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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Musanga Logistics’ connects users who want to send packages – such as restaurants, small retailers and individuals – through independent couriers.

Now, he says, the platform has 1500 drivers, transportation for Unilever, Colgate, a lot of FMCG brands, specifically in Zambia.

“The platform was the key differentiator in our business,” Njavwa says in an interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation. “It was very tech-enabled and that was the key thing that customers wanted and so that’s what we built.”

Afterwards, we had people looking to buy the software we had built, and considering several factors, the company pivoted to a low-cost model where instead of doing the transport and the transaction, we provide software to transport companies that want to manage their fleets.

Njavwa says he is heavily inspired by his mother, who, in addition to being a nurse, became an entrepreneur with a restaurant in Lusaka’s central business district.

“My mother was the first entrepreneur I knew. I saw her sacrifice leisure and comfort to manage both her business and her job.”

With his wealth of experience, Njavwa is now building Kibanda Top-up, a start-up focused on the informal restaurant business many African countries are familiar with.

Called buka or mama-put in Nigeria and vibanda in Kenya, half of Africa’s population eat from small and medium restaurants that are largely informal, feeding millions of people every day.

Taking the lessons from his previous business, Njavwa’s focus is now on the food distribution company which was launched just two months ago.

“These restaurant owners are not unlike my mother. They have dreams and aspirations for themselves and their families; they are working hard to ensure the next generation of Africans have the tools required to achieve the African dream.”

Kibanda Top-up is helping restaurant access the goods that they need daily by handling the distribution and sourcing of those products.

Conquering Logistics in Africa

“Logistics remains a key constraint to growth for businesses in Africa,” Njavwa says, “but it is even harder when you are moving small products, because large companies don’t want to invest in the kind of vehicles that these small businesses need, and to scale you need to serve thousands of them.”

Njavwa says his company is reducing the cost of delivery significantly, having partnered with a company that provides electric tricycles or tuk-tuks as they are popularly known in Kenya, for this purpose.

“If you are trying to solve food problems in Africa, you must think about questions like: how does a farmer get food from the farms to a restaurant in the main city, and how does he/she get there affordably?

“So, we are working with the electric vehicles here in Kenya which is one of the first utilising zero petrol. We have already seen a 25% reduction in the cost of delivery.”

Kibanda top-up also has a sales automation tool to enable sales agents track and follow up with and manage last-mile customers.

“The main problem we are trying to solve is transport and logistics. We do this by building the tools that help us sell and distribute products more efficiently,” Njavwa says.

Innovating Amidst Food Insecurity

With Covid-19 restrictions, locked borders, and disruptions to supply chains, came the inflation of prices of items including food.

Njavwa’s company is stepping up to the challenge: “This is really the reason why we exist,” he says.

“The reason why the cost of food continues to go up is that there are so many variables when delivering food that fluctuate so much such as the price of fuel which will always impact the cost of transportation”.

“When I got into the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, I was 21. Now I have taken a business from 0 to 30 employees. The programme is an investment in the entrepreneur because the entrepreneur will evolve and the initial results on the business may not be forthcoming.

“With funding from the Foundation, we were able to prove our model, and raise a significant amount of money afterwards. The seed capital from the Tony Elumelu Foundation was the first money I ever received as an entrepreneur.”

The Need for Like-minded Communities in Business

Last month, a decision was made by social media giant, Twitter, to launch an office in Ghana. As this would be the digital media giant’s only presence in Africa. it inspired discussions about the challenges or considerations companies compare when deciding to operate in a new location in Africa.

For Njavwa, who is originally from Zambia but set up in Kenya, the story is similar.

“You can make something happen in any city in the world, but the probability of success is usually around clusters. Depending on what kind of business you are in, it is important to be in a community or environment that supports it.”

“The main reason why my first company failed to raise money is that at the time, Zambia was not a hot investment destination, and investors just weren’t thinking about investing in Zambia.

“You want to be where people are very like-minded. For example, Nigeria is very entrepreneurial and has a lot of start-ups doing something similar to what we are doing, however, the factors are different for a foreigner who is trying to raise capital, and this influenced my decision to set up in Kenya.”

“Kenya has a lot of access to capital. If I was in another city, we wouldn’t have been able to raise the money that we raised in the space that we raised in the time that we did, but ultimately, we will have to launch in Nigeria.”

The Future of Kibanda Top-up.

Njavwa remains committed to impacting restaurants beyond Kenya.

“We are increasing restaurants’ contributions to Africa’s GDP by helping reduce cost with the supply chain. We are doubling down on our efforts in Kenya and our next location is Lagos – the reason being that we have to be where the majority of restaurants are, and Nigeria has a large number of these informal restaurants.”

Every morning, Kibanda Top-up delivers goods directly to the restaurants using completely electric tuk-tuks which are assembled in Nairobi by ARC Ride, Kibanda Top-up’s partner.

“$5000 was the world to me, now we are closing millions of dollars,” Njavwa says about the impact of the Tony Elumelu Foundation on his entrepreneurial journey. “If that had not happened, we probably would not have been here today. So, luck was democratised in this instance.”

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TEFConnect, the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs, can help entrepreneurs who are keen to grow their businesses.

Here are six ways to easily move the needle with your small business:

1. Find customers and relevant business connections:

As a small business, TEFConnect offers the opportunity to connect with other business owners in relevant industries and people that would be interested in your product or service.

2. Personalise your Business

Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you that the key ingredient to a business is its people. You can easily shape the perception of your business by showcasing the employees who make up your organisation by getting as many as possible to create and complete their profiles, or by setting up a block of time where employees can be coached on how to share the work that they do at your company.

This helps to give an idea of the people and culture of your business, as well as showcase the talent.

3. Stay up to date:

Keeping your profile up to date is one of the most impactful ways to improve your contact rate. Remember to add new skills, achievements, and examples of your latest work.

4. Join Relevant Community Groups

Joining groups that are relevant to your target demographic is a great way to ‘listen in’ on what your audience is talking about and identify trends before they become popular, thus keeping you ahead of the curve.

This enables you to predict and prepare for outcomes using insights gleaned from the conversations.

5. Find next employee or partner

Interacting with entrepreneurs on TEFConnect is a great way for a business owner to connect with prospects, strategic partners, referral partners, and other business owners. Time should be taken to nurture specific connections to grow the relationship.

6. Utilise media

The world is now more visually driven than ever, especially as attention spans continue to decline. Utilise more of clear, clean, custom images that showcase your company and brand. You can also share links to your work anywhere on the internet to showcase your brand.

Other media types are Live video, documents, like PDFs or PowerPoints, which can showcase what makes your brand unique.

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