In this context, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), launched the TEF-UNDP Sahel Entrepreneurship Programme, in 2019, to foster economic growth and stability through entrepreneurship.

The Sahel region’s economies are predominantly agrarian, with limited industrial and service sector development. The pervasive insecurity and climate-related challenges, such as desertification and erratic rainfall, further constrain economic opportunities. According to the World Bank, the Sahel’s GDP growth has been hindered by these systemic issues, leading to high levels of poverty and unemployment, particularly among the youth. In this challenging environment, entrepreneurship emerges as a critical pathway to economic empowerment, providing an avenue for job creation, innovation, and sustainable development.

Despite the logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the TEF-UNDP Sahel Entrepreneurship Programme conducted a thorough evaluation and the findings underscore the Programme’s substantial impact on the participants’ economic and personal lives.

One of the standout outcomes of the programme is the significant increase in the proportion of entrepreneurs earning between $101-$150 and those earning above $150, by 40% and 62%, respectively. This shift suggests that the programme successfully elevated the financial status of its participants, helping many transition from zero income to a more stable and sustainable financial footing. This improvement in income levels is crucial in a region where economic opportunities are scarce and underscores the programme’s role in fostering financial independence.

Beyond economic gains, the programme also positively influenced the participants’ quality of life. Approximately 50% of the respondents reported an overall improvement in their quality of life, encompassing personal, household, and community aspects, the broader perception of enhanced quality of life indicates that the programme’s benefits extend beyond material gains.

Looking Ahead:

The TEF-UNDP Sahel Entrepreneurship Programme has demonstrated the transformative potential of targeted entrepreneurial support in fostering economic and social change. As we reflect on these outcomes, it becomes clear that sustained investment in entrepreneurship is vital for the Sahel’s future. The Programme’s success sets a precedent for future initiatives, highlighting the importance of comprehensive support systems, including access to funding, mentorship, and market opportunities.

For a deeper dive into the full impact assessment and to explore the stories of the entrepreneurs who have thrived through this initiative, we invite you to read the full report available on the impact reports page of website. This report not only details the outcomes of the 2019 pilot programme but also offers valuable insights into the broader implications for economic development in the Sahel region.

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The application portal for BeGreen Africa is now open on TEFConnect, the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s digital platform, to all waste management start-ups in Kenya, and green start-ups in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

BeGreen Africa is a green entrepreneurship pilot programme co-created by The Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU), IKEA Foundation, and young green entrepreneurs.

The key objective of this mission-aligned partnership is to create a holistic, sustainable, and youth-led green entrepreneurship initiative in the waste sector [in Kenya], and the green sector [in Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa], to advance marginalized youth’s social and economic prosperity, while addressing the triple planetary crisis by reducing inequalities, and creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their peers.

The founding partners of BeGreen Africa will leverage their collective expertise, close relations with government, the private sector and youth networks, and extensive field presence across Africa and in Kenya to: a) develop a green-focused curricula that addresses the gaps and capacity needs of the identified target youth, b) engage expert trainers to deliver the trainings via www.TEFConnect.com, c) facilitate mentor and alumni network connections, and d) provide seed capital funding that will empower the identified entrepreneurs to kickstart, develop, and scale their green businesses.

In this pilot, #BeGreenAfrica aims to train 1,000 Kenyan youth in the waste management sector, and economically empower 120 of them, as well as empower 25 green sector entrepreneurs in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, all under the age of 35, with new or existing green businesses. The initiative will build evidence around youth entrepreneurship in high-impact green sectors, exploring how young entrepreneurs can contribute to circular economies and a sustained green revolution in Africa.

The multilingual Application Portal is open on www.TEFConnect.com from August 10 till August 31, 2023.

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 increasing women economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has provided over 1.5 million young Africans with access to training 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.

About UNICEF GEN-U:

Launched by the UN Secretary-General at the 2018 UN General Assembly, and anchored in UNICEF, Generation Unlimited is a leading global Public-Private-Youth Partnership, bringing together global organizations and leaders including Heads of State, CEOs, Heads of UN agencies, and civil society champions with young people to co-create and deliver innovative solutions on a global scale.

Generation Unlimited is on a mission to skill the world’s 1.8 billion young people and connect them to opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact.

About IKEA Foundation:

The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted more than €1.8 billion to create a better future for children and their families.

In 2021 the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions. In 2023, IKEA Foundation has already provided more than € 31 Million in emergency funding.

