The Tony Elumelu Foundation is calling for proposals from exceptional film production companies to create an exciting TV commercial that highlights the impact of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, with emphasis on its flagship Entrepreneurs programme.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs that is driving poverty eradication, catalyzing job creation, and ensuring women’s economic inclusion in all 54 African countries.

Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

The robust ability of the Foundation to impact the lives of young African entrepreneurs across geographies and sectors has been very visible, and has resulted in the emergence of strategic partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United States Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), The French Development Agency (AFD), The German Development Finance Institution (DEG), The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), The African Development Bank (AfDB), and Google, with bespoke programmes including focus on women empowerment and sustainable growth in fragile states. 

The ToR (Terms of Reference) can be found here.

All interested film production companies can apply here.

Submissions close one week from the time of this publication.

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The Tony Elumelu Foundation is calling for consultants to provide third-party Monitoring, Business Assessment, and Programme Impact Evaluation for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurs programme.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs that is driving poverty eradication, catalyzing job creation, and ensuring women’s economic inclusion in all 54 African countries.

Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

The impact of the Tony Elumelu Foundation has been very visible and has led to the creation of trailblazing beneficiaries with remarkably interesting success stories. However, as these numbers continue to rise, it has become increasingly important to move beyond remote monitoring to explore more robust monitoring systems that combine our remote monitoring effort and an on-the-ground extensive third-party monitoring network. Third-party monitoring would allow for real-time follow-up of entrepreneurs from seed granting through fund utilization to growth. Critical to data quality is also the objectivity of feedback from independent monitors to ensure constant learning and improved programme quality.

Terms of reference can be found here.

All interested consultants can apply here. 

Submissions close two weeks from the time of this published RFP (August 21).

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Understanding Resilience in Business:

Resilience in business refers to the ability of an enterprise to adapt, withstand, and recover from various challenges while continuing to pursue its goals and create value. In the African context, resilience is particularly crucial due to the complex operating environment and the need to navigate multiple economic, social, and political uncertainties.

Navigating Challenges:

1. Infrastructure Deficits: One of the foremost challenges faced by businesses in Africa is the inadequate infrastructure, including unreliable power supply, limited transportation networks, clogged ports, inadequate communication systems etc. Entrepreneurs must find innovative solutions to overcome these challenges, such as investing in alternative energy sources, leveraging technology for efficient logistics, and collaborating with governments and development partners to address infrastructure gaps.

2. Political and Regulatory Environment: Political instability, corruption, and complex regulatory frameworks pose significant hurdles to businesses in Africa. Entrepreneurs need to understand the local political landscape, build strong relationships with policymakers, and actively engage in advocacy efforts to promote favourable business environments. Collaboration with governments and civil society can help streamline regulations, foster transparency, and promote a culture of good governance.

3. Access to Finance: Limited access to capital remains a significant barrier for African businesses, particularly for startups and small enterprises. Entrepreneurs must explore diverse funding options. The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s flagship entrepreneurship programme, providing seed capital, mentorship, and business training, is a shining example of how organisations can bridge the financing gap and empower entrepreneurs to build resilient businesses.

Embracing Opportunities:

1. Youthful Demographic Dividend: Africa boasts of a youthful population, which presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses. Entrepreneurs can tap into this demographic dividend by creating employment opportunities, developing products and services tailored to the needs of young consumers, and fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.

2. Rapid Urbanisation: Urbanisation is transforming African cities into vibrant economic hubs. Entrepreneurs can capitalize on this trend by identifying emerging market demands, leveraging technology for efficient urban services, and developing sustainable solutions for housing, transportation, healthcare, and education.

3. Digital Transformation: The rapid adoption of digital technologies across Africa is revolutionising industries and opening new avenues for businesses. Entrepreneurs should embrace digital transformation, leverage e-commerce platforms, harness data analytics for market insights, and leverage mobile technology to reach untapped consumer segments.

The Role of the Tony Elumelu Foundation:

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has been at the forefront of catalysing entrepreneurship and building resilient businesses in Africa. Through its Entrepreneurship Programme, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEFEP), the Foundation has empowered thousands of entrepreneurs across the continent, providing them with seed capital, mentorship, business management training and networking opportunities. By nurturing a new generation of resilient entrepreneurs, the Foundation is fostering economic growth, job creation, and poverty alleviation in Africa.

Building resilient businesses in Africa is both a challenge and an opportunity. By navigating challenges such as infrastructure deficits, political complexities, and limited access to finance, African entrepreneurs can unlock the continent’s vast potential and embrace the opportunities available. The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurs is instrumental in creating an enabling environment.

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Tony Elumelu: I am a business executive in Africa. I am a philanthropist in Africa. I am also an investor in many countries on the continent. And, it is especially in our youth that I invest. Over time, I have developed a conviction: it is up to us, Africans, to develop Africa in the 21st century. And to achieve this, the private sector must take the lead, to rely on the continent’s economy. I have seen that with real investment, we can overcome the challenges we face. That’s why I created this philosophy: “Africapitalism”. It is a call to the private sector to invest in the development of the continent. We need long-term investments in strategic sectors of the African economy. This is what will create economic prosperity, social wealth, jobs… This is what will allow women to participate in economic activities and eradicate poverty in Africa. This is “africapitalism”.

RFI: In terms of innovations, English-speaking Africa sometimes gives the impression of being more advanced than French-speaking Africa. Do you share this point of view?

Tony Elumelu: I do business in more than twenty countries in Africa. I was confronted with different cultures, from one country to another. In certain regions of French-speaking Africa, the work culture is indeed a little different. But what I also see is that with technology, social networks and digital, the world is globalizing. People influence each other in a positive way. I notice that the behaviors, the attitudes, are more and more similar. People are more and more entrepreneurial. You know, I talk to young entrepreneurs in Cameroon. I talk to entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali. Their enthusiasm, I see it. They adopt this entrepreneurial attitude. And so much the better! But, there is one thing i say to governments: entrepreneurs succeed when states deliberately decide to support them and create an enabling environment. This is what most African governments should do. If you see a country where the private sector is growing, where entrepreneurs are thriving, then the government has done it right. African leaders must therefore ensure that they support their entrepreneurs to succeed. is that the government has done things right. African leaders must therefore ensure that they support their entrepreneurs to succeed. is that the government has done things right. African leaders must therefore ensure that they support their entrepreneurs to succeed.

RFI: This is an interesting point. But, don’t you think that the lack of democracy in certain countries, French-speaking in particular, can be an obstacle to the development of entrepreneurship, to the creation of start-ups?

Tony Elumelu: There is a positive correlation between democracy, good governance and the success of the private sector and entrepreneurs. So we need governments that deliberately encourage entrepreneurship. We need governments that create enabling environments, fiscal laws, infrastructure, coherent policies, stable macro-economic policies. We need governments that facilitate the business climate and the creation of businesses. These are the factors that allow entrepreneurs to succeed. And, governments that don’t do that probably won’t fare any better.

RFI: The Tony-Elumelu Foundation was created to empower the women and men of the continent and accelerate the economic growth of the continent. Your foundation shows that you have unshakable confidence in African youth. How do you get all these young people to believe in themselves?

