Ndubuisi is driven by an urgent desire to lower toxicity and phytotoxicity illnesses caused by agrochemical exposure in rural communities and reduce the future risk of long-term illnesses of a generation of child field workers. His able to achieve this through his innovation known as the FiKapSy – short for ‘Flying Knapsack System’.

FiKapSy is an easy-to-use spray boom accessory for agriculture drone applications in precision dispersal of agro-inputs on farm fields that mitigates waste of agrochemicals. The negative effect of this waste leads to the degradation of the environment along with the over-exposure of (mostly) farmers to the synthetic compounds that cause occupational poisoning. A health problem that currently affects more than 1.1 million practitioners in developing countries.

Through this highly innovative product, Ndubuisi possesses a potential to greatly optimize crop yield not just in Africa but globally by minimizing the current excessive application of these artificial input by providing more targeted application process.

For Ndubuisi, the value of what he does through his company, AMIntegrated Aerial Nigeria, lies in being able to provide basic analysis on the wellness of the cultivated land that allows farm mangers make initial predictive health assumptions based on an aerial shot of the farm taken by drones. The information from the aerial data can be used to conduct additional land area evaluation with minimal corrections.

He is able to offer a flexible service structure, customized to the region and further tailored to his customers farming behaviour, with the hopes of continued positive impact on farm yield volume, quality and health.

The impact of Ndubuisi’s is multidimensional. It not only reduces wastage and excessive application of farm chemicals, it also directly mitigates agrochemical exposure to farm workers and addresses the issue of child labour on farms through mechanisation with the use of drones. Indeed, Ndubuisi and his team a revolutionising the agricultural ecosystem, one farmland at a time!

The post Ndubuisi Eze is Revolutionising Agriculture in Africa with Drones appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) convened sector champions in various industries to be a part of a Regional Business Forum in Lagos structured around high-level meetings and consultations with youth and women in the West African business ecosystems.

In her keynote address, Ifeyinwa emphasised the Foundation’s commitment to foster gender inclusion, through the gender mix of our workforce, mentors, and TEF alumni.

Ifeyinwa commented:

“The reason our Entrepreneurship Programme is arguably the most ambitious Youth focussed Pan-African entrepreneurship programme on the continent is because it is a direct response to the transformation Africa needs. It a programme that is sector and gender agnostic; a programme that recognizes the equal potential of us, as Africans.  Women make up 58% of the continent’s self-employed population. Yet they seldom get the recognition they deserve for their role in sustaining local economies/informal industries. They also do not receive the appropriate support they need to take their businesses to the next level. Some of the challenges faced by women in Africa and youth come from lack of access. Access to networks, funding, and market linkages.”

Recognized as the leading philanthropy committed to empowering the growth of women and youth entrepreneurship, as well as linking them to quality markets and dedicated support:

“Although we launched the programme, we knew that a sustainable digital infrastructure was needed to support the lifespan of these business.  As a continent, we cannot afford to miss the fourth industrial revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the immense value in digital connectivity. If you are not connected, it’s almost like you do not exist. That’s the problem African women and African entrepreneurs face, and it’s one that governments across Africa must tackle immediately. We need an immediate, massive rollout of connectivity and cheap access to the internet across every village, town, and city.”

She also illustrated the Foundation’s holistic approach to empowering African entrepreneurs through training, funding, mentorship, and resource mobilization. Touching on the immeasurable value of TEFConnect.com in supporting African entrepreneur, Ifeyinwa said:

“On our end, we are contributing to digital upskilling and capacity building around digital entrepreneurship through our digital infrastructure, TEFConnect.com. TEFConnect is the largest online network of African entrepreneurs who are interested in connecting with key players from the larger ecosystem of investors, business leaders, etc.  The platform empowers young entrepreneurs to build investible businesses by training and mentoring, provides them with easy access to market, and connects them with other African Entrepreneurs and ecosystem players.”