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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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The Business Management training was conducted exclusively on TEFConnect,  the Foundation’s proprietary digital platform that provides capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 Million Africans and counting.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme Business Management Training equips entrepreneurs with critical skills required to launch and run their businesses at the early growth stage. With a unique curriculum that encompasses topics on Starting Your Business, Business Management & Fundamentals, Leadership & Business Growth, Selecting and Building a Team, amongst others, entrepreneurs are effectively armed to achieve business growth, profitability, and sustained success.

Entrepreneurs were hosted to weekly information sessions, as part of the training, to address relevant concerns and share vital programme updates. All entrepreneurs received active support from coaches and mentors who provided technical guidance, counsel and one-one interaction throughout the duration of the training programme.

The training, which is one element of the 7 pillars of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, was carried out in the official African languages including English, French, Portuguese and Arabic, and over 40 percent of trained participants were women.

Commenting on this milestone, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, said “Every year, our commitment to transform Africa is further strengthened with the passion, resilience and talent of the high-calibre entrepreneurs who onboard our flagship programme. Our curricular provides a holistic opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn, grow and contribute to the development of their communities.”

The Chief Executive Officer added: “Furthermore, it is a testament to the eagerness and readiness of African entrepreneurs across all of Africa to make themselves available to transform the continent for good. I would like to commend these entrepreneurs for their discipline, dedication and hard work throughout the training and look forward to the immense impact of their businesses across diverse sectors in Africa. We remain committed to empowering African entrepreneurs with the required resources and support that will ensure that their businesses can scale and drive sustainable change on the continent”.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Training is immediately followed by a Business Plan review process for each entrepreneur. The top-performing entrepreneurs subsequently participate in the Pitching phase of the Programme after which successful entrepreneurs receive a non-returnable seed capital of US$5000 each.

The leading African philanthropy also hopes to train and empower thousands more across the African continent as part of its commitment to catalyze economic growth, drive poverty eradication and ensure job creation.

In 2020, the Tony Elumelu Foundation marked ten years of impact, having empowered and funded nearly 10,000 African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries as part of its US$100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. The Tony Elumelu Foundation is inspired by Tony Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the long-term social and economic development of the African continent.

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The initiative will fund 200 additional young African entrepreneurs complementing the US$100M Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme that has identified, trained, mentored and funded over 9,000 entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries since 2015. The partnership will also help to scale TEFConnect, the Foundation’s proprietary digital platform supporting African entrepreneurs and provide platform access to an additional 500,000 SMEs. The initiative is co-financed by DEG with 1.5 million Euro from the develoPPP Program funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

In alignment with TEF and DEG’s development policy, the partnership will create jobs and income, boost economic growth and generate local value in Africa. It will make important contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing funding, technical skills and comprehensive business readiness to drive better performance of SMEs in accordance with SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

Entrepreneurs will be connected to networking support for further skills development, knowledge sharing and market linkages through a lifetime membership on TEFConnect. In addition, periodic impact assessment of up to 10,000 SMEs will be conducted through the partnership to inform policies and laws that will improve the environment for small enterprises in Africa, directly catalysing Africa’s economic growth and contributing to the continent’s prosperity and social development. 

Commenting on the partnership, the CEO, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, stated, “In our continued quest to invest in African entrepreneurs, this partnership will fully capacitize young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. DEG is a global player in fostering efforts in emerging markets and developing economies to generate employment, which is a mission we are dedicated to through entrepreneurship. African Entrepreneurs are the engines of growth, innovation and wealth creation in Africa, and there is no better time to invest in their development. The projected outcome of this partnership encompasses the entire entrepreneurial value chain and will create massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to build their ventures while equipping them with the skills to sustain business growth.”

Bernd Tilemann, Head of DEG’s West Africa office added that “DEG is delighted to start this cooperation and especially eager to support TEF’s digitalisation efforts and the drive for impact inclusion and its critical evaluation, which are topics that DEG is very passionate about. We believe these measures will form a great foundation to enable TEF to scale its efforts to boost entrepreneurship and small enterprise development in Nigeria and across the continent.”

The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s US$100 million Entrepreneurship Programme was launched in 2015 to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs over 10 years. Successful applicants receive world-class business training, mentorship, non-refundable seed capital of US$5,000, and global networking opportunities.  The Programme is open to entrepreneurs across all countries in Africa, both new start-ups and existing young businesses, operating in all major economic sectors.

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