A promising business can struggle to grow even when a market opportunity exists. Financing, regulatory requirements, financial management and investment risk can all stand between an entrepreneur’s plans and the next stage of development.

For Marc Gono, these challenges represent a business opportunity of their own.

Based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Marc is the founder of Aziel Consulting, an advisory firm supporting businesses, entrepreneurs and investors through agribusiness consulting, financial and tax advisory, business development and political risk assessment.

His work centres on a question that extends beyond agriculture: what capabilities do businesses need to navigate complex markets, make informed decisions and pursue sustainable growth?

Through Aziel Consulting and his involvement in YAFRICA INVEST, Marc is building a career at the intersection of business advisory, investment facilitation and regional economic engagement.

From geopolitical risk consulting to entrepreneurship

Marc Gono began his professional career as a geopolitical and political risk consultant. This experience gave him a foundation for understanding how political conditions, regulatory environments and economic uncertainty can influence commercial decisions.

In 2019, he transitioned into entrepreneurship, with an ambition to support businesses operating in Côte d’Ivoire’s agribusiness sector.

The move presented challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his early business plans and created financial difficulties, requiring him to reconsider his approach.

Rather than abandoning the venture, Marc refined his business model around the practical needs of entrepreneurs and investors. His focus shifted towards providing advisory services that could help businesses navigate financial, operational and market-related challenges.

That direction led to the development of Aziel Consulting, a firm designed to help clients assess opportunities, strengthen business operations and make better-informed decisions.

His experience illustrates a significant transition: applying expertise developed in consulting to the task of building an enterprise that provides professional services to other businesses.

Aziel Consulting: Supporting business decisions across African markets

Aziel Consulting is a business advisory firm based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Its services include agribusiness consulting, tax advisory, financial advisory, business development support and political and market risk assessments.

These services address different aspects of business development.

An agribusiness may need financial advice as it prepares to expand. A company entering a new market may need to understand regulatory requirements and political risks. An investor assessing a potential opportunity may need a clearer picture of the commercial environment.

In each case, informed decision-making depends on access to relevant expertise.

Aziel Consulting brings these advisory capabilities together to support businesses and investors navigating such decisions. Its work places financial knowledge, commercial planning and risk assessment within a single business proposition.

The firm’s focus on agribusiness is particularly relevant to Marc’s original entrepreneurial ambition. Agricultural enterprises must manage challenges beyond production, including financing, taxation, operational planning and access to markets. Advisory support can help businesses identify these requirements and plan accordingly.

However, advice alone does not guarantee financing or commercial success. The value of an advisory relationship ultimately depends on the quality of the analysis, the suitability of the recommendations and the client’s ability to implement them.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the development of Aziel Consulting

Building a professional services firm requires more than technical expertise. It also requires operational structure, client acquisition, financial management and the ability to translate knowledge into a sustainable business.

In 2024, Marc Gono participated in the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, receiving US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

The support provided an opportunity to strengthen Aziel Consulting’s operations.

According to the supplied business profile, Marc used the seed capital to formalise the company’s operations, establish a professional office in Cocody Angré, Abidjan, and invest in client outreach tools to support business development.

These investments addressed practical requirements for a growing advisory firm: establishing a professional operating base and improving its capacity to reach prospective clients.

The business profile also reports that Aziel Consulting’s annual revenue increased from approximately US$20,000 to more than US$45,000, while its workforce expanded to 10 employees. The team includes specialists in legal services, finance, business development and investment advisory.

These figures indicate growth in the company’s reported revenue and staffing. However, the period covered by the revenue comparison was not specified in the source material, so the pace of growth cannot be established from the available information alone.

The Foundation’s contribution should be understood within this context. Seed capital supported specific operational investments, while training and mentorship formed part of Marc’s entrepreneurial development. The available information does not establish that the programme alone caused the company’s subsequent growth.

Beyond advisory services: Marc Gono and YAFRICA INVEST

Marc’s interests extend beyond the day-to-day requirements of individual businesses.

In 2022, he co-founded YAFRICA INVEST, described in the supplied profile as a pan-African lobbying and investment platform operating across 25 Sub-Saharan African countries.

The initiative reflects a broader interest in regional investment engagement and economic collaboration.

While Aziel Consulting focuses on advisory services for businesses and investors, YAFRICA INVEST operates at a wider regional level. Together, the two initiatives reflect Marc’s work across enterprise development and investment-related engagement.

Marc has also undertaken investment banking training through the New York Institute of Finance, adding to the financial knowledge relevant to his professional work.

The distinction between these activities matters. Business advisory, investment facilitation and policy advocacy involve different functions, even when they intersect around the same broad objective of improving commercial opportunities. Their effectiveness depends on the services delivered and the outcomes they produce.

For Marc, developing these capabilities offers a way to engage with African business growth at more than one level: through the needs of individual enterprises and through relationships spanning regional markets.

What investment readiness means for African businesses

Access to capital is an important consideration for entrepreneurs, but it is not the only requirement for business growth.

Companies seeking investment may need reliable financial records, clear business plans, appropriate governance arrangements and a credible understanding of their market and operational risks. Investors, in turn, need sufficient information to evaluate opportunities and make informed decisions.

Advisory services can help businesses identify gaps in these areas and prepare more effectively for expansion or financing discussions.

For agribusinesses, the requirements can be especially varied. Businesses may need to plan around production cycles, changing input costs, logistics, taxation and market access. The relevance of each consideration depends on the business model and the market in which it operates.

Aziel Consulting’s services address several of these areas through financial, tax, agribusiness and risk advisory.

Marc’s experience therefore points to a practical lesson for entrepreneurs: building a business capable of attracting investment involves more than presenting an attractive idea. It requires the financial discipline, operational systems and commercial understanding to support that proposition.

The extent to which advisory services improve investment outcomes must ultimately be assessed through evidence, such as financing secured, operational improvements achieved or successful market expansion. The available profile does not provide those client-level outcomes, but it establishes the business focus around which Marc is building his firm.

The next stage for Marc Gono

Marc’s stated ambition is to develop Aziel Consulting and YAFRICA INVEST into influential organisations in agribusiness advisory, investment facilitation and economic policy advocacy across Africa.

