The Power of Data in African Entrepreneurship

Data can be used to create value in various ways for entrepreneurs. Some of these ways include:

• Identifying market gaps and opportunities: Data can help entrepreneurs identify unmet needs in the market and opportunities for new products and services. By analysing customer data, entrepreneurs can identify customer pain points and develop products or services that solve those problems.

• Improving business operations: Data can help entrepreneurs optimize their business processes, such as supply chain management, inventory management, and customer service. By analysing data, entrepreneurs can identify areas where they can cut costs, improve efficiency, and deliver better customer experiences.

• Enhancing customer experiences: Data can help entrepreneurs personalize their offerings and deliver better customer experiences. By examining customer data, entrepreneurs can understand their customers’ preferences and behaviours and tailor their products or services to meet those needs.

• Making better business decisions: Data can provide entrepreneurs with insights that can help them make better business decisions. For example, data can help entrepreneurs identify which marketing channels are most effective, which products or services are generating the most revenue, and which customers are the most profitable.

How the Tony Elumelu Foundation is Leveraging Data to Drive African Entrepreneurship

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has been at the forefront of supporting African entrepreneurship through its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (TEFEP). The programme provides seed funding, training, mentorship, and networking opportunities to African entrepreneurs. Over the years, the Foundation has empowered over 18,000 young entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, and its impact has been significant.

To leverage the power of data in driving African entrepreneurship, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has been collecting and analysing data on its Entrepreneurship Programme such as business profiles, business outcome, financial data, long-term impact data, progress, and milestones.

The Foundation has been using this data to improve its programme and provide better support to its entrepreneurs. Some of the ways the Foundation has been leveraging data include:

• Identifying programme impact: The Foundation has been collecting data on the impact of its Entrepreneurship Programme on its beneficiaries. This data includes information on the number of jobs created, revenue generated, and the growth of the businesses of its beneficiaries. By analysing this data, the Foundation can identify areas where it needs to improve its programme and provide better support to its entrepreneurs.

• Understanding the needs of entrepreneurs: The data collected by the Foundation help in the understanding of the needs of entrepreneurs in Africa. This data includes information on the challenges entrepreneurs face and the areas where they need the most support. By examining this data, the Foundation can tailor its programme to meet the specific needs of its entrepreneurs.

• Identifying trends in African entrepreneurship: Data pertaining to trends on the African entrepreneurship are also being collected. This data includes information on the sectors that are attracting the most investment, the most successful business models, and the challenges that entrepreneurs face. By scrutinizing this data, the Foundation can identify trends in African entrepreneurship and provide better support to its entrepreneurs.

As it is said, “Data is King”, it is a powerful tool that can help entrepreneurs drive growth and make informed decisions. In Africa, where entrepreneurship is critical for economic development, data is particularly crucial. The Tony Elumelu Foundation recognizes the importance of data for African entrepreneurship and has been working to leverage its power to support African entrepreneurs. By investing in data infrastructure, prioritizing data collection and analysis, using data to inform decision-making processes, measuring their business’s performance, and identifying new opportunities for growth, African entrepreneurs can use data to achieve their business goals and contribute to Africa’s economic development.

The post Leveraging the Power of Data to Drive African Entrepreneurship appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

at

Presidential Banquet Hall

State House

Abuja – FCT

Monday, May 15, 2023

PART 1: Intro and Greeting

• Good morning Your Excellencies

• The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari   

• My brother and friend, the President of Kenya, President William Ruto

• The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, my friend, Sir. Tony Blair

• The UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina J. Mohammed

• My big sister, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

• The Returning and newly elected Governors of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

• Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen all present today

• Let me begin by offering my sincere congratulations to the newly elected, and re-elected governors.

• Congratulations for the long hard-fought elections, but now is the time to show your constituents why they have put their faith and hopes for a better life and living in your hands.

• I also want to thank The Nigeria Governors’ Forum led by my brother, the Governor of Sokoto State, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, for this invitation to speak on a topic.  It is an honour to be here, and a privilege to have the opportunity to speak on a subject that is close to my heart – and vital to our dear continent’s future:

Entrepreneurship, Youth Engagement, and Wealth Creation’.

• The dynamics of governance in our country calls for preparedness and this programme is laudable in laying important groundwork.

• No one can underestimate the role of good governance in contributing to the development of Nigeria.

• Our country has a population of about 220 million – the largest in Africa and the great majority are young people.