Tony Elumelu: My own story. What made me believe in myself was having a positive attitude towards life. You also have to look at things in the long term. You may be suffering today. But, tell yourself that things will eventually get better. It is this hope that carries you. And then the universe makes good things happen. Africa’s potential is enormous. But, at the same time, we know we have to work hard to turn that potential into reality. What I tell young African entrepreneurs is that the environment in which they evolve is difficult. But don’t give up. Be resilient. Keep trying. Look at someone like me, Tony Elumelu: I am not the son of a billionaire and yet, I succeeded in Africa. It means that you too can succeed, even better than me! But, you have to work hard. Be resilient. Concentrate. Ready to make sacrifices. And there you will go far in life. The entrepreneurial adventure is not easy. It’s made up of ups and downs. So you have to stay focused and have a long-term view, because that’s when it’s all going to happen.

RFI: You are a role model, a source of inspiration for many African entrepreneurs. You started your life as a copy machine salesman. What is the secret of your success?

Tony Elumelu: Hard work. Resilience. Perseverance. Discipline. Focus. It’s also important to learn how to save and not consume everything you have on hand. If you have a dollar in your hands, put some of it aside. If you don’t do that when you have a dollar, you won’t do it when you have a billion dollars. Finally, the most important thing is the grace of God.

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Strategic partnerships refer to collaborations among different entities, such as businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academia, to achieve common goals. These partnerships are essential for economic growth and development as they bring together different perspectives, resources, and expertise to solve complex problems and create new opportunities. It is also in line with SDG 17 which seeks to revitalize global partnerships for sustainable development.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF)  leverages strategic partnerships to drive economic growth and development on the continent. It has recognized the importance of strategic alliances for unlocking prosperity in Africa. The Foundation has established partnerships with leading organizations in different sectors to support the development of entrepreneurship, job creation, and innovation on the continent.

For instance, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has partnered with leading tech companies, such as Google, to provide African entrepreneurs with access to cutting-edge technology and resources, as well as training in business management and digital skills. This partnership provided one million additional Africans with access to TEFConnect, the Foundation’s digital platform. It also offered enormous opportunities for Africa’s digital communities; nine full-time Google employees, including software engineers, UI/UX engineers and policy experts worked with the Foundation to design and build an upgraded version of the TEFConnect platform.

This has enabled young African entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions that address some of the continent’s most pressing challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture, energy etc.

The Foundation has also partnered with governments and international organizations to promote entrepreneurship and job creation. The Foundation has worked closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support entrepreneurship development in Africa. TEF and UNDP have also worked exclusively in regions such as Mali, Sahel, and Rwanda to empower young African entrepreneurs in those regions. Through these programmes, young African entrepreneurs have been provided with funding, training, and mentorship to enable them to create sustainable businesses and drive economic growth in their communities.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has also worked with the European Commission in an inaugural 3-part partnership – to support 2,420 African women entrepreneurs from select countries as part of the flagship Entrepreneurship Programme, to offer technical assistance as needed to TEF’s alumni network and lastly to support 120 TEF alumni with additional grants of up to €50,000.   

Furthermore, the TEF has partnered with DEG-KfW, the German development agency, to support 200 African entrepreneurs.  The partnership also helped to scale TEFConnect, the Foundation’s proprietary digital platform, supporting African entrepreneurs and providing platform access to an additional 500,000 SMEs and fostering economic growth on the continent.

The Foundation has also collaborated with other organisations and governments such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), Seme City, BMZ, GIZ, DEG, African Education Foundation (FAE) in Congo Brazzaville, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Indorama Corporation, Sightsavers, United States African Development Foundation (USADF), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and so on, to empower more young African entrepreneurs on the continent.

In addition, the TEF has established partnerships with leading universities and research institutions to support the development of innovative solutions that can drive economic growth and development in Africa. These partnerships focus on fostering collaboration between academia and industry, enabling researchers and entrepreneurs to work together to develop innovative solutions that can address complex challenges faced by African entrepreneurs on the continent.

With a focus on strategic partnerships, the Foundation has been able to scale its ten-year plan which aimed to support 10,000 young African entrepreneurs over a period of ten years. The Foundation is currently in the ninth cycle of its flagship programme, and it has been able to empower over 18,000 young African entrepreneurs. The Foundation owes this outstanding accomplishment to strategic alliances with the various organisations it has worked with over the years.

Strategic partnerships are essential for driving economic growth and development in Africa. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has recognized the importance of partnerships and has established collaborations with leading organizations in different sectors to support entrepreneurship, job creation, and innovation on the continent. Through these partnerships, the TEF is creating new opportunities for young entrepreneurs, promoting innovation, and driving economic growth and development in Africa.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is using this opportunity to call on all well-intentioned actors across the public, private and development sectors to join us on our mission to empower millions of African entrepreneurs on the continent. By working together, we can create a sustainable and vibrant entrepreneurial environment in Africa. Join us in this effort to create wealth in Africa! Let us make a difference together!

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The agricultural sector in Africa is a major contributor to the continent’s economy, accounting for around 15% of Africa’s GDP and employing about 43.8% of the population as of 2020, according to Statista. Agribusiness is the sector with the highest number of empowered entrepreneurs from the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme. About 44% of the Foundation’s alumni network of young African entrepreneurs operate in this sector.

Despite this, the sector faces many challenges such as low productivity, poor infrastructure, and limited access to finance, which hinder its growth and development. However, the increasing interest and involvement of young entrepreneurs in agribusinesses present an opportunity to address some of these challenges and transform the sector.

Here are some of the benefits and opportunities of youth entrepreneurship in agribusiness:

• Creation of employment opportunities for young people: In Africa, youth unemployment rates are high, with about 60% of unemployed people being under the age of 25. By starting and growing their own agribusinesses, young people can create jobs for themselves and others, thereby contributing to poverty reduction and economic growth.

• Promotion of food security and reducing hunger in Africa: With a growing population and changing dietary habits, the demand for food is increasing rapidly in Africa and this is projected to double by 2050. By starting agribusinesses that focus on producing and distributing nutritious and affordable food, young entrepreneurs can contribute to ensuring that more people have access to food and that they are consuming a balanced diet. It also presents an opportunity for youth entrepreneurs to invest in the production, processing, and distribution of food products.

• Driving innovation and technology adoption in the sector: young entrepreneurs are often tech-savvy and can leverage technology to improve agricultural production, processing, and distribution. For instance, they can use mobile phone applications to access market information, connect with buyers, and access finance. They can also use precision agriculture technologies such as drones and sensors to improve crop yields and reduce post-harvest losses.

This sector also presents an opportunity for technological advancement. This is because technology is revolutionizing the agribusiness industry in Africa, and youth entrepreneurs can leverage this to develop innovative solutions that address challenges in the sector. For instance, they can develop mobile applications that provide market information, connect farmers with buyers, or monitor crop growth.

• Favourable government policies: Several African governments have recognized the potential of the agribusiness industry in the continent’s economic development and have put in place policies that create an enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship in the sector. Such policies include tax incentives, subsidies, and market facilitation programs.

• Access to financing: Various organizations are offering funding and investment opportunities to support youth entrepreneurs in the agribusiness industry. These include government initiatives, private sectors, and development organizations. Additionally, there are various competitions, grants, and incubation programs designed to support young entrepreneurs in the sector.