Ifeyinwa touched on the main thrust of the Regional Business Forum, which was focused on how support for the socio-economic empowerment of women and the youth will be essential to achieving socio-economic transformation across the continent:

“When we first started the programme, our goal was to achieve 50% women’s participation, and we began at 25%. Today, we’re at 40%. This year, the Foundation will fund over 3,000 women owned businesses across the continent. This will not be possible without some of our partners who believe that women, when empowered, can contribute to socio-economic prosperity.

How can Africa harness its demographic dynamics for sustainable development?

It is by empowering our younger demography, knowing fully well that the future belongs to them, and we owe them the support require to define it in a manner that guarantees prosperity. It is by teaching a woman how to fish, and not giving her fish, or giving her male counterparts the fish to hand out whatever he can afford to her.”

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Understanding Logistics

Inadequate road networks and transportation infrastructure has made it such that tarred roads are typically all within urban and peri-urban areas while leaving rural areas without decent road networks. An imbalanced and unequally allocated road network signals that trade is not as optimised as it can be, and this is evident in the challenges SMEs face in moving their goods regionally and locally. In a recent interview, the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation highlighted that, ‘the movement of goods across the continent still poses a big challenge to economic prosperity and growth’.

To wit, in our work supporting young entrepreneurs across 54 African countries at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we have seen first-hand that a major hurdle for our entrepreneurs has been intra-regional movement of goods and services.

With 0.6 per cent of our entrepreneurs working across the logistics value chain, we are privy to the myriad of challenges SMEs across the continent face including high costs, tariffs and volatile markets, unclear and irregular customs processes, licensing, and production.

While infrastructure is improving on the continent, it is still minimal as Africa has not caught up to the demands of its increasing population with approximately 53% of roads being unpaved. Barriers to movement such as high costs of fuel, labour and equipment also highlight that poor road networks have not been addressed.

The present inability to use technology to connect shippers to goods also leads to high movement costs and makes logistics in Africa more expensive than the rest of the world. One of the ways this happens is that transporters cannot ensure dropping off goods for both ends of their journey – a concept known as ‘empty runs’, when this happens prices go up to make up for lost time and fuel.

Another challenge is the congestion at ports and long waiting times to process shipments upon arrival. In Nigeria, for example, port congestion caused by old infrastructure, absent rail transport, amongst many other issues has increased loading and offloading fees, with people paying up to $4000 to offload their containers, in one of Africa’s busiest ports – the Apapa port in Lagos.

AfCFTA – A brighter future

Through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), – an agreement that will establish the largest free trade area in the world, 30 million Africans are set to be lifted out of extreme poverty and expected boost in the income of up to 68 million others living on less than $5.5 a day.

This trade agreement promises to ease hurdles in regional trade on the continent which will ultimately reduce the numbers of people living in extreme poverty. This agreement promises to be catalytic for the logistics industry, with support to cross-border movements and an improvement in infrastructure. Consequently, adequate political will, a seamless implementation process and an active private sector will yield transformational results for the continent.

The role of policy makers.

As countries in Africa have different capacities for business and are in different stages of their development, Somalia and South Africa being on different ends of the Logistics Performance Index for example, the AfCFTA presents an opportunity to bridge some of these gaps with service and goods delivery.

As multilateral and bilateral agencies begin to devise COVID-19 efforts, it is important that some of this support is shifted towards the development of better road infrastructure on the continent.
Federal, state, and local governments as well as regional institutions such as COMESA, ECOWAS, The Arab Maghreb Union all have a crucial in ensuring that small and medium scale enterprises can to trade effectively across the continent to individually and collectively boost their economies.

The AfCFTA, and the creation of a single market of goods and services, represents an expedient opportunity for the issues of logistics in Africa to become more streamlined, with countries coming together to share and agree on uniform solutions to issues around customs challenges. Instruments to address these challenges such as the creation of a union for customs activities on the continent and agreement on a shared customs strategy will be instrumental in shaping the future of trade on the continent.

By building adequate transportation networks, Africa will be better equipped to better serve the demands of its growing small and medium scale businesses while creating opportunities for them to thrive.