• You each govern or will govern states with different dynamics:

• Different population density
  • Different composition of ethno-linguistic groups
  • Different natural resource endowments
  • Different levels of economic activity
  • Different rural and urban dynamics

• But there is one constant!

• You will all govern states where there will be majorities of young people.

• Nigerians below the age of 35.

• What does that mean?

• We know politics sees many interest groups and stakeholders, competing, jostling – but your success will mean prioritising the largest stakeholder Group in your states, our youth.

• This is why this conversation we are having is so apt and timely.

• I urge you all to prioritise youth engagement

• It is the sure means to create the most impact and catalyse socio-economic development and growth – for your respective states and Nigeria at large.

Part 2

• I am not a politician – but I share your goals, a better, brighter tomorrow for Nigeria. A journey to unity, prosperity and well-being for all.

• These are goals the private sector shares and can contribute to.

• Nigeria’s destiny can only be achieved with public and private sectors working in lock step – for the common good.

• That is why I champion entrepreneurship amongst our youth.

• An entrepreneur has a stake in our country’s success.

• An entrepreneur carries others, family, employees, communities with him or her.

• An entrepreneur wants stability, power, education, respect and certainty in their environment. With this foundation, entrepreneurs can be the engines of our growth. We know Nigeria is a nation of entrepreneurs, we need our governors to unleash this next generation.

• So, I ask you, how can we make your states more entrepreneurial and geared towards the creation of wealth?

• How do we create the Nigerian Steve Jobs in the next 4 years of your first term in office.

• 4 years is a short time!

• Let me give you my thoughts

• First of all, it is about creating the right enabling environment

• Each of our states is like a country

• Look at Singapore, a country with 6 million people

• In 1965, the country’s GDP per capita stood at USD500

• In 1991 Per Capita GDP stood at USD14,500

• Today the per capita GDP stands at USD55,000 making the country one of the most developed and thriving countries in the world

• This can be your state’s story too

• Singapore is a city state with no oil, no abundance of natural resources, just human resources and purposeful leadership

• But how did they get there?  It was not a mistake, it took deliberate actions by focused leadership that started with the country’s post-independence leader, Lee Kuan Yew

• A combination of sound financial and economic policy coupled with a corruption free environment and technological advancement has led to a massive increase in the standard of living of the people and reduction in poverty.

• Likewise in the East Asian Tiger Economies of South Korea, Taiwan, look at their success, you will see the same themes running through entrepreneurship, education, targeted credit assistance, incubators and accelerators, improved regulatory ease, etc.

• Gentlemen, I would like you all to see yourselves as the Presidents of your states, CEOs and lead mentors.

• Everyone of you can do this

• And it starts from day 1 in office and how you organise your office and administration

• Set the vision and strategy for what you would like to achieve

• I think of when I took over a distressed bank and created Standard Trust Bank, we set for ourselves a 3-tiered strategic plan of what we wanted to achieve

• We were relentless and in less than a decade, we achieved all of our plans and had completed the largest financial services merger in sub-Saharan Africa that brought about the new UBA

• Pick the right team to help drive the vision.

• It is so important that this is done right, no sentiments.

• It is a disservice to the people you serve, your constituents, if you do not place competence above “loyalty”.

• Let us be frank, in Nigeria, there is too much reliance on the allocation of funds from the centre

• We need our governors to govern their states, there is no point always going to Abuja for meetings that can be done virtually

• Digitise your administration, remove inefficiencies and bottlenecks

• Lead by example

Part 3: How do you create entrepreneurs?

• We have the largest youth population in Africa.

• The future of our states and country belong to our youth.

• We know young people in Nigeria are disengaged from the society, and this creates alienation and lack of purpose.

• This frustration manifests in extremism, emigration and the slippery slope to crime.

• At The Tony Elumelu Foundation, the leading philanthropy in Africa empowering young people across all 54 African countries, we understand first-hand the importance of entrepreneurship and youth engagement.

• We recognise the importance of young people in decision-making and leadership roles and empowering them to contribute to the development of their communities.

• We believe our young can make meaningful contributions to the society, when provided with the support they need.

• We must create a platform for the young majority to thrive, be heard, and contribute.

• The Nigeria youth unemployment rate is projected at about 51 per cent in 2023.

• An idle mind attracts evil and rightfully so.

• Youth engagement is crucial for the development of any society, and entrepreneurship can play a significant role in driving this engagement.