For Aziel Consulting, that ambition involves expanding its capacity to support businesses and investors. For YAFRICA INVEST, it centres on strengthening regional engagement and connections across African markets.

Both ambitions will require more than a wider geographic presence. Sustained growth will depend on the quality of the services provided, the expertise available within the organisations and their ability to demonstrate value to clients and partners.

Marc’s entrepreneurial journey also offers a reminder that expertise can itself become the foundation of a business. His transition from geopolitical risk consulting to building an advisory firm shows how professional knowledge can be developed into a commercial service when it responds to identifiable business needs.

Marc Gono is building Aziel Consulting around that proposition: helping businesses understand their operating environment, make more informed decisions and prepare for the opportunities they want to pursue. The next measure of its progress will be how effectively the firm translates those capabilities into demonstrable results for the businesses and investors it serves.

The post Marc Gono Is Building the Expertise Behind African Investment appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The contrast stayed with him.

Rather than treating waste as simply an environmental problem, Haroun Mahamat Adoum saw an opportunity to build a service that could improve urban sanitation while creating employment and laying the groundwork for recycling.

That vision became The First Waste Management, a growing environmental services company providing household waste collection in N’Djamena and working towards a more sustainable approach to waste management in Chad.

Turning an everyday problem into an enterprise

Waste management may not immediately seem like an area for entrepreneurship, but for Haroun, the need was clear.

As cities grow, so does the volume of waste they produce. Without reliable collection systems, rubbish can accumulate in residential communities, affecting the cleanliness of neighbourhoods and creating wider environmental and public health concerns.

Haroun’s experience abroad gave him a practical reference point for what organised waste management could look like.

He returned with the conviction that Chad needed businesses capable of providing structured services rather than relying solely on informal or inconsistent approaches.

The result was The First Waste Management, built around a straightforward proposition: make waste collection more accessible, organised and reliable for households.

From an idea with no equipment to a working waste collection service

The First Waste Management started with little more than Haroun’s vision.

Before joining the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, the business had no revenue, equipment or operational infrastructure. Turning the concept into a functioning service therefore required both financial resources and the business knowledge to establish a sustainable operating model.

Today, the company provides door-to-door household waste collection in N’Djamena’s 4th arrondissement.

Residents can subscribe to the service for 500 CFA per household, giving them access to a more structured way of disposing of household waste.

The business has also created its first jobs, growing to a team of five employees, including one woman.

While household collection is the company’s starting point, Haroun’s ambitions extend further. He is working towards introducing recycling initiatives that can recover useful materials from collected waste, reduce environmental pollution and create additional economic value from resources that would otherwise be discarded.

How the Tony Elumelu Foundation helped Haroun Mahamat Adoum move from vision to action

For Haroun, turning an environmental idea into a functioning business required more than identifying a problem. He needed the capital, entrepreneurial knowledge and support network to build the foundations of the company.

In 2021, he joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, receiving US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

The support helped move The First Waste Management from concept to operation.

Haroun used the seed capital to acquire essential equipment, launch household waste collection and recruit his first employees. The Foundation’s training also strengthened his understanding of business planning, operations and growth management.

The programme’s value extended beyond the funding itself. Through mentorship and connection to a wider community of African entrepreneurs, Haroun gained access to perspectives and knowledge that could support him as he navigated the challenges of building an emerging environmental services business.

Building a business around cleaner communities

The significance of The First Waste Management goes beyond the collection of household rubbish.

For communities, reliable waste collection can make everyday life more organised and contribute to cleaner residential environments. For the business itself, the model creates opportunities to build an emerging environmental services industry in Chad.

Employment is another part of that equation.

As the company grows, opportunities can emerge across collection, logistics, administration, recycling and other areas of waste management. Haroun’s early decision to build a formal enterprise around waste services therefore creates a foundation for economic activity alongside its environmental objectives.

His planned move into recycling could take that model further by treating waste not simply as something to remove, but as a resource that can be recovered, processed and reused.

That shift—from waste disposal to resource recovery—is central to the longer-term opportunity Haroun sees for the business.

A bigger vision for waste management in Chad

Haroun Mahamat Adoum’s ambition is not limited to one neighbourhood in N’Djamena.

He plans to expand The First Waste Management into other major cities across Chad while developing recycling facilities and community education programmes around responsible waste disposal and waste segregation.

The objective is to build a more integrated waste management model—one that combines collection, environmental awareness and resource recovery.

For a country where structured waste management remains an emerging area, that represents an opportunity to build the sector alongside the growth of its cities.

Haroun’s journey also illustrates how entrepreneurship can emerge from personal experience. His exposure to organised sanitation systems abroad did not simply change his perspective on waste; it helped him recognise a service gap that could be addressed through a locally built business.

The road ahead for Haroun Mahamat Adoum

The First Waste Management is still at an early stage, but its direction is clear.

Haroun wants to expand household collection, introduce recycling and build systems that can serve communities at a larger scale. His longer-term ambition is to contribute to sustainable urban sanitation across Chad and position the country as a stronger example of environmental entrepreneurship in Central Africa.

For Haroun Mahamat Adoum, cleaner cities are not an abstract environmental goal. They are the result of practical systems, reliable services and people willing to build them.

Through The First Waste Management, he is turning that belief into a business—one household, one employee and one cleaner community at a time.

The post Haroun Mahamat Adoum Is Transforming Waste Management in Chad for a Cleaner Future appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Fashion can preserve history without being confined to the past.

Across Africa, designers are drawing on traditional fabrics, silhouettes and craftsmanship while creating clothing designed for contemporary consumers. For Adama Bologo, that balance is at the heart of his work.

From his base in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Adama has built Bologo Tunique, a fashion brand creating bespoke tunics, contemporary shirts, ceremonial attire and reimagined traditional garments.

The brand draws inspiration from African craftsmanship and fabrics including bogolan, handwoven cotton and linen, while giving traditional influences a distinctly modern expression.

For Adama, fashion is therefore more than a commercial product.

It is a way to carry culture forward.

Adama Bologo sees fashion as a language of identity

Clothing has always communicated something about the person wearing it.

In African societies, traditional garments and textiles can carry associations with community, history, occasion and status. Patterns, fabrics and silhouettes can communicate identity without a single word being spoken.