However, despite the potential benefits, youth entrepreneurship in agribusiness faces several challenges in Africa. Here are some of the major challenges:

• Limited access to finance: Despite the availability of financing opportunities, accessing capital remains a significant challenge for youth entrepreneurs in Africa. Most financial institutions require collateral/credit history, which most young entrepreneurs do not have, making it difficult to secure loans or funding. As a result, many young entrepreneurs rely on their savings, family and friends, and other informal sources of finance to start and grow their businesses.

• Limited access to markets: Many young entrepreneurs struggle to find markets for their products due to poor market linkages and inadequate market information. They also face competition from established agribusinesses, which have stronger market positions and greater resources.

• Lack of technical skills and business management knowledge: This is also a significant challenge for young entrepreneurs in agribusiness. Many young people in Africa have limited exposure to modern agricultural practices and business management, making it difficult for them to compete in the market and sustain their businesses.

• Inadequate infrastructure: Poor infrastructure, such as inadequate transportation, storage facilities, and irrigation systems, poses a significant challenge to agribusiness development in Africa. This makes it difficult for youth entrepreneurs to access markets and transport their products to consumers.

• Limited access to information: Information is critical in the agribusiness industry, from market trends to climate data. However, youth entrepreneurs in Africa face challenges accessing relevant information due to inadequate technology and low literacy levels.

• Fragmented markets: African markets are often fragmented, with multiple middlemen involved in the value chain, leading to high transaction costs and low profitability. This poses a significant challenge to youth entrepreneurs, who often lack the networks and resources to navigate complex market structures.

• Climate Change: Resource depletion and climate change pose major challenges to the global food system. Agriculture depends on the world’s natural resources and future food production will depend on how well these resources are conserved and used. Agriculture is not only impacted by the environment, but also by production techniques that can affect impact land, water, biodiversity, and greenhouse gasses.

The agricultural sector is directly responsible for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to methane emissions from livestock and rice, and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizers. It is the largest water-consuming sector and can harm biodiversity and reduce water quality from the runoff of fertilizer, manure, and pesticides. The excessive use of nutrients in agriculture has been a major source of water pollution and is estimated to have reduced biodiversity in rivers, lakes, and wetlands by about one-third globally.

To overcome these challenges, governments, development organizations, and other stakeholders can support youth entrepreneurship in agribusiness through various interventions. Some of the interventions include:

• Providing access to finance: Governments can develop policies that support youth entrepreneurship in agribusiness and create special facilities that cater to the needs of young entrepreneurs. Development organizations, public and private sectors can also support young entrepreneurs through grants and technical assistance.

• Improving market linkages: Governments and development organizations can support the development of value chains and promote the integration of smallholder farmers into formal markets. They can also provide market information and facilitate the formation of farmers’ groups and cooperatives.

• Capacity building: Development organizations, private and public sectors can provide technical and business management training to young entrepreneurs to improve their skills and knowledge. This can include training on modern agricultural practices, value addition, and financial management.

• Promoting innovation and technology adoption: Public sectors, private sectors, and development organizations should encourage innovation and technology adoption by young African entrepreneurs to boost growth and unlock prosperity on the continent.

The agribusiness industry in Africa presents a significant opportunity for youth entrepreneurs to drive economic growth and create employment opportunities. However, the challenges of limited access to capital, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to information, and fragmented markets need to be addressed to fully harness this potential. Governments, development organizations, private and public sectors need to collaborate to create an enabling environment that supports youth entrepreneurship in the agribusiness sector in Africa.

Here are some of the beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme operating in the Agricultural Industry:

Avotriniaina Stannie launched a little factory named Mahatsara, with the aim of producing dried fruits and vegetables, but have more products like arranged rum with dried fruits.

Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, Stannie has been able to sharpen her entrepreneurial skills to the benefit of herself and her community. The knowledge received during the training has significantly contributed to the sustainable development of her community, and she continues in her quest to create more jobs for rural women.

Since the programme, Stannie has empowered young entrepreneurs around her to contribute effectively and create positive impacts in their communities. Her ambition is to have the biggest dried fruit processing factory in Africa, giving access to nutrients to everyone who needs it, especially in the southern part of Madagascar and in Africa too.

Flavien Kouatcha is a young engineer who is the head of Save Our Agriculture, a company specializing in aquaponics, a system that allows the cultivation of plants and the breeding of fish in the same device. Using fish droppings, he is able to create a natural fertilizer for plant growth. Through the Save Our Agriculture system they are able to create organic gardens with produce such as tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, okra, but also catfish.

He markets its aquaponics units to individuals and professionals in urban areas. The advantage of his solution is that it makes it possible to obtain larger productions than in traditional agriculture, using fewer resources. For example, his urban aquaponics units help smallholder farmers grow 2 to 3 times more volumes of organic food by using only 10% of the water used by traditional agriculture in the same space. Since completing the TEF Programme, Flavien Kouatcha has achieved a turnover of over $120,000 and employed 18 people directly and 42 indirectly.

Israel Mwalyaje runs the Zai Vet Centre Company Ltd which increases the income of people through livestock keeping specifically dairy cows, pigs, and local chicken by enabling farmers to access inputs at cheaper prices and providing them with skills regularly.

From the 2017 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship programme, Rwandan Justin Niyigena learned how to cultivate valuable network and business leadership skills through a series of training to grow his poultry farming enterprise, Breeding Hens LTD. With only 2 years of experience in his agri-business, the seed capital also helped him run his business professionally.

He aspires to become the preferable Poultry farming enterprise in Rwanda. So far, his business has created jobs and continues to contribute to national development through taxes. He is also a role model in his community for the young generation.

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Africapitalism positions the private sector, more importantly, entrepreneurship, innovation, and business enterprise, as the key economic driver of growth and job creation across Africa, while also promoting sustainable development. The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is the leading champion of Africapitalism in Africa, and across the world, with significant contributions to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the continent.

In this piece, we will examine the concept of Africapitalism and the role of the TEF in promoting it for sustainable development in Africa.

What is Africapitalism?

Mr. Tony O. Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism is underpinned by his belief that Africans cannot rely solely on the public sector or government for the continent’s socioeconomic development, rather the private sector needs to come together with the public sector to manage and scale critical infrastructures that are pertinent to improving lives and transforming Africa.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission is deeply rooted in Africapitalism, and we believe that by creating a more competitive operating environment for entrepreneurs, we will unlock prosperity for Africa and Africans.

TEF and Africapitalism:

The Tony Elumelu Foundation was founded in 2010 as a mechanism for fostering economic development in Africa. In 2015, we launched the flagship USD100million Entrepreneurship Programme as a more structured approach to empowering entrepreneurs through access to capacity building, mentoring, networks, and market linkages, as well as non-refundable seed capital.

Through strategic partnerships with leading private and public sector players, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has scaled its impact and created sustainable development in Africa by catalysing entrepreneurship. Today, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on www.tefconnect.com, Africa’s largest digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to over 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The TEF and the SDGs:

The United Nations’ SDGs provide a framework for achieving sustainable development worldwide. The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission aligns closely with many of the SDGs, particularly those related to economic growth, job creation, and entrepreneurship.