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Programme mentors are volunteers who meet set criteria and are willing to commit to mentoring assigned entrepreneurs for 2 hours monthly, over a 12-month period. TEF Mentors are assigned to no more than 3 mentees in a task-based learning forum and are rewarded with certificates of achievements and value-add opportunities.  Following review and acceptance of mentorship application, access to the mentorship and learning platform will be given and administrative matching will occur between mentees and mentors to ensure appropriate pairing that keys into the business interests of mentees.

To apply to be a TEF mentor, the individual is required to speak either English, French, Portuguese or Arabic fluently, possess quality interpersonal and listening skills, be entrepreneurial and business savvy, committed to own learning, and passionate about developing others.

According to the Director of Operations of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Titi Akinola, “We believe that African entrepreneurs deserve tailored guidance, especially in the early stages of their businesses to bridge skills gaps and activate personal and professional development that will enable them scale. Mentorship is a cornerstone of an entrepreneur’s journey, and augments existing technical and financial support that the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme offers.” 

Launched in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has trained, mentored and funded over 9,000 entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, and created a digital ecosystem, TEFConnect, which supports over one million young Africans across the world.

Prospective mentors are encouraged to Apply Now.

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Many strategies have been employed towards bridging the inequality gap such as in Lesotho where it was noticed that increases in formal wages among the poor, expansion of primary schooling, and favourable demographic changes all contributed to lowering inequality. The study by the world bank found that that the biggest reason for the decline has to do with introduction and expansion of social protection programs.

At the 2021 World Government Summit, leaders across the world discussed the rising challenges, economy, geopolitics and governance post-pandemic, and the need for governmental process and policies for “Africa’s Future Post 2021”.

When asked about what new billionaires will be coming up in Africa, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu, had indicated the need to move away from the curation of billionaire lists and instead focus on the impact and efforts that billionaires make to improve the lives of those around them in their countries and the continent.

“We should be talking of how many young Africans we are going to impact in 5- or 10-years’ time rather than the number of billionaires we have,” he said.

“Instead of having a pyramid of billionaires, I prefer we have a large base that has prosperity for all, happier people and people whose basic human needs are met. I think that’s what is going to give us the sustainability and the lasting peace we need in Africa.”

Mr Tony has often spoken about entrepreneurship and support for small and medium scale enterprises as one of the ways we can address poverty in a fundamental and sustainable way and the need for business leaders in Africa to show confidence in the African continent by investing on the continent, attracting investors to the continent and through this process, inevitably create jobs.

One of the common factors cited for investing in Africa is “too much risk” however, these investment options are not without attractive risk-adjusted returns which are often had from Africa’s burgeoning population.

What Africa needs is a long-term approach towards the people and partnerships that are beneficial to all parties involved. The recent milestone by fintech platform, Flutterwave’s integration with Paypal, which now allows African businesses receive payments from across the world presents one example of how the growth opportunity presented by the continent is fast being recognised.

For a more prosperous, equal Africa built for the many, not the few, investing in its young entrepreneurs and providing social safety nets enabling them to build and take off from the ground is essential to a sustainable approach to development on the continent.

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Every entrepreneur is familiar with the feeling of trepidation just before taking the leap to begin a new business or become an entrepreneur: Do I have what it takes? Is it worth it? How do I start?

Getting through this stage usually requires validating ideas and exploring to understand more about their industry and product.

In this interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Botswana entrepreneur Nametso Matlhaga, a 33-year-old young female entrepreneur with a decade of experience in jewelry, manufacturing, and retail in Botswana, shares her journey to becoming an entrepreneur in Africa.

Career Influences

Nametso loves to work on her own own terms, bringing her vision to life in order to create her own legacy. She grew up in a family of 3, surrounded by entrepreneurs, working under her uncle who had a jewelry business which I grew up working under during my school breaks.

“At the age of 18, I started off my first business which was a construction business. The business was making money but it was challenging to deal with both my employees and clients as I was relatively young and newly started an independent business,” she says.

