The Tony Elumelu foundation alumni

Adebimpe Oni

D’Rose recycling is an eco-friendly company that upcycles solid waste like old tyres, bottles, plastics into recycled furniture suitable for homes, offices, playgrounds, studios, etc.

Adebimpe Oni’s company seeks to address the challenge posed by the tons of plastics and tyres which end up in the ocean on a yearly basis causing water pollution and which drive sea life into extinction.

Founder, Adebimpe said: “I have a great passion for combating climate change in the world. I decided to add my own quota in creating a better and cleaner environment”. Adebimpe Oni is a beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

Msindazwe Ndhlovu

With rising urbanisation, more people are migrating to cities triggering increased demand for affordable housing in many African countries. Botswanan entrepreneur Msindazwe Ndhlovu founded The Noble Savage, a company that recycles waste plastic and waste glass to manufacture alternative eco-friendly building materials which are lighter, stronger, durable, and affordable. The company makes roofing tiles, and other material by utilising mixed post-consumer waste plastic and blending it with sand to create a polymer resin bonded product that is eco-friendly, stronger and cheaper compared to other products. The collected waste includes beer bottles and all sorts of glass blended with concrete resin and wood to create alternatives to granite, marble and ceaser stone. Msindazwe Ndhlovu says: “For centuries roofing has been made from materials that were extracted from the earth cement, clay steel or grass. But we have improved and used waste plastic to generate a far superior product that is lighter, stronger, and affordable up to 30% cheaper.”  Msindazwe Ndhlovu is a beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

Lombola Lombola 

Bamboo express is a company that makes furniture from ecofriendly bamboo. Lombola Lombola started the company to empower the youth and women locally. Bamboo Express is solving the problem of deforestation, youth unemployment, and lack of income alternatives for rural women. They run a youth apprenticeship program and purchase 90% of raw materials from rural women.

Richard Bbaale

TEF entrepreneur, Richard Bbaale is a social entrepreneur from Uganda that founded BanaPads in 2010, a company using banana pseudostem wastes, which are usually left to rot after harvesting, to make sanitary towels. BanaPads is an award winning social enterprise registered in Uganda and Tanzania with the aim of manufacturing affordable and eco-friendly (100% biodegradable) sanitary pads to keep village girls in school and create jobs for local women. Richard Bbaale says: “This is actually a very personal story that involves me and my elder sister. I always looked up to her and we were very close. As we grew older, I realized that she would skip school for a number of days every month. I also noticed that she would use leaves to try and keep herself clean during this time because our grandmother could not afford to buy sanitary pads that were available on market. And because it’s taboo, they would not talk about it and she would miss a lot of school and get infections as well. This haunted me and I felt helpless seeing my sister stay at home when she should have been in school. Fast-forward, I am in college, while volunteering in local community I noticed similar problem with young women having to just stay at home when they had their period. Once when visiting a village, there were a number of discarded banana stems scattered around. And that is where it struck me that this ‘waste product’ could actually be used to make useful products. I learnt about its properties and realized it had very good absorption qualities to make a low-cost disposable sanitary pad.” The pads are also collected to be used as manure and this means that the waste that goes to the local landfill will be reduced since the banana pseudo-stem is a recyclable product.

Letsogile Kennedy 

Letsogile Kennedy is an award-winning social entrepreneur, architect and founder of Ecohub, a startup established that innovatively uses plastic waste to produce affordable, architect-designed flat-pack ecobricks and ecohouses.

EcoHub is a local startup company that makes eco-bricks from recycled materials. The plan is to manufacture ‘green’ building materials from waste, while at the same time providing affordable housing and sustainable housing that can last for 20 to 25 years.

The company manufactures eco-bricks that are produced from special material using waste.

Tom-Chris Emewulu

Tom-Chris Emewulu is a 2017 TEF entrepreneur, and founder of SFAN, an Accra-based education company that unlocks the potential of youths. SFAN (Stars From All Nations) is the education company that unlocks the potentials of young people through EPIC events and a 6-weeks talent accelerator program called Readyforwork. With these tools, young people receive personalized, actionable, and coach support to launch their businesses or careers.

I established Stars From All Nations (SFAN); a social enterprise that works in equipping youths with skills and opportunities they need to engage the real world.

When I’m not building Stars From All Nations and helping rising professionals to create their dream companies and careers, I’m telling stories of African innovation or advocating for people-centered policies. He has been featured on publications such as Forbes, DW, Business Insider, SABC, Next Billion.