Through its support for African entrepreneurs, the Foundation has contributed to all 17 SDGs, however, below are 5 that the Foundation has significantly contributed to:

1.  SDG 1 – eradication of poverty: By promoting Africapitalism and entrepreneurship, the TEF has helped to create economic opportunities for low-income individuals and communities.
2. SDG 4 – promotion of quality education: Through its training and mentorship programmes, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has helped to equip African entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
3. SDG 5 – Gender Equality: The Foundation is deliberate in its efforts to empower women entrepreneurs to transform their businesses and communities. Over the years, the Foundation has empowered more than 7000 female African entrepreneurs.
4. SDG 8: One of the key SDGs that the Tony Elumelu Foundation has contributed to is the promotion of sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
5.  SDG 9 – promotion of industry, innovation, and infrastructure: By supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, the TEF has helped to promote the development of new industries and technologies in Africa.

While the activities of the Foundation speak to the different SDGs directly and indirectly, the Foundation also empowers entrepreneurs whose businesses speak directly and indirectly to the different SDGs.

Examples of TEF-supported projects:

The Tony Elumelu Foundation supports entrepreneurs who are committed to solving Africa’s most pressing social and economic challenges and who are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here are some examples of the beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme whose businesses speak to the SDGs:

• D’Rose recycling: This is an eco-friendly company founded by Adebimpe Oni. It upcycles solid waste like old tyres, bottles, and plastics into recycled furniture suitable for homes, offices, playgrounds, studios, etc. The 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. Its operations align with SDG 11, which aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

• New Beginnings Investment Limited: This is a learning centre founded by a Ugandan entrepreneur, Caroline Ocanda. Through this, she has empowered many girls who have dropped out of school and have no source of income and women who are totally dependent on their husbands and even single mothers who are struggling to survive. This aligns with SDG 4 which aims to promote quality education.

• The Grain Library (Grainothèque): This was founded by Daniel Oulai who is from a small village in Cote D’Ivoire. He saw time after time, how farm producers sweat and complain about the selling prices of their crops as well as the loss of major portions of their harvest due to poor pest control. He created the business to provide social support to farmers in rural areas by providing access to quality seeds, relevant data and necessary technological tools needed for maximum agricultural output, precision management and general improvements in food production. Its operations align with SDG 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

• Green Packaging: Gaone Ditsele’s business, ‘Green Packaging’ is centred around the production of biodegradable plastic bags and bottles. The business works to eliminate problems of land pollution and minimise waste volume at landfills to ensure they are not fatal to animal life. This aligns with SDG 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
• Gifted Mom: Agbor Ashumanyi Ako co-founded ‘Gifted Mom’, a digital health platform based in Cameroon which gives pregnant women and mothers across Africa access to vital health information and care. As a digital-first platform, GiftedMom is able to expand faster than traditional healthcare systems and the start-up aims to reach 10 million women in the next 10 years. The platform now has over 170,000 users. The award-winning app has significantly improved both pregnancy check-up attendance and vaccination turnouts, with the ultimate goal to see a world free of preventable maternal and infant deaths. In collaboration with the Ministry of Public health, 28 health facilities and 40 community workers in Cameroon, Agbor has been able to follow up with over 29,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers across the country. Its activities align with SDG 3, which aims to promote good health and well-being.

• Britts Food: Britts Foods, founded by Belema Alagun, is a start-up focused on delivering the best sandwiches and smoothies to customers. She started her business in a small one-bedroom apartment and has been able to transform her business to a point where they own their pick-up hub. The business activities align with SDG 12, which aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

These are just a few examples of the thousands of TEF beneficiaries whose businesses align with the SDGs. Through our flagship Entrepreneurship Programme, we remain committed to solving social and economic challenges on the continent by supporting African entrepreneurs who are contributing to the achievement of the SDGs.

Africapitalism is a tried and proven model for driving economic growth and development in Africa through its initiatives to promote innovation, create jobs, and reduce poverty on the continent, which all amplify the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s critical role in shaping the future of sustainable development in Africa.

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“Entrepreneurship is in my DNA. In my own life journey, I’ve come to appreciate the significance of entrepreneurship in transforming communities, countries, societies, and humanity.” Tony Elumelu, a African businessman, billionaire, philanthropist, and champion of African entrepreneurs, is a steadfast believer that the private sector has a role to play in developing countries across Africa.

Now, after a career running United Bank of Africa, Elumelu says he has decided “to commit the second phase of my life to helping democratize the luck that I had growing up, to help expand access to opportunities.” And he has done just that, funding thousands of early-stage startups and empowering more than 15,000 entrepreneurs across 54 African countries to solve the continent’s biggest problems.

In this View From The Top interview at Stanford GSB, Chisom Obi-Okoye, MBA ’22, interviews Elumelu about his career path, philosophy of African capitalism, and vision for the future of the continent.

Full Transcript

Tony Elumelu: Entrepreneurship is in my DNA. In my own life journey, I’ve come to appreciate the significance of entrepreneurship in transforming communities, families, and countries.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: Welcome to View From The Top, the podcast. That was Tony Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Tony visited Stanford Graduate School of Business as part of View From the Top, a speaker series where students, like me, sit down to interview business leaders from around the world. I’m Chisom Obi-Okoye, an MBA student of the class of 2022. This year I had the pleasure of interviewing Tony on campus. Tony spoke to us about his commitment to building Africa’s future by investing in entrepreneurship and, as he would say, “democratizing luck.” He also discussed his work in financial inclusion and in strengthening Africa’s energy sector. You’re listening to View From The Top, the podcast.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: Hi, Tony, it’s so great to have you here. Thank you for being with us today. You are one of the most celebrated and most decorated business leaders in Africa, and I would posit the world, so it’s truly an honor to be able to host you at Stanford this afternoon.

Tony Elumelu: Thank you very much.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: We watched a video earlier where we learned a little bit about the Foundation, which we’ll speak about towards the later half of the interview. But we saw there that you were such a supporter and such an advocate of entrepreneurship, which isn’t really a surprise because your parents were entrepreneurs. I’m curious to know how seeing them build businesses at a young age influenced you and impacted your journey.

Tony Elumelu: Well, I’m pleased and honored to be with you all today, Stanford, great university. And a team from this university visited the Tony Elumelu Foundation before the pandemic I think, and I was quite impressed. They were on time. It’s hard with the chaotic traffic situation in Lagos. And their research work are so very, very impressive. So for me coming back here is such an honor. I have a great impression of your school.

Entrepreneurship is in my DNA. I preach entrepreneurship. I encourage entrepreneurship. I also try to catalyze more entrepreneurs in Africa because in my own life journey I’ve come to appreciate the significance and importance of entrepreneurship in transforming families, in transforming self, in transforming communities, in transforming countries, societies, and humanity entirely.

And when we founded the Tony Elumelu Foundation it was driven by the need and urgency to help catalyze development in Africa and the skill that’s sustainable, realizing for that entrepreneurship is a way to that. I was privileged, lucky, blessed to have been mentored in this journey of entrepreneurship, first by my parents, especially my mom who was an entrepreneur, small scale.

But the lessons I imbibed watching her, supporting her, continue to help me to date, and it’s also critical in the message and address I give to young entrepreneurs. I learned from her about hard work. She was extremely, extremely hard working at the time, to date, she just turned 94 and she’s still very hard working. She will cook for me, [unintelligible] food, and I’m like, “Mom, I have somebody to cook for me.” But that spirit in her remains ever so strong.