Nametso later made the switch from construction to establish her own jewelry manufacturing business. “It has now been 10 years since I ventured into Matthan Jewlery, my jewelry business. I have always wanted to work in a sector that is dominated by men, that has been a great motivator to pursue and grow as an entrepreneur. From way back, I have known most of the jewelers to be men, so I wanted to change that record especially in my country and in Africa that also women can venture into jewelry manufacturing. I love my work though it does not allow me to do my nails.”

Getting into the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme

Nametso tells the story of how she met an alumni of the Foundation Mavis Nduchwa. In 2017, Mavis who was also selected for 2015 Cohort, was talking to entrepreneurs about the opportunities the Programme affords entrepreneurs in Kasane. It was here Nametso decided to try her luck, after which she made it to the 2018 cohort.

“I successfully completed the 2018 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship training programme. It has been an amazing journey for me and I benefited so much from the training. A lot of it has to do with financial discipline, branding, personal branding, marketing and more on networking. Since the TEF experience, I am more opened minded. I am mentoring young Botswana who are doing extremely well in their businesses and some of them where selected for TEF program in 2019.”

“At the TEF Forum, I loved the pitching competition though I am quite a shy person, but it was amazing to see how young people in Africa have so much to offer to our continent and it took one man’s dream to actually see that and put it out there for the world to see. Young Africans are talented, they are a full package. I am strongly for entrepreneurship, women empowerment, mentorship, and a believer in positive thinking.”

Overcoming Challenges Encountered

As the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic reverberated across the world, she decided to learn and embrace the challenge brought upon by the effects of lockdowns and changes to what was “normal”. “We have been actively growing our social media platforms and mobilizing for online sales which is one area we intend to grow over this season.”

Some of the challenges I had was capital to grow the business, which I got through the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Having the right entrepreneurial skill was a challenge and such knowledge and skills are fundamental to running a successful business. The TEF entrepreneurship program was fundamental to giving not just the funding, but the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to execute a successful business.

Milestone

Nametso is expanding business operations in Botswana, and says they are increasing output and successfully meeting market demand.

“We have successfully registered our business in Nigeria which we have focused to operate by June 2021.”

“My plan is to have two more branches within Botswana by 2021 and one operating in Nigeria. Though we are successfully selling nationwide via online sales couriers we see potential in increased sales by having additional branches.”

Impact

Matthan Jewlery currently has 5 employees. Other than employing members of their locality, Nametso also actively mobilizes entrepreneurs in her locality to apply for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, with 4 candidates who successful enrolled and benefitted on the 2019 program.

“I have learnt that patience is paramount to making your goal and vision a reality. Through the experience I have gained over my entrepreneurial journey, my mind has been open to so many opportunities around us and how to smartly engage myself and the resources around me to get things done.

My advice to young people and other aspiring entrepreneurs is that we are well capable. We can indeed make it through entrepreneurship, our economies need us, Africa needs us and you owe it to yourself to become everything you ever dreamt of being.”

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With several African countries, including South Africa and Nigeria, unable to cope with strict lock down measures and beginning the fall into recession, it was evident that stressed seams, were strained further by dwindling resources and supply chains.

On one of such panels organised by the New York Institute, with a number of leaders including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director of the World Trade Organisation at the time, the Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundaton, Tony Elumelu who was present at the event called for a reset to what has been business as usual on the continent.

“Disruption has come to stay,” he said. “2020 started with disruptions and it is just, in my viewpoint, the beginning. We would continue to have economic disruptions and the point for every one of us is how do we reset Africa so that when the disruptions come, because they will definitely come, how are we able to withstand it?”

Most of the world has pretty much adapted to the new normal, as more organisations and countries continue to embrace new methods of doing things, but the question of Africa’s reset still lingers.

Africa’s economy is driven by the informal sector, majority of whom start and carry out businesses out of necessity and for most of these, finance continue to be one of the greatest needs.

Now, more than ever, majority of African businesses need suitable financial support that might include loans, debt forgiveness, low interest rates, in order to navigate the challenges and risks posed by the pandemic.

