn reward them with POINTS, which when accrued can be used to redeem household items and cash.

With the seed funding from TEF, Chioma was able to drive innovation by procuring two electric cargo tricycles (first of its kind in Africa) for door to door recyclable material collections. In 2017, RecyclePoints had about 7500 registered subscribers earning from their recycling activities with over 590,000kg of waste recovered from going to the landfill where they contribute to pollution (if burnt) and climate change.

She was able to reach about 37,500 people with the “culture change” message of waste recycling and has so far created 25 direct employment and about 130 indirect employment.

Read More About Maher Oudira

Meet Maher Oudira, founder of Green ALAFCO: Green ALAFCO, the exploits of a passion for the green economy

Maher Oudira

Maher Oudira is the CEO of Green ALAFCO; a recycling company that recycles and exports aluminium cans to international buyers. Currently, his company has been able to rid the streets of Tunisia of over 1,000 tons of cans with the hope of reaching 4,000 tons in the next few years. His goal is to make Tunisia the African hub for recycling.

Read More About Maher Oudira

Meet Maher Oudira, founder of Green ALAFCO: Green ALAFCO, the exploits of a passion for the green economy

Kennedy Lamwenya

Kenedy is the founder and CEO of SunPoynt, a leading ‘pay-as-you-go’ energy services company that has innovatively combined mobile money technology and product design to provide under-served off-grid communities in Kenya with access to affordable solar-powered TV home systems.

Since launching his product in the market in February 2015, his has successfully been able to sell 5565 Tv units, earning  $300,000  in profit and providing over 11,000 rural school children with access to thousands of additional study hours every night with their solar-powered lanterns.

Additionally, he has been able to save 133 tons of carbon emissions by replacing the use of carbon-emitting kerosine lanterns in 5565 homes. He has also successfully trained 850 Distributors across East Africa towards achieving over $200,000 in monthly sales revenue for 2 years consecutively.

Read More About Kennedy Lamwenya

Angaza Boma bringing solar TVs to rural Kenya

Kofoworola Oyeleye

Kofoworola Oyeleye is the founder of Iyin-Creative, an innovative animation company with the goal of promoting and preserving the African heritage and cultures through cartoons. Through her work she has reached over 7,000 Children of Nigerian heritage worldwide, giving them the opportunity to learn their native language in a fun and modern way, and trained over 50 Children in animation. She has taken her campaign of embracing her mother-tongue to a total of 15 public and private schools, donating a total of 1,000 language learning resources to public schools.

Yvette Ishimwe

Yvette Ishimwe is the founder and CEO of Iriba Water Group. Through her social business, she offers innovative solutions for household water shortage in Rwanda and water treatment systems to institutions and individuals to help them access safe drinking water easily. Through her business, she has been able to employ youth and supply water to over 200 per day in her community.

Read more about Runcie C.W. Chidebe

Chasing Elumelu: On the Road With Big-Hearted Billionaire

Runcie C.W. Chidebe

Runcie C.W. Chidebe is the founder of Project PINK BLUE, a cancer-fighting venture in Nigeria, connecting cancer patients and communities to cancer diagnosis, treatment and care providers.

Since completing the TEF Programme, Project Pink Blue has directly impacted 1,235 women and men through screening and enlightened over a million people in Africa through Radio, Television and Social Media campaign. Besides awareness campaigns, the group supports cancer patients through fundraising.

Read more about Runcie C.W. Chidebe

Winning Wednesday with Runcie Chidebe

Rosemary Obi

Rosemary Obi, is an alumnus of Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an Industrial Mathematician turned professional make-up designer with over 12 years experience in the world of bridal, film and creative make-up industry. She is the founder of the first-ever make-up reality show in Africa, Project FX Makeup Show Africa, a social enterprise set up to train upcoming makeup artists and to also empower underserved women in AFRICA.

On a mission to take Africa’s most talented make-up artists to the world of film and television, Rosemary Obi is looking to supercharge the careers of a new generation of home-grown African make-up artists. So far, Rosemary has trained well over 500 professional make-up artists across Africa with plans to empower 2000 more in Rwanda, Kenya, Namibia, Mali, and Ethiopia.

Read More About ROsemary Obi

Entrepreneur Advice from Rosemary Obi: Start from where you are

Nneile Nkholise

Nneile Nkholise is a South African tech entrepreneur. In 2015 she founded iMED Tech Group, an innovative startup that uses 3D printing technology to produce breast prosthetic for breast cancer survivors.