She was disciplined, and I’ve come to realize that in this journey of entrepreneurship discipline, not only in entrepreneurship, in everything in life discipline is critical for success. She was extremely tenacious, and I’ve come to see, and I preach this too, that the journey of entrepreneurship is not a linear journey, it’s up and down. But if you’re tenacious, if you are resilient, you’ll cross the finishing line. So those are part of the early learnings from my parents.

My mom and my dad long ago told us, and it is in my brain to date, that if you earn a dollar and you’re unable to save, if you earn a billion dollars you will save anything. So that for me, the first lesson in capital formation, capital formation starts from savings. If you do not save you don’t have money to invest. If you don’t invest you remain where you are. So these lessons have helped me in the journey of entrepreneurship.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: So let’s fast forward a few years. You graduate from the University with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics. You then proceed to become one of the youngest bank branch managers in Nigeria, typically a job reserved for people who are in their 50s or 60s. You become the managing director of one of the biggest banks in Nigeria. And then 2005 comes around and you are being asked to help lead what becomes like the biggest merger in Nigeria’s corporate history.

What were some of the challenges that you faced during that time, and which leadership principles did you stay rooted in as you were guiding this process?

Tony Elumelu: At the time quite a lot of challenges but just to contextualize to understand it, we took over a distressed bank, called Standard Trust Bank in 1997, and in 2005 we merged Standard Trust Bank and United Bank for Africa. But before the merger there was an acquisition. Standard Trust acquired a significant interest in United Bank for Africa that were made, and I emerged as CEO. So first we saw United Bank for Africa was almost 70 years old as an institution and kept set ways of doing things.

Their need to adoption was not so strong, and so at that time it took people months to read mails in that. And so the server delivery in those days the old generation banks were not so strong on server delivery. We were coming from a bank that was so strong with server delivery and technology, young people, et cetera. So the bank was the size of less than 1,800 people, and the United Bank for Africa had about 12,000 staff.

These 1,800 younger, technologically advanced, and this was an older and very big bank. So it was not easy integrating, because, as you see, corporate mergers, the legal combination is not the issue. The difficult part is the people integration, the culture integration, that is the tough part. And so, and if you can see from history most corporate institutions, it takes so many years to integrate people and culture.

And if you do not integrate people and culture properly, you lose the major value levels. So we were mindful of this. I wanted to make sure we were able to merge, integrate, and this was a financial institution that was like you merge, one, the customers don’t care whether, they want to be set, the same institution, they moved on. So it’s tough integrating our people, merging our people, merging cultures. Old cultures still set in their ways, and it’s bye-bye younger culture.

But therein lies the interesting aspect of the combination of the job. I said to people my elder brother who is seven years older than me, he doesn’t have gray hair. I have gray hair, my gray hair definitely comes from the merger because making it work, serving your customers, making sure that everyone in the universal institution, which was we had 420 branches at the time, that the same level of service across board. Across the board, so Standard Trust vendors were used to a certain level of some delivery.

You don’t want them to come to the new institution and have a drop, so we just had to make sure that service, we put our customers, and that’s why today United Bank for Africa, which interestingly has grown from a one-country bank to a bank operating in 20 African countries, with a presence also in Paris, London, recently Dubai, and the only African bank with a presence in the US as a [unintelligible] institution.

It started small, it has grown that big, and that experience during the merger continued to guide all we do, especially how we prioritize our customers and how we prioritize our people. So obviously the biggest lesson from that combination was making our people, integrating our people and our culture, was realizing that especially in the service sector where you sell intangibles, so to speak, it is very important that your core family, your workforce, that they are fully aligned, totally integrated, and positively mobilized and motivated.

If you lack this, you can’t make progress. And those lessons from the early days, you know resilience, hard work, discipline, staying focused, prioritizing people, have all helped us in creating today’s United Bank for Africa.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: And as you mentioned, you all were able to do that very successfully. You expanded from being a single-country bank to one that operates in more than 20 countries in Africa, and then has an impact and influence and reach in other countries as well. Many of us are interested in working in emerging markets or are building, developing products or services for the emerging markets, or one emerging market to begin with.

I’m curious to know how did you evaluate which markets to enter when you were expanding United Bank for Africa, and how do you determine when is the right time to do so?

Tony Elumelu: So first is most times people see the empty part of the glass. At times we see also the full part of the glass. You always have difficulties and challenges in almost every sector, especially countries you want to go into. So when we decided to expand into Africa, the story was first we thought that we had mastered the art of serving customers, because that’s what banking is about. Banking is about serving your customers, all about customers, customers, customers, and realizing that to serve your customers you must have a mobilized workforce, that’s aligned with those mission and a mission that you see for the group.

So we felt looking at the African landscape that we had opportunities. We thought Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa, and we thought that the level of banking, or service support, was very high and that we should leverage this and spread across the continent. And we had to decide which countries should we go to.

How do we decide a country, microeconomy, stability, policies, et cetera, for exchange policies you know is between business and country, taxation policies in countries, and the demography of a country, because we were quite set that we would also like to support small- and medium-scale enterprises, you know that would be better for United Bank for Africa. And so using that we came up with 30 countries that met the internal criteria we set on.

We called it the UBA, we developed a UBA Red Book, how we wanted to expand Africa, issues to consider, et cetera. But in all of those issues the ease of doing business in countries was very critical. The population was also important. The GDP of countries, income per capita was important, ease of finding the right human capital to work with because, again, it’s a people business, so that was very important to us.

And we came up with all of this, we now tiered it. We had what we called, or we developed what we called the three tiers for strategic intent. Tier 1 was we wanted to be strong and endure; tier 2, be a leading pan-African bank; and tier 3, being a global, having presence in global financial centers, which is why we thought of London, Paris, New York, Dubai, it’s all part of our three tiers for strategic intent.

The second one [unintelligible] orchestrated in nice fashion in Africa, and on that was what strategy, do we do a country strategy or not, you know pass through or have presence in countries. And we decided that we needed to have presence in countries. And next was, okay, how do you, the countries, let’s tier the countries. Again, we used GDP as always in tiering the countries, and we said are we going to greenfield, brownfield, acquisition, mergers, how do you want to grow.

We decided that we’d do a combination of both. So in the countries we went to, some countries we acquired banks, some we merged, and some we started greenfield. And the journey so far so good, today the United Bank for Africa serves about 35 million customers in Africa and still growing. We’re helping to simplify payments on the continent. We’re helping to orchestrate trade transactions, intra-Africa trade transactions.

Prior to this time Africa did not trade with and amongst itself. We believed the reason Africa didn’t do this is continent issues, because of infrastructure, [unintelligible] infrastructure, and also making sure we support and capitalize small business [unintelligible] grew. So UBA has done quite a bit in this space, and most importantly financial inclusion, trying to make sure that everyone, a continent with about one billion people the banking population is not so high.

So to us it’s not just about banking or offering banking services, it’s about what we call the democratization of access to financial services. It’s about financial inclusion, so making sure that almost everyone, in my case we work so they have access to a banking facility, and that banking facilities. And that in some countries was spearheaded, I pioneered opening of bank accounts zero balances, because what’s important to us is to attract people.