Bosun Tijani

Bosun Tijani is a Nigerian entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Co-Creation Hub. Co-Creation Hub is a technology innovation centre that provides a cushy nest for Innovators and Creatives solving pressing social problems in Africa. In 2012 the Foundation provided CcHUB with a $100,000 investment to support the development of Bosun’s Hub.

Since then, Bosun has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People on the continent by New Africa Magazine. He also received and initiated the visit of Mark Zuckerberg for the first time in Nigeria in August 2016. In 2019, CCHub acquired Kenya’s iHub under Bosun’s leadership.

Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola

Bilikiss is the founder of Wecyclers, a for-profit social enterprise that collects recyclable rubbish from households in Lagos. Once the rubbish is sorted, her company sends a SMS messages back to the household, informing them of how many points they have earned for trading in the rubbish. Her solution is a rewards-for-recycling model that incentivizes people in low-income communities to capture value from recyclable waste by earning points that can be converted for food, cleaning products, or cellphone minutes. The company works in partnership with the Lagos Waste Management Authority. The company estimated in October 2015 that it has collected over 500 tons of rubbish, it has created value from that rubbish, employed 80 people, and created over 60,000 beneficiaries.

Oluseun Onigbinde

Oluseun Onigbinde is a Nigerian entrepreneur and open data analyst popularly known as the co-founder and CEO of budgIT, a Nigerian civic startup. Oluseun Onigbinde is a fiscal transparency advocate and firm believer in the power of Open Data. In 2012, he was awarded the Future Awards Prize for Science and Tech Innovation and on the 13 September 2019 he was appointed the Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, but stepped down shortly after.

Dare Odumade

Dare is the co-founder of Chekkit is a Nigerian-based startup that uses blockchain technology to help users verify the authenticity of products before consuming them. Since launching, Dare and his team have impacted/protected over 80,000 lives. This is measured from the number of consumer product authentications they have registered.

Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze

Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze is an entrepreneur-accountant with a zest to increase the sustainability growth rate in SME’s within Africa. She has over 11 years of experience on bookkeeping, finance and business consulting from several banking and finance industry. Mrs. Eze is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax practitioner. In 2015, she introduced a virtual and retail tech- accounting firm called the AccountingHub to address the market needs of SME’s on bookkeeping and auditing. Since establishing her business she has catered to over 500 SME’s in Nigeria by meeting their needs on staying up to date with their numbers, taxes and financials.

Jubril Odulana

Odulana (aka Debo) is a medical doctor and the founder of Doctoora, a real estate company in healthcare operating an online marketplace for health-related products and services. They are focused on increasing access to quality healthcare by enabling health professionals setup private practice with ease and connecting patients, to these quality healthcare practitioners. His business is often referred to as the Äirbnb”of healthcare for his innovative solution. Since it was launched in 2017, Doctoora has grown from a two-bedroom apartment in Lagos, to over 20 centers across Lagos and Abuja.

Gofaone Mokgethisi

With over 400 annual events (sports, conferences, exhibitions, music concerts), 360 000 attendees and at least BWP 150 000 000 in capital investment injected into the event business annually, e-ticketing company Utick, founded by Gofaone Mokgethisi, was born to provide secure access control and zero ticket fraud using RFID wristbands as tickets.

Chazha Garde

Chazha Garde created InPlay to provide an indoor entertainment complex to foster social interaction through active playing amongst children from one to twelve years of age. In addition, InPlay currently extends its business with nanny services and organisation of external parties.

Chazha was a beneficiary of the TEF-AFDB partnership in 2019

Lentlametse Mantshonyane

Lentlametse Mantshonyane started a business seeking to provide accommodation and game drives for both local and international tourists. Called Letinti Safari Lodge, it is strategically located at the entrance into the Makgadikgadi national parks and just across the Boteti river which is also the gateway to the yearly Makgadikgadi air show that has been consistently growing.

Lentlametse is a beneficiary of the TEF-AFDB partnership in 2019.

Shatho Phakama

Shatho Phakama, an agripreneur from Botswana started Unique Waves Ventures (Pty) Ltd and formulated a maintenance ration for beef animals using locally available worms as a source of protein.

Shatho says, “I want to manufacture animal feed for all livestock using locally available resources hence making the feed cheaper and thereby helping farmers buy feed at a lower cost. The feed is then pelletized to make chicken mashes, beef feed and pig feed.”

“I aim to develop and formulate feed for our local farmers using available raw materials to try and reduce the costs that are often too high for the subsistence farmer as well as the commercial farmer.”

Shatho was sponsored by the AFDB in 2019.