Despite the absence of these in most parts, Africa’s entrepreneurs rose to the challenge, most pivoting their businesses to fill in the gap left by dwindling supply chains with the production of Covid-19 overall kits, masks and focus on delivery services.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, currently the director general of WTO, had said that “the only way we are going to fight this pandemic is through unity of purpose and unity of action.

Referring to our Founder, Tony Elumelu’s comment on resetting Africa she continued, “we can see this crisis as an opportunity for the continent. Many countries scrambling because most of the supply chains were outside the continent and we have to make the continental free trade agreement real. And this means we have to rely on ourselves and have a plan where we specialise our countries in manufacturing and some of the things that we need so we can trade with other countries.”

In addition to just trying to formalise the informal sector, MSMEs also need the bold campaigns and attractive packages that could spur on their growth and development.

With almost everything calling for attention, there is also the added consideration of deciding what sectors to focus on. The need for data-driven approaches is now more evident than ever, in order to track and forecast the social and political changes that will inevitably result from the changes brought about by the effects of the pandemic and the measures put in place to reset Africa.

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She joins Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman, Connecticut’s Third Congressional District; Jeffrey Koplan, Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Indra Nooyi, Board of Directors at Amazon and Former Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo, among other reputable individuals.

Dr Elumelu also recently celebrated a significant public health victory as the Gavi Private Sector Champion for Immunisation in Africa, following the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s announcement that Africa is now free of the wild poliovirus.

The Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) is the focal point for global health at Yale, bringing together expertise and knowledge from across campus with partners around the world. With a centre of gravity close to the Yale Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health, YIGH represents a University-wide mission. By actively collaborating across disciplines and seizing opportunities for innovation, YIGH aims to speed the translation of new scientific discoveries into better health for all.

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His statement is backed by his experience as an economist, a philanthropist, and more importantly, an investor through his investment vehicle, Heirs Holdings, in Africa’s key sectors – power, financial services, oil & gas, hospitality, real estate, and healthcare. While he has been an avid investor, his hard work, and bet on the continent’s potential to generate a worthy return on investments, do not come without its own challenges. For decades, the private sector has worked with the hope that business necessities, including electricity, infrastructure and security would be fixed by African governments; sadly, the hope is yet to become a reality. Yet the private sector holds firm in its belief. In 2015, Tony Elumelu committed $100 million through his Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme to empower 10,000 young African entrepreneurs to validate his conviction in the potential of the private sector to catalyse transformation. In 2019, Tony Elumelu’s Transcorp Power invested an undisclosed amount into acquiring Afam Power station in the hope that, combined with its existing assets, it would raise the standard of living in Nigeria, by contributing 25% of the total power generation capacity in the country. He replicated this same conviction across several of his businesses including Transcorp Hotels Plc with an upgrade worth billions of naira, and a recent commitment in a yet to be disclosed energy deal. Many more private investors like Tony Elumelu have exhibited the same faith in the future of the continent.

The Importance of a Private-Public Sector Partnership

The private sector continues to play its part, backing words with action. However, it recognises that a mutually beneficial partnership with the
public sector is needed at this time. As stated by Tony Elumelu at the recently concluded virtual roundtable involving African business leaders, there was a consensus that the pandemic is indeed the reset that Africa needs to catalyse the much-needed transformation on the continent. This stance was corroborated by Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister, Tidjane Thiam, African Union Special Envoy on Covid-19, and moderator Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations, as they jointly discussed the topic “Resilient World: An African Call for a New World Order,” at the New York Forum Institute Virtual Roundtable. Okonjo-Iweala emphasised the need to diversify the economy through strengthening the manufacturing sector, Thiam harped on the need to create more jobs on the continent, and Songwe stated that the African Continental Free Trade Zone may just be the policy needed to kickstart the transformation – this is the best time to achieve it. For Elumelu, prioritising the youth, ensuring access to electricity and stabilising the macroeconomic environment are additional focus areas needed at this time.