We believe that in Africa we have [unintelligible] the continent is very large, and all of us should be involved in trying to formalize the formal economy, and this is one of the ways we are doing so through our banking services. In other areas of operation and as a group we’re trying to do the same thing. What we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation is all again about helping to develop the continent, financial empowerment, taking opportunities to people irrespective of your [unintelligible], your level in society, where you live, whether urban or rural areas.

So those are things we need to keep doing to create a more inclusive society, especially in Africa.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: You alluded to this a little bit earlier, there’s a lot of innovation happening in the financial services industry, a lot of tech disrupters, and many of which are working towards that goal of democratizing access to financial services. What, like from your position as CEO and now Chairman of United Bank for Africa, how do you see the company collaborating or even competing with some of these disrupters, particularly thinking about new technologies like cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer payment, et cetera?

Tony Elumelu: As far as I was CEO of UBA, the Chief Executive Officer of United Bank for Africa, about 12 years ago, so today I don’t see myself as a bank officer. I’m an investor, I invest in banking, in helping to provide access to electricity on the continent, and control resource deficit on the continent is important to preach from us to leapfrog and move the continent to the way it should be. With investors in health care sector we have realized that indeed health is wealth.

If the pandemic taught us one thing it is about prioritizing health and realizing that what the war couldn’t do health, or lack of it, can do it. Who would have thought that the entire world would go into a lockdown mode. I didn’t know that would happen in my lifetime. So investing in that sector. We’re investing in energy, you know the full energy chain, because, again, for a continent like Africa it’s critical for us for growth.

So for us, or for me, at this point I am not so much a banker, however as a group we’re realizing potential technology. You know the [unintelligible] disruption that we’ve seen in the world is real, and in Africa in particular thanks to the population of our continent we know that we have to catch up. If we don’t catch up we’re going to be left behind.

And for businesses, and business we also share with the United Bank for Africa, a lot of businesses, digital adoption is critical for our service delivery, for everything that we do. In the payment space, we lead in the payment space to digitalization through our partnership with Fintech and [unintelligible] just to make sure that we’re able to serve our customers. Today’s customers, they don’t need a bank, they don’t need a facilitator for payments, they need it to feel that it follows their lifestyle.

And banking is changing, it’s changing from the way we used to know banking so many years ago. Today you can sit in your [unintelligible] I tell you at United Bank for Africa to the letter we have [unintelligible] our customers. A few years ago, no, 2005 when we did the merger with Standard Trust and United Bank for Africa, all of 2004 UBA celebrated it was the first bank in Nigeria to have 32 ATMs, 32 ATMs in all of Nigeria. I did a major marketing to there were 32 ATMs.

And then the first bank also to payout one billion naira, our local currency, a billion naira in cash, then let’s just say 100 dollar, 100 naira dollar in cash to date. And then 97 percent of our customer transactions occurred in the banking hall. Today UBA opens about 500,000 accounts every month, and these accounts, 95 percent are opened online, not in the banking hall.

Number two, transaction count, we have over 98 percent of our customer transactions now occurring online, not in a banking hall, okay. In terms of ATMs, UBA alone, just UBA alone, has close to 4,000 ATMs in Nigeria, all from 32 ATMs, and, of course, PoS’s are countable, there were no PoS before. So things have changed, and banking, we’ve changed further. I mean, technology disrupting a lot of things, not just in the US, not only in the West, but everywhere.

Even health care now, in the health care sector today health care can be delivered digitally, online, and everything. So we live in a very, in a new world, and every one of us is adopting and adapting fast to the new world and we live in it.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: You mentioned energy a little earlier which makes me nervous because it seems as though you’re reading my mind because that’s where I want to go next. Last year the Africa Energy Chamber recognized you as one of the 25 most influential individuals in shaping Africa’s energy sector. I’m curious you know especially knowing that at Stanford sustainability and renewable energy and energy more broadly is a really important subject that gets studied here and talked about a lot.

What are the most pressing issues and solutions being discussed right now as relates to energy in Africa? And also I would love to know a little bit more about the work that you’re doing I believe through Transcorp to address this?

Tony Elumelu: So access to electricity is extremely poor in Africa. Less than 35 percent of our people have access to reliable electricity on the continent. This is a continent of young people, over 700 million people are young on the continent, under the age of 30, and yet access to electricity is almost impossible. These young ones are in a very competitive world. They’re going to compete with children who are used to 24/7 of uninterrupted electricity supply.

So the world we see ahead is actually frightening because the divide we want to breach is not the case happening in the digital space. It’s not happening because of lack of access to a reliable source of energy on the continent. And from the work we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation from our close interaction with young Africans [unintelligible] we know, we can tell, we see, we hear, listen to them that access to electricity is a major hindrance, constraint on their ability to succeed.

This is why most, I’m sure at Stanford you must have seen this in your business research studies, that most small- and medium-scale enterprise on the continent die, they don’t succeed. The single most important factor for this is due to poor access to electricity. So to us as a group we believe in the concept of lots of Africa capitalism, which is a call on the private sector to play some role in the development of our continent. It’s the realization that the private sector has a role to play in developing the continent.

And in practicalizing this, and not just speaking to it, we decided that the power sector was critical for to invest in as we mobilize resources and invest in this space. Today we have capacity to generate about 2,000 megahertz of electricity, but we have some other hindrances like gas supply and grid connectivity. So we are able to generate about seven [unintelligible] hours out of the capacity of 2,000.

But we’re happy that we’re playing a key role in this area, but my message always has been to investors we start being — On this trip we traveled from Washington, we’ve been New York, we talked to a lot of investors in New York. When early we attended the American Institute which had a gathering of global asset managers and [unintelligible] managers, my message has been consistent. We have opportunities in Africa, there are huge opportunities in Africa, we have a huge population.

The income per capita has improved, it’s improving, and we lack access to electricity on the continent. So as the world mobilizes towards a more inclusive society, while the world mobilizes to a more prosperous world, I always like to remind people that we cannot have that prosperity across the world if we do not deal with the issue of access to electricity on the African continent. The reason we have youth unemployment in Africa is attributable to this.

The reason we have youth restlessness in Africa is attributable to this. The reason some embrace extremism is attributable to this. In fact government’s ability to cover, fight extremism is also limited by this. So at times you see communities and like spaces that do not feel any impact of government or society because of no access to electricity. So it’s a major, for me it’s not just an investment, you know a commercial investment, it is what we should be doing in the 21st century, to help improve access to electricity.

And, yeah, I can never shout or say it enough, and I want to have more people in this crusade. That all of us, those who have capital should look at investing in Africa, there are opportunities there. And those who have voices let’s give shout to attract attention. That is our big focus that collective the level can make a difference in Africa.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: I want to stay a little bit, I want to spend some time on what you mentioned earlier, Africapitalism, which you are known across Nigeria, and other countries as well, as being a strong proponent of, and you detailed here. I’m curious to know why you believe that Africa needs to take a unique approach to capitalism.

Tony Elumelu: Well, it’s not a unique approach of capitalism per se, it is for me a realization, okay, so at times there’s this entitlement mentality that people have, okay? We should be helped, we should be supported, we should be developed. Oh, for Christ’s sake, you know, I mean, it can’t be like that forever. We need to help ourselves too. So it’s a realization, okay, the private sector has also grown, is growing. We need government to prioritize, we need government to create the right environment for the private sector to keep doing well.