 Samuel Ntshiwa 

Samuel Ntshiwa, an entrepreneur in the Agri-business, Farming space uses cage culture is an aquaculture production system where fish are held in floating net pens. Cage culture of fish utilizes existing water resources but encloses the fish in a cage or basket which allows water to pass freely between the fish and the pond permitting water exchange.

Nonofo Thamage

Nonofo Thamage started Gamer’s Brawl to specifically address the demand from passionate people who just love competitive video gaming and to give players and fans some friendly, well-organised multi-platform, multi-game events to experience everything that the local esports have to offer.

Kago Monggae 

Kago Monggae is an agripreneur whose journey to entrepreneurship started in Primary school where three of my friends and I sold boxes of candy to our classmates and groundskeeping staff.

He started Kagos Bees, a Beekeeping Business aimed at the husbandry of social Honey Bees (apis mellifera scutellata) primarily for the Harvesting bottling and retail sale of Pure Honey; through sustainable and natural practices.

Kago was sponsored by the AFDB in 2019.

Kgabiso Olerato Natale

In 2019, Kgabiso Natale decided to start App A Cab, a taxi business that she wanted to operate similarly to Uber. The biggest difference is that bookings would be made on WhatsApp, with the intent to be a lot more convenient for customers to simply book a ride.

Leka Ntakhwana

Leka Ntakhwana is a Botswana entrepreneur who started the Construction company L A CAMP INDUSTRIES to provide a balanced property portfolio with a view to promote the acquisition of shares in property by purchase and development to create wealth. Leka was sponsored by the AFDB in 2019.

Bonno Tose Mannathoko

Bonno Mannathoko started UGoo.com (registered under Khoisan Technologies group) an online shopping website that offers a range of quality products including E-commerce and solutions that focus on efficiency and enhanced productivity of meetings.

Bonno studied Business Information Systems at the University of Botswana and graduated in 2017.

Keemenao Kelesitse

Botswana entrepreneur Keemenao Kelesitse started bw Collegiate, a mobile application aimed at providing continuous capacity building of our University & College students or graduates in their study and post-study periods.

It enables industries, universities, students, alumni, faculty and staff to quickly access all of the what, when and where for various Industries and Universities.

Kefilwe Makhaya

Botswana entrepreneur Kefilwe Makhaya started Kids Kare, a babysitting agency with top-notch child care services. The business uses a kid-centred approach by providing children with a secure environment, ensuring their well-being, imparting knowledge and skills as well as upholding their rights while solving the problem of working parents.

Marea Aaron

Entrepreneur Marea Aaron started a decor Business LMA Events with her sister Lebogang Aaron.

Marea Aaron is currently studying her degree in Business Administration also at a local university.  She was sponsored by the AFDB in 2019.

Nnodim Uchenna

Uchenna Nnodum is the Founder of Roqqu.com, a cryptocurrency exchange platform and Ufinix.com, an online academy for training developers.

In this interview, Uchenna shares a story of resilience and achievements as he builds tech businesses in the African market.

Interview with Uchenna Nnodim:

Since I launched Roqqu.com, we have achieved unimaginable milestones.  With our flagship product in the blockchain space, Roqqu.com, we have signed up 30,000 users within our first year of launch and we have transacted over 3 million dollars in this same period.

We also launched UNFINIX.COM, an online academy for training developers, and successfully trained over 4,000 developers across the globe.

However, all these good things did not just start in one day. My childhood experiences played a key role in defining who I am today. It taught me the values of hard work during the early stages of my life.

The act of problem solving and profit-making influenced my decision to become an entrepreneur. I remember the first software product I built to help my department, at the University of Port Harcourt to manage students’ results and records when I found out that there were always errors in computing our spreadsheet.

Being an entrepreneur has taught me one thing: To be successful, you need to eradicate every form of mediocrity. Entrepreneurship is a long journey that requires a lot of hard work and patience. Over time, you start seeing the benefit of all the hard work.

About his First Big Break

About our first big break, I first heard about the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015. I applied but I was not selected. I tried again and voila! I was chosen!

Getting selected on the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2017 was a huge stepping-stone for me. The training, mentorship, and networking are priceless.

With the $5,000, we kick-started a journey that has now become home to 35,000 people that use our products and services.

If I had the chance to meet Tony O. Elumelu, I would say “Thank you so much, Sir. I think that you’re really a genius because the money is enough for one to actually start something that could become legendary in the business space.”

Geofrey Olekile

Botswana entrepreneur Geofrey Olekile provides Animation and television content to be sold to the local, regional and in time international content distributors. He Started Curio Media Commons Animation to fill the gap in the industry with cartoons made with an African flair.