Adama Bologo’s approach starts from this cultural significance but looks towards the present.

He founded Bologo Tunique with the ambition of creating clothing that allows customers to engage with African heritage while dressing for contemporary life.

The brand’s collections include bespoke garments for men and women, ceremonial pieces, modern and classic shirts, reimagined traditional suits and themed collections.

Among its distinctive creations is Dynastie Guerrière, a collection that explores African heritage through a contemporary fashion lens.

The objective is not to reproduce tradition exactly as it was.

It is to reinterpret it.

Bologo Tunique is building a fashion brand around African craftsmanship

At the centre of Bologo Tunique’s aesthetic is an appreciation for African materials and craftsmanship.

The brand incorporates fabrics such as bogolan, alongside handwoven cotton and linen, into contemporary garments.

That choice gives the clothing a connection to African textile traditions while allowing Adama to experiment with modern cuts, styling and presentation.

The result is a fashion proposition built around two ideas that are sometimes treated as opposites: heritage and modernity.

For Bologo Tunique, they can coexist.

Traditional inspiration can inform contemporary design.

Cultural identity can become part of a modern brand.

And craftsmanship can become a commercial skill that creates livelihoods.

That final point is particularly important to Adama’s entrepreneurial journey.

From US$10 a month to a growing fashion business

The scale of Adama Bologo’s ambition becomes clearer when measured against where Bologo Tunique began.

Before joining the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, Adama operated the business alone with basic equipment.

Monthly revenue was approximately US$10.

Limited resources restricted production capacity, consistency and the number of customers the business could serve.

Yet the small operation contained the foundations of a larger fashion enterprise: a clear creative identity, a commitment to African craftsmanship and an ambition to reach audiences beyond Ouagadougou.

Adama’s challenge was turning those foundations into a business capable of producing consistently and competing for a wider market.

That required investment.

It also required business knowledge.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation helped Adama Bologo build capacity

In 2019, Adama Bologo participated in the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, receiving US$5,000 in seed capital, business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

The funding allowed him to invest directly in the productive capacity of Bologo Tunique.

He purchased industrial sewing equipment, cutting tables and premium fabrics, strengthening the infrastructure required to produce garments at a higher standard and greater volume.

Adama also recruited two apprentices, creating an opportunity for young people to develop practical tailoring skills through hands-on training.

The programme’s business training complemented that investment.

Adama strengthened his financial planning, business management and strategic approach to growing the brand.

The results were measurable.

Monthly revenue increased from approximately US$10 to US$500, while the team grew from one employee to four.

For a small fashion business, that shift represents more than increased sales.

It represents increased capacity to create.

Adama Bologo is turning craftsmanship into opportunity

Fashion businesses are often judged by their finished garments.

But behind every garment is a chain of skills.

Designers need tailors. Tailors need technical expertise. Apprentices need opportunities to learn. Businesses need people who understand cutting, sewing, finishing, styling and production.

That makes fashion an important part of the wider creative economy.

Through Bologo Tunique, Adama Bologo is creating opportunities for young people to develop practical skills while building a commercial enterprise around African design.

The two apprentices recruited as the business expanded are part of that story.

Rather than treating craftsmanship as something that exists only as cultural heritage, Adama is using it as a pathway to professional development and employment.

The value of the work is therefore found not only in what customers wear, but also in the capabilities being built behind the brand.

Taking African fashion beyond Ouagadougou

A strong fashion brand needs more than good garments.

It needs an audience.

Adama has worked to expand Bologo Tunique’s visibility through professional photography, social media, collaborations with stylists and engagement with members of the African diaspora.

The brand has also used cultural events, fashion showcases and regional exhibitions to introduce its work to wider audiences.

The launch of Dynastie Guerrière became one of the brand’s notable moments, attracting attention during a fashion showcase featuring Burkinabè designers.

These efforts point to an important shift in how African fashion brands can grow.

The customer base does not have to be limited by the location of the workshop.

Digital platforms can make collections visible to audiences elsewhere, while exhibitions and cultural events can create physical connections between designers and new markets.

For Bologo Tunique, this creates a pathway from a local fashion business towards a regional brand.

Why Adama Bologo’s work matters

Africa’s fashion industry sits at an interesting intersection of culture and commerce.

The continent has deep textile traditions, distinctive aesthetics and generations of craftsmanship. At the same time, a younger and increasingly connected consumer base is reshaping how African fashion is designed, marketed and consumed.

Entrepreneurs such as Adama Bologo are operating within that transition.

His work shows that cultural heritage does not have to be preserved by leaving it unchanged.

It can also be preserved through reinterpretation.

A traditional textile can become part of a modern silhouette.

A ceremonial garment can influence contemporary design.

A tailoring skill can become a source of employment.

And a local fashion label can aspire to compete beyond its home market.

That is where the commercial and cultural dimensions of Bologo Tunique meet.

Building a Burkinabè brand with a regional ambition

Adama’s next ambition is to take Bologo Tunique beyond Burkina Faso.

He plans to expand into Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin, building a wider West African customer base for the brand.

Regional expansion will bring new challenges, from production and distribution to branding and customer acquisition.

But West Africa also offers a natural environment for a fashion business rooted in shared cultural influences while maintaining a distinct Burkinabè identity.

For Bologo Tunique, the opportunity is to demonstrate that a brand can be locally grounded and regionally ambitious at the same time.

The clothes can carry the story of where they come from while speaking to customers across borders.

The future of African fashion will not be defined solely by international recognition.

It will also depend on the strength of the businesses, skills and creative ecosystems being built across the continent.

Adama Bologo is contributing to that ecosystem from Ouagadougou.

Through Bologo Tunique, he is building a business where African fabrics meet contemporary design, where craftsmanship creates employment and where cultural identity becomes part of a modern commercial proposition.

The journey from US$10 to US$500 in monthly revenue shows what can happen when creative ambition is matched with investment in equipment, skills and business management.

His next challenge is scale.

If Bologo Tunique can successfully take its aesthetic and craftsmanship into new West African markets, Adama will be doing more than expanding a fashion label.

He will be showing how a designer can take something deeply rooted in African heritage and give it a place in the future.

For Adama Bologo, the goal is not simply to preserve African fashion. It is to keep evolving it.