But the private sector also must be sensible and reasonable and conscientious in how we do things, okay? We should invest in the manner that will help to catalyze prosperity. We should invest in a manner that helps to create social equity, social wealth. We should invest in a manner that helps to create inclusiveness. So this is not just about a new form of capitalism or the other, it’s more about how do you fight that the private sector should play a role in helping to develop the economy, and let’s stop blaming others for our wars, let’s stop blaming all that for everything.

Let’s lead and hopefully they follow, and I’ve seen it happen. And some of the investments we have made, we did not invest all the capital assets. We reached out and we see that the world we live in the economy are interdependent, and people also begin to listen, especially if we show a good example, okay? So it’s a call to all of us, first we in Africa, outside the world, that we’ll have a role to play.

In the Advanced Society again, the meeting I attended earlier, it all had different names today, you know patient capital, in part investing, shared prosperity, mutual destinies. We just need to invest in a manner that’s not just about profits for the investors. We should invest in a manner that creates mutual benefit for everyone, for investors, for communities where you do business in, for society at large.

The fact that we do we do what we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, committing 100 million US dollars to support native African entrepreneurs, it’s not because we have so much money, but we also know that some of the basic needs we want to have are provided. So it’s not about having a bank account, it’s about that and then the bank, how can we take a part of it and share. Not for me, not that we share in the money that creates dependence, perpetual dependence, you know, in a manner that makes you stand on your own, makes you self-reliant.

And so when we say we’ll give a lot of funding, we say capital of $5,000.00, and we will do so, and to date over 16,000 Africans have benefitted from that program. It does not encourage laziness, no. But we know when San Francisco, where in tech environment, we know some certain will lend them $5,000.00, what did they develop from it. So we just want to give young Africans access, opportunity, opportunity to prove their concept, and then let others see them as good as the community does in them.

So we need all, the private sector, we need everyone, we need the private sector looking at critical sectors. Today I just talked about electricity. Instead of people keeping their money in bank accounts abroad, why don’t you bring your money to invest in electricity on the continent. You make more money, but you also impact society in a more positive way. That is the entire essence of it, so we need more private sector leaders showing the way.

But we need also our public sector leaders creating the right environment that will enable the private sector to do it. And we needs Friends of Africa development partners also begin to look at how they dive in, how they engage, how they give in the 21st century with the aim to create self-reliance and independence rather than perpetuating the syndrome of dependence.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: Now, Tony, typically when people retire from very high stress jobs such as being the CEO of one of the largest banks in Africa I think take a vacation. You instead decided to found a company, Heirs Holding, and also the foundation that you’ve alluded to. I’m curious, this was back, this was a few years ago, I’m curious about what you saw happening like in Nigeria, or beyond that at that time, that drove both impetus for you to develop this foundation.

Tony Elumelu: Oh, we did two things. When I retired in 2010, 12 years ago, we decided to create a family office, which was to some extent novel in our part of the world. And we said the family office will be quite catalytic in the kind of investment that we make, hence this philosophy of Africapitalism. So and so it is the epitome and this home of our emerging philosophy of Africapitalism, and decided the sectors that we considered very important like we have to move to [unintelligible] power.

When Nigeria and Africa is endowed with a lot of resources yet we do not have the ability to process a lot of these and convert them to the state that they can become valuable to our people. So we said energy from an integrated point of view and [unintelligible] the value chains. We looked at the health care sector and we said health is important, that we need to invest in the health care sector. So these were the key, of course, we listed as important in Africa, and hospitality, okay.

Hospitality, if we want to grow a country and economy, transportation and hospitality are critical for these. So those are the things we decided to do. At the time the motivation was to help draft a philosophy of capitalism for that, but equally important to help manage the investments and wanted to push [unintelligible] as they go to investment partners in the continent, wanted to help to attract investment to the continent, and so far, so good on that.

And the other thing we did, the second thing was the Foundation. I thought that that my story has been one of, there’s an element of luck in my story. There’s an element of being at the right place at the right time. And I wasn’t the most intelligent in my class, and also I wasn’t the most hard working you know of my set and people I knew. And therefore there was luck in it that that I had for what I became.

And I thought you know I’d risen very rapidly, done quite a lot, and I thought so it’s time to commit this second phase of my life to helping to impact humanity, to helping to democratize the luck that I had going on, to help expand access to opportunities, to help people. I mean, I, let’s talk about parents, I said a small-scale entrepreneur, but not the kind you’re going to really see.

And so I was not like a son of any known families, so to speak, just a regular family person. And so, you know, and I’ve been inspired by what I see around the world. You know you look at Steve Job for instance, and his [unintelligible], and I ask myself if Steve Job were in Africa, if he was an African in Nigeria would he have been able to succeed to the scale and magnitude that he succeeded.

I mean, long after he’s dead the company is founded first to cross one trillion in market cap, [unintelligible]. So it was all of this that drove me to say, no, and to be, I’m fortunate, I don’t know what I would say to God if I did not create, or help to create modern [unintelligible] on the continent of our African ancestors. And that is what drove my wife and I at the time to decide that we should commit $100 million US dollars to helping to identify, support, and empower the next generation of African leaders and to do it at a scale and magnitude that had never been done before.

Given that we do business in many African countries, we decided it should not be about Nigeria, it should be about Africa. Given that we know that poverty in always affects all of us everywhere we decided to make sure that it’s broader. And so that is why we started the Tony Elumelu Foundation, so the motivation for starting the Tony Elumelu Foundation is to help democratize luck, create access for people.

Whether or not you are a big man’s child or a poor man’s child, you have ideas, you’re going to classes, you’re committed, you’re ambitious apply, and the set diagnostic I will give you an opportunity. So when I look back today I say that, I say a major achievement, what we have done, the happiness I see on the faces of the young Africans keeps me going.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: So my final question for you, you seem to be a nation in and of yourself. Through the Foundation you’ve worked with local governments, international governing bodies, to help move capital where it’s most needed. And so I’m sure you’ve heard it asked many times before, Nigeria is now in its election season, I’ll join the chorus, why aren’t you running for president?

Tony Elumelu: Oh, wow, I didn’t see that coming. I think first it’s when I look around I know the potential that we have as a continent and as a people. I see opportunities. I know that life can be a lot better for people. And oftentimes you feel the urge to show interest in how we are governed and how things happen.

But I soon also realized that because I’ve never been selfish, because I’ve never been self-centered, because I’ve never been to me that it must be turning, I say to myself if there are other good people, capable people who can do this, who are showing interest, why don’t you support them and share with them what you think should be the right thing in terms of leadership, in terms of governance in 21st-century Africa where our people have suffered and continue to suffer so much.

I realized also that all of us cannot be in the political space. But I know that evil succeeds or triumphs in the world when good people keep quiet. So I say to myself just the way I’m committed to entrepreneurship, we are committed to helping to empower young Africans, we should support the emergence and orchestration of good governance across the continent because I think that is what has held us down as Africans.

So for me it is not just about Nigeria, it’s about many countries, many countries on the continent. So I am interested in good governance, and I know that what we preach and advocacy and everything we do, try to encourage young people, if we do not succeed in the political space our leadership is not good.