In just two hears she has impacted over 150 women with her prosthetics. Since completing TEF Programme in 2016 she has since gone on to launch a product called 3DIMO (3-Dimensional Imaging and Modelling for Operations) an online cloud platform will be an AI-infused product that will help Surgeons be able to create 3D virtual and 3D printed surgical planning models.

Read more about Nneile

Nneile Nkholise

From Passion to Impact: Here’s how Nnelie is building Med Tecma Group

Meet Nneile Nkholise, the woman using 3D tech to help breast cancer survivors

Stella Sigana

Stella Sigana is the founder of Alternative Waste Technologies, which is a mission-driven social enterprise, whose aim is to create meaningful employment opportunities to at-risk youths to avoid crime, unlock their potential, develop their skills and create successful futures for themselves.

AWT core business focus has been on the production of fuel briquettes through the conversion of organic and charcoal wastes from slum settlements. Out of the revenues generated, 30% is used to advance her social mission of offering education, skills training, and job placement for adolescent young girls and women18 -24years.

Since completing the 12-week Programme in 2016, Stella has been able to create 12 jobs, generate over $79,000 in revenue, and recycle over 500 Tons of waste into fuel briquettes for cooking. Her business model has also been able to empower over 30 women entrepreneurs in slum settlements in Kenya to build businesses by selling her products directly to their communities, which has significantly increased their household income and wellbeing.

Read more about Stella Sigana

Businesses Of The Future: 20 New Wealth Creators On The African Continent

Nathan Damtew

Nathan Damtew is the founder of the technology and gaming company BeBlocky. The companies first product is a programming learning platform for kids. It uses animated programming lessons as a traditional app and through augmented reality to teach children the basics of computer programming using a modified curriculum based off of lessons from CODE.org. BeBlocky officially launched in 2018 and already has 6,00 users on its app.

Prince Kwame Agbata

Prince Kwame Agbata is the co-founder of Coliba, an early stage waste management platform that leverages on mobile and web technology to help users separate their waste, schedule and request a pickup and get waste picked from the comfort of user’s home.

Okey Esse

Okey Esse is the founder of Powerstove, a clean-energy advocate and focused company that designs, manufactures and distributes smokeless cookstoves that use 70% less biomass to cook food while generating 50 watts of electricity for the user’s household.

The Company also produces Goodlife Pellets, a Premium Refuse-Derived Fuel which costs 60% lower than firewood and 80% cheaper than charcoal and cook food twice longer than any available biomass fuel. Powerstove is the first clean cookstove to be fitted with IoT cloud-based remote system to monitor in real-time a single day of cooking, the amount of Co2 and biomass saved, Black Carbon prevented and total electricity generated.

Okey has gone on to win several awards since completing the TEF Programme including the 2019 TEF Founder’s Den.

Read more about Okey Esse

Meet Esse Okey, Founder of Powerstove Energy

Mohamed Dhaouafi

Mohamed Dhaouafi always inquisitive and curious, always wanting to know “Why” and “How” everything is the way it is or done the way it’s done. It is easy to liken his curiosity to that old saying about the curiosity of a cat but in his case, curiosity doesn’t kill the cat, it only makes him smarter.

His journey into entrepreneurship started when he took part in the Tunisia Entrepreneurship IHEC _ ENISO Challenge that required him and his teammates to solve problems with innovative ideas that can be turned into businesses. It was during this challenge he Founded CURE – a bionic company that works on ensuring that amputees can function in a world that is built for humans with four limbs.

During his encounter with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, he learnt more about the industry his business operates in, the process of developing a business plan and how to secure additional funding to develop the project further.

Today, Mohammed has raised an additional $ 5000 funding from the UNDP funded YAS! Open Innovation Challenge, participated in over 60 national and international programmes and became an Obama Africa leader in 2019.

Read more about Mohammed Dhaouafi

Mohamed Dhaouafi – Tunisian Entrepreneur

Highlights from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Forum 2018

The TEF Entrepreneurship Forum 2018: 7 Most Memorable Moments

Michel Nkuindja

Growing up Michel Nkuindija was lulled by the tales and legends of Africa and this made his imagination go wild with thoughts hovering around imaginative universes inspired by these tales. Only and as he grew older, he realized that these stories told to us by grandparents were not available in many books, comics and even less in animated version for our children and future generations.