The post Adama Bologo: Redefining African Fashion Through Heritage appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Every harvest brings a window of opportunity.

For farmers growing mangoes, bananas and pineapples in Benin, that window can also be a race against time. Fresh fruit is highly perishable, and when it cannot be sold, stored or processed quickly enough, its value can disappear.

For Ivette Biokou, that loss presented a business opportunity.

Instead of allowing surplus fruit to become waste, she began transforming it into products with a longer shelf life and new commercial possibilities.

Through Ewatomi Market, founded in Parakou, Ivette is processing locally grown fruits into dried snacks and fruit-based products while building a business around sustainability, employment and local agricultural value.

Her approach is simple but consequential: if fresh produce cannot always reach the market in time, the market can find another way to preserve its value.

Ivette Biokou saw opportunity in what others might discard

Benin has a strong agricultural base and produces a variety of tropical fruits.

But producing food is only one part of building a resilient food system.

Farmers also need ways to preserve, process, distribute and sell their harvests. Without those systems, seasonal abundance can become a liability. When supply temporarily exceeds demand or processing capacity, fresh produce can spoil before it generates income.

It was this challenge that caught Ivette Biokou’s attention in Parakou.

She saw that fruit that might otherwise be lost could be transformed into products that remain useful and marketable for longer.

That insight became the foundation of Ewatomi Market.

The business was designed not simply as a food-processing venture, but as a way to create more value from agricultural produce while responding to the environmental and economic costs associated with food waste.

What does Ewatomi Market do?

Ewatomi Market is a Beninese food-processing business that transforms locally grown fruits into value-added products.

Its product range includes dried fruit snacks as well as pineapple and mango fruit liqueurs, giving the company multiple ways to turn locally available produce into products for different consumer markets.

The business supplies products to restaurants, hotels and student communities in Parakou, connecting locally processed food with everyday consumers.

The model has an important advantage.

Instead of relying entirely on the short commercial life of fresh fruit, processing creates products that can remain available for longer and reach customers through different channels.

For farmers and agricultural communities, this creates another potential route to market.

For consumers, it creates access to locally processed fruit products.

And for the business itself, it creates an opportunity to build a brand around an abundant local resource.

From a one-person operation to a growing food business

The scale of Ewatomi Market today is difficult to understand without looking at where it started.

Before participating in the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, Ivette operated the business alone with basic equipment.

Monthly revenue stood at approximately US$300.

Limited storage and rudimentary processing methods constrained both production capacity and product consistency, making it difficult to respond to increasing demand.

The challenge was therefore not simply finding more customers.

Ivette needed the capacity to serve them.

That meant investing in better equipment, improving production processes and developing the business systems needed to move from small-scale production towards a more structured enterprise.

The transformation has been significant.

Ewatomi Market’s monthly revenue increased from US$300 to US$4,821, while the business expanded from a one-person operation to a team of five employees.

The growth represents more than a fifteen-fold increase in monthly revenue.

It also illustrates how improving production capacity can change the possibilities available to a small agricultural business.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation helped Ivette Biokou build capacity

In 2024, Ivette Biokou joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, receiving US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

For Ewatomi Market, the capital addressed one of its most immediate constraints: equipment.

Ivette invested in industrial-grade drying and storage equipment, strengthening the company’s production capacity and helping improve consistency across its products.

The business training provided another layer of support.

Ivette developed her knowledge of financial management, business planning and operational growth, while mentorship provided guidance around food safety and market positioning.

The combination was important.

Equipment could increase what the business was capable of producing. Business knowledge could help determine how that increased capacity should be managed.

Together, they helped create the conditions for Ewatomi Market’s next stage of growth.

Why processing matters as much as production

Agricultural development is often measured by how much a farmer can produce.

But there is another question worth asking:

How much of that production becomes economic value?

A kilogram of fresh mango that spoils before reaching a customer creates little or no income.

The same fruit, when processed into a product with a longer shelf life, can potentially reach a different market, at a different time and in a different form.

This is the economic logic behind Ewatomi Market.

By processing fruits locally, Ivette Biokou is adding another layer of value between farm and consumer.

That creates opportunities for activity beyond agriculture itself, including processing, packaging, sales, distribution and employment.

It also demonstrates why agro-processing can be an important part of strengthening local food systems.

The goal is not simply to produce more.

It is to lose less and create more value from what is already produced.

Ivette Biokou is building a business with women at its centre

For Ivette, the impact of entrepreneurship does not stop with her own company.

The expansion of Ewatomi Market has created employment opportunities for women and young people, but she also wants to extend the business’s knowledge beyond its immediate workforce.

Her plans include developing training programmes that teach young women practical food-processing skills alongside the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.

That combination matters.

Technical skills can create the ability to produce a product. Business skills can provide the knowledge required to price, market and manage it.

Together, they can create a stronger foundation for people seeking to build their own livelihoods.

For Ivette Biokou, sharing those skills is part of the wider opportunity embedded in Ewatomi Market: turning local resources into businesses while helping more people develop the capacity to create businesses of their own.

From food waste to economic value

There is a tendency to discuss food waste primarily as an environmental problem.

It is one, but it is also an economic problem.

When food is lost, farmers lose potential income, businesses lose potential revenue and the resources used to produce that food generate less value.

Food processing offers one way of changing that equation.

By converting perishable agricultural products into products with different shelf-life and market characteristics, entrepreneurs can create additional opportunities within the food value chain.

That is the space Ewatomi Market occupies.

The company is still growing, but its trajectory illustrates what can happen when an entrepreneur treats a seemingly familiar agricultural challenge as a product and business opportunity.

Looking ahead

Ivette Biokou wants Ewatomi Market to become one of Benin’s leading sustainable food brands.

The immediate ambition is to expand distribution across Benin before exploring opportunities in neighbouring West African markets.

The company also plans to invest in eco-friendly packaging, digital marketing and distribution partnerships, with the aim of reaching more consumers and strengthening the brand’s market presence.

That expansion will require more than production.

It will require reliable supply chains, consistent quality, strong branding, efficient distribution and the ability to compete across increasingly sophisticated consumer markets.

But Ewatomi Market has already demonstrated the value of building capacity around a clear problem.