So my aim is for to continue to encourage the evolution of the political process that we won through our good leadership and to ensure that our leaders stay accountable. That process is not there yet, but we are working to get there. And I, again, it’s one area when I was in Washington I said to political leadership here too that it should be a concerted effort to encourage people on the continent to do what is right, even as we also from the continent continue to speak out on good governance and accountability.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: Thank you so much, Tony, that was amazing. And typically we like to close with a lightning round of questions, so I have four for you. And I’m going to say them and you have to answer as quickly as possible, hence the lightning part. So outside of, aside from Palo Alto, California, what’s your favorite place to visit?

Tony Elumelu: I didn’t hear that, sorry.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: What’s your favorite place to travel to?

Tony Elumelu: Oh, outside. I just came from LA, Los Angeles, I love Los Angeles.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: More than San Francisco?

Tony Elumelu: No, no, you didn’t say more than, you said outside from.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: Now with Nigeria out of the World Cup who are you rooting for?

Tony Elumelu: Wow, even my boys they were crying when they dropped. I think after Nigeria, Senegal.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: What is your favorite Wizkid song?

Tony Elumelu: Hit song?

Chisom Obi-Okoye: What’s your favorite Wizkid?

Tony Elumelu: Wizkid song, “Ojuelegba,” you don’t know that.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: I don’t know it. Can you tell us how it goes?

Tony Elumelu: Who has an iPhone here? You have “Ojuelegba” on iPhone.

Chisom Obi-Okoye: And last question, what are you most grateful for?

Tony Elumelu: Oh, I’m grateful to God for my wife and family, and children. I think you know you can’t do well in life if you don’t have a home that’s at peace. I do have a very peaceful home, and my children are reinforcing too, so I’m grateful to God for that.

The post Our Founder, Mr. Tony Elumelu’s Fireside Chat on “View From The Top”, the Dean’s Premier Speaking Series, at Stanford University appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

ON INSURANCE:

“When phone use started, we had about 60,000 land phones but today approximately, 154 million Nigerians now have internet access, and it is only a matter of time for insurance to take its rightful space in our economy. It takes people like myself to show interest in the sector to revitalise the sector.

Insurance is critical in the wider financial intermediation space and Nigeria can use this to further national savings mobilization and economic activities. We make investments that create jobs and improve social welfare as Africapitalists .

When we tried to take over a distressed bank in 1997, it was very unpopular, but we were able to turn it around in record time. Subsequently, others have decided to take risks for themselves.

We bring this attitude to the insurance space – bringing what we know how to do, prioritising customers and using digital mediums to drive business, we think we can rekindle public interest in the insurance space.”

ON HOSPITALITY:

“As explained by the National Bureau of Statistics, for the first time in a while inflation is dropping. The GDP of Nigeria is now going up from being negative. Business sectors are slowly picking up, in our hospitality business, Transcorp Hotels, for example, occupancy was as low at 20% last year but has risen and is now between 60-80% on a daily which was rare even before the pandemic.

Once Leadership can deal with the challenges of security, things will continue to improve. The pandemic was bad but African leaders are beginning to have a grip on how to address macroeconomic policies that can have impact on their countries.”

ON POWER:

“We have an investment philosophy called Africapitalism that drives our business where we make long term investments in key sectors, we consider catalytic for economic growth. We realised it was important to look at the integrated energy play beyond just power. As we think of firewood and its impact on the environment, we want to move to more gas use. With the purchase of the OML 17, we believe that we can help bring access to energy products.

We want to make sure we have gas to support our power plants, the commissioning of our ultra-modern gas plants will happen in September or October this year. We believe gas is the next oil and we are happy that we have an asset producing gas daily.

We want to be able to produce 2000 megawatts of electricity daily. It will be a combination of feeding our power plant (AFAM Power plant) with gas and we believe that through our integrated oil and gas play we will improve access to electricity.”

TOE ON SMEs:

“As the Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the centre of our work is on prioritising and empowering young African entrepreneurs to realise their economic aspirations through training, networking, and support.

While access to capital is important, knowledge, discipline is crucial to the business. Through our digital platform, entrepreneurs are supported and have access to a virtual marketplace as AFCTA becomes more relevant.

When the macro environment is right, banks are more encouraged lend. One of the areas our country has done well is in agriculture, with farmers becoming more empowered through deliberate and consistent work of the Central Bank.

There is a need for the Private Sector and the Government to work together. One of the ways this can be done is through tax incentives. We also need to deal with why SMEs fail – and the heart of that is infrastructure – electricity, transportation, and adverse policy environment.”

TOE ON HOUSING:

“Economies that do not have a middle class cannot be strong economies. One of the basic human needs is shelter and it is an inspiration for many people to own a house. There are 2 critical issues; firstly, the titling law in Nigeria remains challenging. This is a low hanging fruit, where the right policies can change the sector drastically.

Additionally, the foreclosure law is also a challenge and things have not been properly done, the time it takes to access a mortgage has an impact on access to credit and the flow of credit.

The Mortgage to GDP ratio is also quite insignificant and needs to change. For everyone who leaves school and wants to buy a house, they should be able to do so. The banks are ready to do so but there are gaps in the policies.”

TOE ON MANUFACTURING:

“The manufacturing sector is one we are exploring actively and are hopeful for putting a foot in the door at the right time. We hope to set up an industrial pack, with power and gas from our centres where we will equip businesses with the right environment to run their businesses. With the AfCFTA presenting additional opportunities, we cannot ignore the opportunities present.”

The post Tony O. Elumelu Speaks On Key Sectors of The Nigerian Economy appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is pleased to share with you, important news from Heirs Holdings.

Heirs Holdings (HH), with its affiliate Transcorp, acquired on 15th January Nigerian oil licence OML 17 from Shell, Total and ENI, through the latest addition to our Group: TNOG Oil and Gas Limited.  Click HERE to read.

The deal is a very important demonstration of what we all do at TEF and HH, in particular:

• This groundbreaking $1.1bn deal demonstrates renewed confidence in the African economy when many were doubting our continent’s future. We are the catalyst for the transaction.
   
• It illustrates Heirs Holdings’ ability to bring together a syndicate of leading global and African investors to invest, demonstrating our position as the leading investor in Africa and role model for others.
   
• This is Africapitalism in action, as a foreign-held asset is transferred to the stewardship of a truly indigenous business, board, and management.
   
• HH’s ownership of OML 17 demonstrates our commitment to delivering sustainable development, economic empowerment, and most importantly, as a Group and as the Tony Elumelu Foundation, youth empowerment. With this acquisition, thousands of jobs will be created for our youths across the country, strengthening our economy and placing Africa more firmly on the global investment map. 
   
• It shows our determination and resilience in implementing our strategy. Heirs Holdings is creating an integrated energy company – one that will use African natural resources to power Africa, create African-based value chains and ensure Africa-based value creation. It follows our acquisition of the Afam Power Plants, our turnaround of the Transcorp Power Plant, our work on our other oil and gas assets, all leading to a single goal – sustainable, robust, and widely available power, that will drive schools, hospitals, and industries. We define strategy and we execute.

In accordance with our mission across the Group – improving lives and transforming Africa – Tony Elumelu, TEF Founder and HH Chairman, an indigene of the Niger Delta region himself, has assured host communities and stakeholders of our continuous commitment to shared prosperity and economic development.

We, at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, look forward to the numerous opportunities that will arise from this and the many more jobs that will be created for our people.

The post TEF & Heirs Holdings: Commitment to Africa’s Development and Job Creation appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.