A Task to Reset Africa Calls for a Marshall Plan

In the near future, African currencies will depreciate significantly, and servicing our external debts will become even more of a challenge. Today, many African countries already spend more annually on debt servicing than on education, healthcare and social welfare combined. Therefore, mobilising the level of finance that will give Africa room to begin this hard task of resetting, will require a Marshall plan, akin to America’s Marshall Plan for Europe after World War II. This Marshall Plan for Africa will be in collaboration with the World Bank, IMF, G20 countries
and all other relevant agencies but must be led by African multilateral financial institutions as in the case of AFREXIM under the leadership of Prof. Okey Oramah, whose efficient and immediate deployment of US$3 billion to finance and support trade and SME business through African banks, is commendable and deserves emulation.

The Covid-19 pandemic presents a bittersweet moment of clarity and reflection which we must seize to reset our continent. It provides the opportunity to finally place Africa on the right path of sustainability built on the bedrock of competitiveness.

Sustained Investment in Infrastructure

We can engender African competitiveness by sustained investment in basic infrastructure, electricity, internet access and digital connectivity, and most importantly by enabling and encouraging entrepreneurship. This combination will provide economic hope and opportunity that will productively engage our young Africans who account for over 60% of our 1.3b population. This is the only way we can reset the economy, create employment, eliminate poverty, generate revenue and attract capital to the continent.

Be Ready for Disruption

Africa must embrace the new normal. The disruptions we have seen across sectors (healthcare, logistics, supply chain, digital economy, IT) are here to stay. This presents a unique opportunity for a united Africa, a strong regional bloc acting in a coordinated fashion in response to this new era. As globalisation, trade and foreign policy adjusts in response to these times, Africa will only enjoy more traction, increased leverage and
more influence by forging a united front. This is the time for the continent to fully leverage its competitive advantage in agriculture, through focused investments in mechanisation, storage facilities, logistics, pest control, quality assurance, and processing, while strengthening our expertise in textile, manufacturing, supply chain etc.

In truth, disruption is here. It may not be ideal, but disruption, in the many facets it presents itself, has heralded new eras, and economic powers. If Africa treats this pandemic as a warning and begins to put in place the systems to ensure economic stability, this could be the beginning of the next global economic power, all business leaders agreed.

The post Amidst the Panic, Does the Pandemic Present an Opportunity to Reset Africa? Tony Elumelu, Other African Business Leaders Think So. appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Africa has historically been disregarded as a technologically inept jungle. This event was significant in mapping out our continent’s socio-economic development to date, as it spearheaded a dialogue on the immense benefits of technology to African agritech and food businesses. I commend the Federal Government of Nigeria for supporting the agricultural sector through initiatives that encourage our local producers and improve access to finance within the sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria has also provided funding support to our farmers and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. As a result of this collaborative effort, entrepreneurs in the Agricultural sector now enjoy targeted fiscal and industrial policies to improve their productivity and capacity. This is what the youth, particularly those in the primary sector, need to achieve sustainability and scalability in the new African economy.                                       

At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we also believe that investments to modernise agriculture will not only transform the lives of the poorest people on the continent but also strengthen Nigeria and Africa’s capacity to absorb the new wave of young people entering the workforce. In Nigeria-and indeed Africa, one cannot overestimate the importance of agriculture to the economy. Did you know that it is the highest employer of labour in the country, with two-thirds of the labour force employed in agriculture? This shows that it is increasingly important that we do what we can to break down barriers preventing our youth from developing innovative solutions to the problems that we face in our Agriculture sector.

If we get it right, the agriculture sector represents Africa’s greatest opportunity to drive inclusive, sustainable growth, and the only sector with the potential to lift millions out of poverty and forever change the continent’s path to development. Over the last 5 years, our programme has revealed that agriculture is the most sought-after sector: each year, over 30% of all applicants to the programme have been in agriculture. We must engage and support this interest that our youth have through sustained long-term capital investment in this space, we must get it right with agriculture! If we do this, we will all reap the benefits of a more prosperous Africa.

This story appeared originally on the TEF CEO, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu’s LinkedIn blog on 11 December. See it here.

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