Ivette Biokou is not simply preserving fruit. She is preserving the economic value inside it.

By turning Benin’s seasonal abundance into products that can travel further, last longer and reach new customers, she is building a business that connects sustainability with commercial opportunity.

And her journey points to a wider possibility for African agriculture: the next opportunity may not always be found in growing more—it may be found in making more of what is already grown.

The post Ivette Biokou Is Turning Benin’s Fruit Surplus Into Opportunity appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Every harvest creates a question.

What happens next?

For tomatoes, that question is particularly important. Fresh produce has a limited shelf life, and when markets, storage or processing systems cannot absorb a harvest quickly enough, part of its economic value can disappear through spoilage.

For Louis Wilfried Yehouessi, the opportunity was therefore not simply to grow more food.

It was to preserve and transform more of what was already being grown.

Drawing on his background in genetics and food biodiversity conservation, Louis established CEVADEL-BENIN, an agro-processing company transforming locally grown tomatoes into tomato purée under the SWEETOUNVI brand.

From its base in Porto-Novo, the company is demonstrating a fundamental principle of agricultural development: sometimes the greatest opportunity is not in producing another crop, but in creating more value from the harvest already available.

Louis Wilfried Yehouessi saw value beyond the harvest

Agriculture plays an important role in Benin’s economy, supporting livelihoods and supplying food to communities across the country.

But agricultural production is only the beginning of the value chain.

Between a farmer harvesting a tomato and a consumer buying a finished food product are several opportunities to create additional economic value: aggregation, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution and retail.

When those capabilities are limited, fresh produce can become vulnerable to post-harvest losses.

Louis Wilfried Yehouessi saw an opportunity within that gap.

His background in genetics and food biodiversity conservation had given him an appreciation for the value of agricultural resources. Entrepreneurship offered him another way to protect that value—not simply by conserving biodiversity, but by turning locally available raw materials into marketable products.

That thinking became the foundation of CEVADEL-BENIN.

What does CEVADEL-BENIN do?

CEVADEL-BENIN is a food processing company that transforms locally sourced agricultural produce into value-added food products.

Its flagship product, SWEETOUNVI, is a tomato purée produced from locally cultivated tomatoes for consumers in Benin.

The business addresses a simple imbalance.

A fresh tomato has a relatively short commercial life. Processing it into another food product can extend the ways in which that agricultural output reaches consumers while creating additional economic activity around manufacturing, packaging and distribution.

CEVADEL has since expanded its portfolio with SWEETEPICES, a range of spice blends that further diversifies the company’s presence in the processed food market.

Its products are available through retail outlets including Nol Market, La Divine and Le Chariot de Damiaky, giving more consumers access to food products processed within Benin.

For Louis, this is about more than putting another brand on a supermarket shelf.

It is about capturing more of the agricultural value chain locally.

The economics of turning tomatoes into products

A tomato sold immediately after harvest generates value for the farmer.

But when that tomato becomes an input for a locally manufactured product, the economic chain becomes longer.

Someone processes it.

Someone manages quality.

Someone packages it.

Someone distributes it.

Someone sells it.

Each stage represents another point at which skills, employment and commercial activity can be created.

This is what makes agro-processing strategically important for economies seeking to generate more value from agriculture.

For Louis Wilfried Yehouessi, CEVADEL-BENIN sits within this opportunity.

By sourcing agricultural produce and transforming it locally, the company can contribute to a system in which more of the value associated with food production remains within the domestic economy.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation helped Louis Wilfried Yehouessi scale production

Before participating in the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, CEVADEL-BENIN operated on a relatively modest scale.

The business generated approximately US$1,412.92 in monthly revenue and employed two people. Limited processing equipment constrained its production capacity and created barriers to expansion.

In 2019, Louis Wilfried Yehouessi participated in the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, receiving US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

Louis directed the capital towards one of the company’s most important constraints: production.

CEVADEL invested in modern food-processing equipment to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and improve production consistency.

The company also began product certification processes—an important step for a food business seeking to strengthen consumer confidence and reach wider markets.

The subsequent growth was measurable.

Monthly revenue increased from approximately US$1,412.92 to US$4,415.36.

At the same time, CEVADEL’s workforce expanded from two employees to nine.

For Louis, the progression illustrates what targeted entrepreneurial capital can unlock when it is applied to a clear operational constraint.

The funding did not create the agricultural opportunity.

It helped the entrepreneur build more capacity to capture it.

Louis Wilfried Yehouessi is building beyond a single product

SWEETOUNVI may have provided CEVADEL with an entry point into food processing, but the introduction of SWEETEPICES points towards a broader ambition.

Diversification can be important for an agro-processing company.

A broader product portfolio can allow a business to serve different consumer needs, create additional revenue streams and develop a stronger brand presence.

It can also enable a company to apply existing capabilities in production, packaging and distribution across multiple products.

For CEVADEL, this means the infrastructure being developed around tomato processing can contribute to something larger: a growing locally rooted food-processing company.

That evolution matters because successful African food brands will increasingly need to compete not only on origin, but also on quality, consistency, convenience, packaging and consumer trust.

Being locally made creates an opportunity.

Building a trusted brand turns that opportunity into a business.

Why Louis Wilfried Yehouessi’s work matters for farmers

The success of an agro-processing company can have implications beyond the factory.

Processors need raw materials.

That creates potential demand for agricultural production.

By sourcing tomatoes from local producers, CEVADEL-BENIN participates in a value chain connecting farmers with processing and consumer markets.

Greater processing capacity can create additional channels through which agricultural produce reaches the market, particularly where fresh produce is vulnerable to deterioration.

For farmers, stronger domestic value chains can potentially mean more opportunities to sell what they grow.

For processors, stronger relationships with producers can improve access to raw materials.

For consumers, local processing can increase the range of domestically produced food products available in the market.

This interdependence is why Louis’s work matters beyond CEVADEL itself.

The company is part of a much larger question about how African economies can extract greater value from their agricultural resources.

From biodiversity to enterprise

There is also something distinctive about Louis Wilfried Yehouessi’s professional journey.

His background in genetics and food biodiversity conservation might initially appear separate from entrepreneurship.

In reality, the two are closely connected.

Biodiversity has ecological value, but agricultural resources can also generate economic value when they are sustainably developed into products that people need.