This he says led him to  set a challenge of developing a project that would transmit these beautiful stories, tales and legends through media such as animated films and video games.

In 2015, Michel was selected on the TEF programme, and this he says has marked significant progress for his company, Noohkema Game Studios – a creative company based in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Nookhena develops video games for PC and Mobiles with an ambition to break down how video games and interactive media can be the best way to change global perceptions of Africa while preserving our cultural identity for the next generations.

Read More Stories about Michel Nkuindja

Michel Nkuindija: Lessons from my Entrepreneurial Journey

Remarks by H.E Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, San, Gcon, Vice President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, at The Presidential Dialogue, 2019 TEf Forum.

Ilesanmi Olalekan

Ilesanmi Olalekan is the Founder and CEO fo Wocman – an ICT solution that connects customers to nearest artisans, freelance professionals and local suppliers of household repairable to help execute construction, repairs and domestic works with just a tab on their mobile phones.

Since he received the seed capital funding from TEF, Olalekan has been able to increase his staff strength and commence the design and development of the Wocman website and mobile app.

Ibrahim Mohammed Aboki

Ibrahim Mohammed Aboki is an award-winning social entrepreneur, business development consultant and CEO of Fatara Farms – a business that specialises in providing low-in-come farmers with an affordable, accessible and easy comprehensive solar solution to use for their farming activities;

Since receiving the seed funding from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Fatara Farms has empowered 5,642 smallholder farmers and reduced Nigeria’s northeast unemployment rate and food insecurity to 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.

Joel Cherop

Joel Cherop is a Ugandan and beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme. His agri-business, Ataari River Integrated Irrigation Initiative (ARIII), a horticulture and rice production venture identifies, trains and seeds young people to begin their own agri-business ventures in a model dubbed “Learn as you earn”.

Since receiving seed capital from the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, ARIII has grown from strength to strength and has been at the forefront of transforming agriculture from peasant-led to commercial. As such, they have championed efforts like organising irrigation masterclasses to help mitigate the effects of climate change. ARII also organises Open Field days to link farmers to the latest technologies in Agriculture.

ARII hosted His Excellency, the President of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Museveni, to commission an irrigation project and tackle the effects of climate change – currently a threat to agriculture in Uganda.

Agboneni

Neni’s Auto Care is a full-service automobile repair and maintenance company. Agboneni, the Founder, set out to create jobs for the unemployed youths in her community.

The business recently partnered with Cancer Foundation and an old people’s home in her community to generate funds for their upkeep and wellbeing, as well as provide free/ heavily discounted maintenance services to them.

She recently launched a Safety campaign targeted at automobile garages prone to accidents, as a result of not eliminating workshop hazards. By offering 99% quality service and using high tech technological equipment and machines to carry out automotive services in a faster and better way, Nenis Auto Care has successfully reduced accidents caused by poorly maintained vehicles in her community.

She is one of the beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

Ndubuisi Eze

Ndubuisi Eze, “The Drone Guy” as he is popularly called, is one of the TEF beneficiaries.

He applied to the Foundation’s Programme with an idea to unlock the potential of smart farming. He had plans to build drones with dual capability – to help farmers with crop dusting and provide information about the farm through multispectral cameras and sensors.

With only 40% of available arable land being cultivated in Nigeria, he knew that the potential for smart farming techniques was huge. “Africa is known for its intensive farming and land degradation worsens every year. Tractors are still needed for clearing the soil and for harvesting at the end, but everything in between could be done with drones,” he said.

With the seed capital he received from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, he launched Aerial Industries, a company devoted to building and deploying multi-purpose industrial-size drones as agriculture aerial tractors for intensifying mechanization on farm fields.

By 2018, he and his team had made commitments to helping 56 rural farm communities with their innovation from the south to the northern Sahel parts of Nigeria with over 3,000 farm cooperative preliminary agreements and MOUs.

Recently, his tech-innovation caught the attention of the Government of Singapore and was bought by the country. The innovation enables users to capture the crop/ soil data that allows agronomists to evaluate the crops’ health and soil nutrient values. He was also selected to present his company and its innovations at the Expo Dubai 2020.

Oduku Funmi Martinson

Funmart’s Blends and Desserts is a bakery and smoothies manufacturing company founded on the platform of solving the Social Development Goals 3 and 10.

SDGs Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being

SDGs Goal 5 – Gender Equality