Louis’s journey represents a shift from understanding biological resources to building commercial systems around them.

That combination of scientific knowledge and entrepreneurship can be particularly valuable in agriculture, where questions of crop characteristics, food quality, processing and sustainability frequently intersect.

Through CEVADEL-BENIN, Louis is translating that knowledge into enterprise.

Building stronger local food systems

Across African markets, conversations about food security often begin with production.

How much food can farmers grow?

It is an essential question, but it is not the only one.

Equally important is what happens between harvest and consumption.

Can produce be stored?

Can it be processed?

Can businesses manufacture competitive food products locally?

Can those products reach consumers efficiently?

And can the value created along that journey support farmers, workers and businesses within the same economy?

Entrepreneurs such as Louis Wilfried Yehouessi operate within this often-overlooked middle of the food system.

By transforming agricultural raw materials into finished consumer products, agro-processors can help bridge the distance between farms and markets.

Looking ahead

Louis Wilfried Yehouessi wants CEVADEL-BENIN to grow beyond its current footprint.

His ambition is to build the company into a leading African agro-processing business focused on transforming locally sourced raw materials.

That next phase includes advancing product certification, increasing production capacity, strengthening logistics and pursuing opportunities for wider distribution.

The long-term opportunity extends beyond Benin.

If SWEETOUNVI and SWEETEPICES can establish stronger domestic market positions, regional expansion could open access to consumers across West Africa.

But the larger idea behind CEVADEL remains remarkably simple.

Africa does not only need to grow more.

It also needs to create more economic value from what it already grows.

Louis Wilfried Yehouessi is building his business in that space between harvest and consumption—where a locally grown tomato can become a product, a job, a brand and, ultimately, a larger economic opportunity.

The post Louis Wilfried Yehouessi Is Turning Benin’s Tomato Harvests Into Economic Value appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Through the marketplace and logistics platform, Orji is helping informal and small businesses connect with digital consumers while providing them with practical tools to participate in online trade. His vision is clear: businesses should not have to become large companies before they can benefit from the digital economy.

Hyacinth Orji saw a digital gap hiding in everyday commerce

Nigeria’s informal economy is deeply embedded in everyday life.

For many small businesses, however, customer acquisition still depends heavily on physical visibility, personal networks and word-of-mouth recommendations. That model can work, but it can also limit a business’s ability to reach customers beyond its immediate surroundings.

As consumer behaviour changes, that limitation becomes more significant.

Customers increasingly expect to discover products online, place orders digitally and have purchases delivered to them. Yet a small vendor may not have the time, technical knowledge or resources to build an e-commerce operation independently.

Hyacinth Orji recognised that the problem was not necessarily that these businesses were resistant to technology.

Many simply lacked the infrastructure that would make digital participation practical.

His experience in business and logistics helped him see the opportunity from both sides: customers wanted convenience, while vendors needed visibility and a reliable way to fulfil orders.

Quick Waka emerged from that intersection.

What is Quick Waka?

Quick Waka is a Nigerian technology-enabled marketplace and logistics platform designed to help local businesses connect with customers online.

Rather than expecting informal businesses to build sophisticated digital operations themselves, the platform brings several parts of the commerce journey together.

Quick Waka supports businesses with functions including:

• Vendor onboarding and product listings
• Online product discovery
• Order management
• Logistics coordination
• Last-mile delivery
• Digital access for traditionally offline businesses

The model is particularly relevant to businesses such as restaurants, pharmacies, grocery retailers and other local merchants.

By combining a marketplace with logistics, Quick Waka addresses two connected problems at once: how customers find local businesses and how businesses get products to those customers.

That integration matters.

An online storefront is of limited value if a vendor cannot reliably fulfil an order. Similarly, delivery infrastructure is less useful if customers cannot easily discover the businesses behind it.

Quick Waka is designed around the full journey.

Making digital commerce practical for small businesses

For a large retailer, moving online can involve dedicated technology teams, digital marketing budgets, inventory systems and established delivery networks.

A small neighbourhood business operates differently.

The owner may be managing sales, inventory, suppliers and customers simultaneously. Adding a complex e-commerce system to that workload can create another barrier rather than solve one.

This is where Hyacinth Orji’s approach becomes particularly relevant.

Quick Waka is built to reduce the amount of digital infrastructure individual vendors need to create and manage themselves.

Instead of asking every small business to build its own online ecosystem, the platform creates shared infrastructure through which multiple vendors can participate in digital commerce.

That model has implications beyond convenience.

It can give businesses greater visibility, expose them to customers outside their immediate physical location and introduce more structured processes for receiving and fulfilling orders.

For entrepreneurs operating on thin margins, those incremental efficiencies can matter.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation helped move Quick Waka from vision to growth

Building a marketplace that connects businesses, customers and logistics requires more than a good idea.

It requires capital to build technology, test assumptions and develop operations—and business knowledge to determine which opportunities are worth pursuing.

Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, Hyacinth Orji received US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training, mentorship and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network.

The support gave Quick Waka additional resources to strengthen its operations and develop its technology as it pursued a larger market opportunity.

For Orji, the programme also provided access to a wider community of African entrepreneurs navigating many of the same challenges: limited resources, evolving markets and the need to build businesses capable of creating sustainable value.

The Foundation’s contribution sits within the broader journey, but the business remains driven by Orji’s understanding of the problem and his determination to solve it.

Quick Waka is building a bridge between offline and online commerce

The impact of digitalisation is often measured through transactions, platforms and user numbers.

For Hyacinth Orji, however, there is another measure worth considering: how many businesses that were previously invisible online can now be discovered digitally.

Quick Waka has supported hundreds of registered vendors and reached thousands of users, according to the business information provided.

That represents more than another group of online sellers.

It represents businesses gaining access to a new customer channel.

The platform’s logistics operations also create economic opportunities for people involved in delivery, field operations, customer support and digital business management.

In this way, the company’s model extends beyond e-commerce.

It connects different parts of a local commercial ecosystem—vendors, customers and delivery operators—through a common digital infrastructure.

The entrepreneur behind the platform understands the businesses he wants to serve

The strongest digital products often begin with an observation about human behaviour.

For Orji, that observation was that many local businesses already had something customers wanted.

The missing piece was often the ability to be found and served through the channels customers were increasingly using.

A local food vendor might have loyal customers but little online visibility. A neighbourhood pharmacy might serve its surrounding community but lack a digital ordering channel. A small retailer might have useful products but no efficient way of reaching customers beyond passing foot traffic.

These are not necessarily failures of entrepreneurship.

They are infrastructure gaps.

Quick Waka is Orji’s attempt to close some of those gaps without requiring small businesses to abandon the way they already operate.

The ambition is not to replace Nigeria’s informal markets.

It is to give them another layer.

Why Hyacinth Orji’s work matters

Digital transformation can create new opportunities, but it can also widen existing inequalities if access to technology is limited to businesses that already have capital, skills and infrastructure.

That makes digital inclusion an important part of Nigeria’s e-commerce story.

If online commerce is to become a meaningful driver of broad-based economic participation, small businesses need pathways into the ecosystem.

Hyacinth Orji is building one such pathway.

Through Quick Waka, he is working to make digital visibility, order management and delivery infrastructure more accessible to businesses that have traditionally depended on physical markets.

The significance extends beyond individual vendors.

When more small businesses can participate in digital commerce, customers gain more choice, local supply chains can become more connected and new economic activity can emerge around technology and logistics.

Looking ahead: bringing more of Nigeria’s everyday economy online

Nigeria’s digital economy is still evolving.

The next chapter will not be written only by large technology companies or established online retailers. It will also be shaped by entrepreneurs who understand how millions of everyday transactions actually happen.

Hyacinth Orji is building in that space.

His vision for Quick Waka is rooted in a simple but consequential proposition: the businesses that keep neighbourhoods running should have a place in the digital economy too.

The opportunity is therefore bigger than putting shops online.

It is about creating the infrastructure that allows local businesses to be discovered, ordered from and connected to customers without losing the strengths that made them valuable in the first place.

For Hyacinth Orji, the future of Nigerian commerce is not a choice between the traditional market and the digital marketplace.

It is the possibility of connecting the two.

The post Hyacinth Orji Is Bringing Nigeria’s Informal Markets Into the Digital Economy appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

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David Mustapha believes technology can reduce the uncertainty that comes with online shopping. Despite photos, descriptions, and reviews, customers often struggle to accurately visualise products, leading to disappointment, returns, and lost trust for businesses.

As the Founder of XRNET, a Nigerian software company, he is using artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and 3D technology to give online shoppers a more realistic way to experience products before making purchasing decisions. The company’s proposition is built around a simple idea: the more customers understand what they are buying, the more confidently they can buy it.

Who is David Mustapha?

David Mustapha is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur and the Founder of XRNET, an AI-powered software company focused on immersive e-commerce experiences.

Based in Lagos, Mustapha has a background in systems engineering and a history of building technology businesses. Before XRNET, he co-founded OrderEat, an online food-ordering platform developed while he was a student at the University of Lagos.

That earlier experience exposed him to the practical challenges of building digital products around everyday consumer behaviour.

With XRNET, he turned his attention to another problem in online commerce: how to make digital shopping feel more trustworthy and more like the physical experience of examining a product before buying it.

What is XRNET?

XRNET is an AI-powered e-commerce technology platform that uses augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D product visualisation to help customers interact with products digitally before purchasing them.

The platform allows businesses to create digital storefronts where customers can explore products in greater detail.

For physical products, immersive 3D and AR features can provide a clearer sense of appearance, scale and context. XRNET has also developed storefront tools that allow businesses to establish an online presence without having to build a traditional website from scratch.

This positions XRNET at the intersection of artificial intelligence, immersive technology and e-commerce—three rapidly evolving areas of the digital economy.

David Mustapha is tackling a fundamental problem with online shopping

The challenge XRNET addresses is not simply that online shopping lacks technology.

It is that online shopping can lack confidence.

When customers cannot physically examine an item, businesses have to work harder to communicate what they are selling. Product photographs, descriptions and reviews help, but they do not always answer the questions customers have before clicking “buy”.

David Mustapha’s approach is to make the digital experience more interactive.

Instead of simply looking at a photograph, customers can engage with a digital representation of the product. In an AR-enabled experience, for example, a shopper can potentially visualise an item within their own environment before completing a purchase.

The objective is not technology for technology’s sake. It is to give customers more information at the moment when they are deciding whether to spend their money.

From immersive shopping to digital storefronts for SMEs

XRNET’s opportunity extends beyond large retailers.

Small and medium-sized enterprises often face a different challenge: establishing a credible digital presence without the resources required to build and maintain complex e-commerce infrastructure.

XRNET’s storefront model is designed to lower that barrier.

The platform enables businesses to establish online stores while incorporating features such as immersive product displays. More recent XRNET offerings also include digital storefronts for service businesses, with tools for bookings, customer engagement and payments.

That makes the platform relevant to a broader category of African businesses moving from informal or predominantly offline commerce towards digital channels.

For these businesses, the question is no longer simply “How do I get online?”

It is becoming:

“How do I create an online experience that makes customers want to buy?”

The Tony Elumelu Foundation gave David Mustapha room to build

Building frontier technology requires more than an idea.

It requires capital, business discipline, mentorship and access to people who can challenge an entrepreneur’s assumptions.

In 2024, David Mustapha was selected for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, joining a cohort of African entrepreneurs supported through training, mentorship, seed capital and access to the Foundation’s pan-African entrepreneurial network. The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report identifies XRNET as a Nigeria-based, TEF-funded software-development business.

For Mustapha, the support came at an important stage in XRNET’s development, providing resources that could be directed towards strengthening the company’s technology and commercial model.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s role is important precisely because it does not replace the entrepreneur’s vision. It gives founders like Mustapha additional resources to test, refine and pursue that vision.

David Mustapha’s early traction shows demand for immersive commerce

XRNET has already begun attracting businesses interested in experimenting with immersive digital commerce.

Third-party reporting has documented more than 55 SMEs using XRNET’s immersive AR and 3D online stores, while the company has also reported more than 50 sign-ups during its first month of launch.

The company has continued developing its product infrastructure, including its XRNET Storefront and software tools designed to make its technology more broadly usable by businesses.

These developments point towards a larger opportunity: making immersive commerce accessible beyond major retailers and technology-heavy brands.

For SMEs, the ability to combine a digital storefront with richer product experiences could become an important differentiator as more businesses compete for customers online.

Why David Mustapha’s work matters

The next phase of e-commerce will not be defined solely by how many people shop online.

It will be defined by how much they trust the experience.

That distinction matters in markets where consumers are increasingly discovering products through social media, mobile platforms and digital storefronts while businesses compete for attention in crowded online environments.

David Mustapha is betting that immersive technology can make that experience clearer.

His work also reflects a broader shift in African technology entrepreneurship: building products specifically around the realities of African consumers and SMEs rather than simply importing models developed elsewhere.

If successful, XRNET’s approach could help businesses communicate their products more effectively while giving consumers greater confidence before making purchases.

What comes next for David Mustapha and XRNET?

The technology behind immersive commerce is still evolving.

Artificial intelligence is becoming more capable. Smartphone cameras are increasingly sophisticated. Three-dimensional product modelling is becoming more accessible. And consumers are becoming more comfortable interacting with brands through digital environments.

For David Mustapha, that convergence creates an opportunity to make immersive shopping a normal part of e-commerce rather than an expensive novelty.

The ambition extends beyond making online shopping more visually impressive.

It is about making it more informative.

Because the future of e-commerce may not belong to the businesses with the most products or the loudest advertising. It may belong to those that can answer the customer’s most basic question before the transaction happens:

“Can I trust what I am seeing?”

Through XRNET, David Mustapha is building technology around that question—and betting that greater clarity can become one of the most valuable features in African e-commerce.

The post David Mustapha: 5 Ways AI Is Transforming E-Commerce In Nigeria appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

In celebration of Mali’s Independence Day, the Tony Elumelu Foundation proudly spotlights Maliki Hamadoun Sankaré, a young Malian entrepreneur and founder of Socco-Agro-Business, a company specialising in the production and commercialisation of rice and vegetables. Established in 2020, Socco-Agro-Business spans 24 hectares of agricultural land, driving change in Mali’s agricultural sector by creating jobs and empowering local communities.

Driven by a desire to uplift his community, Maliki saw the potential of Mali’s agricultural sector, where over 80% of the population relies on agriculture. His mission is clear: “We want to create several jobs in the agricultural sector by 2030, especially for the youth in rural areas, to reduce rural exodus.” Maliki states. His efforts have already provided full-time employment to 3 people and numerous daily labourers. He has also trained over 150 individuals, including youth and women in rural cooperatives. Maliki now generates  an average annual revenue of 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 FCFA. 

With a vision for digital agriculture, Maliki is committed to integrating technology into farming to monitor water and fertilizer use, a critical component of his long-term projects. He was one of the 2021 recipients of $2,500 seed funding from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which allowed him to expand his rice production business. Maliki was one of the 1,860 Malian beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which was designed and implemented with a deep understanding of the regional context and the needs of young entrepreneurs within a fragile environment

Reflecting on the support from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Maliki credits not only the financial assistance but also the entrepreneurial training that strengthened his business skills. Maliki’s work has caught international attention. His business collaborates with countries such as Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, and partners with global organisations like the World Food Programme (WFP). His achievements were recently highlighted in Le Mali Émergent, where he shared his ambition to create sustainable employment and contribute to food security across Africa. His participation in initiatives like the UNDP Sense Maker Workshop further underscores his dedication to driving economic empowerment in his country.Maliki’s story is one of resilience, innovation, and dedication to agricultural transformation. He firmly believes that “Africa’s land holds immense wealth and opportunity” and encourages governments to invest in agriculture to ensure food self-sufficiency across the continent.

Join us in celebrating Maliki Sankaré, a visionary leader building a brighter future for Mali through agriculture!

About the Tony Elumelu Foundation 

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. prosperity. In 2015, Elumelu and his family committed US$ 100 million to launch a legacy entrepreneurship programme, to empower young African entrepreneurs.   

Since the launch of the Programme, the Foundation has given access to training to over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed USD$100 million in direct funding to 20,000+ young African women and men, who have collectively generated over USD$2.5 billion in revenue and created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs across Africa. 

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 post Maliki Sankaré: Transforming Mali’s Agricultural Landscape with TEF Support appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

After spending a lot of time on the streets searching for a job, Ogola Kange decided to become an entrepreneur, she began to make and deliver healthy food to customers within her location. See some months of business success, she went to register his business Smiley’z Mobile Kitchen in 2014.  

Seed Grant in 2015 from the TEF Program

Ogola’s company attempts to reduce post-harvest losses in various agricultural produce, especially tomatoes. She helps farmers with processing tomatoes organically, giving it a longer shelf life, while achieving some of the sustainable development goals. 

“The TEF program and the seed grant in 2015 was the real basis of my Entrepreneurship resilience and success today. That first application, the 12 weeks learning, and the boot camp are the things that I have built upon over the years, modifying and improving the business plan till what it is today.”  

Smiley’z impact focus has two-dimension, poverty reduction and environmental conservation.  The average woman living in rural Nigeria earns $0.3 a day, with limited skills or opportunities to increase their livelihood. Smiley’z addresses this in two ways: First by working with 35 smallholder farmers to purchase their excess tomatoes. Providing market access to these women, Smiley’z increases their sales by 25% on average per annum. Secondly, she trains women on how to develop cottage industry agricultural products.  

She has provided entrepreneurship training to over 200 women. Fifty of them are now successfully starting their own businesses to support themselves and their employees. Smiley’z Tomato products are part of Solar Impulse Foundations’ 1,000 Solutions and efficient ways of production. The small farmers it works with are trained in ecological farming best practices, including how to reduce CO2 emissions, energy and water usage, and reduce tomato production waste. While in its own production process it uses glass jars to enable recycling of its products, renewable energy and post-harvest waste reduction. 

Since TEF, Smiley’z has gotten many more certifications, trainings, awards, grants and VC investment. A Mandela Washington Fellow, USAID and USADF beneficiary, GOZ NICOP SENDIN beneficiary to name a few. 

About The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. 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 post Seed Grant in 2015: Ogola, TEF Alumni from Nigeria Success Story appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.