Part 4: How do you engage youth?

• As a private sector leader with investments in key sectors of the Nigerian economy through the Heirs Holdings Group, Transcorp Group, United Bank for Africa Group, I see the challenges faced by our young.

• Together, our Group employs 40,000 people across Nigeria and I can attest first hand to the wave of skilled young people leaving the country for so called greener pastures

• The Japa syndrome

• We must tell ourselves the truth, the world today is so global that talent will always move to where conditions are most favourable.

• We cannot afford to waste our most precious resource, our young people

• I understand first-hand, the importance of entrepreneurship in fostering youth engagement.

• Our Africapitalism philosophy demonstrates our belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development.

• Entrepreneurship is a transformative process as it helps explore creativity, pursue passions, and allows to contribute meaningful impact on our own communities.

• It helps to build resilience and perseverance.

• Starting a business is not easy, success is not guaranteed.

• This administration has had some success in implementing policies that make it easier for entrepreneurs, but it is clear that a lot more needs to be done.

• By encouraging young people to pursue entrepreneurship, we can help them develop these important qualities that will serve them well in all aspects of life.

• However, there are still many obstacles that young people face when it comes to starting their own businesses, and these need to be addressed.

• The most prevalent obstacles are:

1. Access to capital
2. Hostile business environments.
3. Poor infrastructure

• Most young people lack financial resources to birth their ideas and so we must explore alternative sources of funding for them like more grants options from foundations, private sector, and government agencies.

• According to a report by PwC, about 80% of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria fail within the first year of operation.

• Each of the governors here has a responsibility and should commit to creating favourable policies that ensure these businesses thrive.

• It is crucial for leaders to create an enabling environment that empowers and supports our young people to harness their potential and create wealth for our nation.

• Your Excellencies, you must foster the growth of a formal and competitive domestic private sector by creating fair, stable, and transparent market regulations in your state.

• A The Tony Elumelu Foundation, we have empowered over 18,000 young Africa’s from all 54 countries in Africa

• We train them on how to do business, provide mentors for them to assist them as they try to scale their businesses and we give them a non-refundable grant of USD5,000.00

• We support all types of businesses, we are sector agnostic, we have entrepreneurs in agriculture, fashion, entertainment, healthcare, manufacturing etc.

• Now these young businesses have gone on to create over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs across Africa!

• We have been able to achieve such impact through partnerships with development organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the US Africa Development Foundation, the European Union, Google, the Red Cross.  And we have partnered with countries, like Congo DRC and Botswana and here in Nigeria, Anambra state has partnered with us to replicate some of these success stories.

• Now imagine if we can replicate similar outcomes in each state of Nigeria and the FCT

• Governor Tambuwal, you know Shaddi Sabeh who is from your state, Sokoto, he is a beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

• Through the support of TEF, Shadi started a school. He worked hard, was disciplined, and stayed the course.

• Today, the young Shadi has grown his school to 6 branches in the state and has 3,000 students and 571 employees.

• He is the second largest employer of labour in Sokoto being BUA cement and he tells me how he wants to overtake BUA and become number 1 in the State.

• This is the economic hope and opportunity that we need to give to our young ones.

• It is not rocket science, if we focus on the young people in our respective states, empower them, create an enabling environment for them to succeed, we will solve our problems in this country

• It is lack of economic hope or opportunity that leads a young man to carry an AK47 and join a terrorist or bandit group

• We need to create the feeling and belief that it is a mutual destiny

• Poverty anywhere in the country is a threat to the rest of us everywhere.

PART 5: Conclusion

• Let me conclude.

• As a businessman I invest for the long term.

• In politics, we must do the same – invest in Nigeria.

• Invest in our infrastructure, be strategic, identify those areas where we will all get the best return – and by best, I mean best for our country – in terms of stability, prosperity and the wellbeing of our people.

• I have seen how in the power sector, when government, private sector and community align, the results are transformational.

• Let’s do the same for our young.

•  Nigeria’s next generation are our hope for a better and more prosperous future.

• They are dynamic, vocal, patriotic – but they need our support, attention, empathy. They need our action! We need their participation in our society. We should embrace and welcome this.

• To our political leaders, united today, in this essential forum, I say create more private sector friendly policies to increase wealth creation and encourage entrepreneurship.

• As leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders in our society, we must recognize the potential of entrepreneurship to promote youth engagement and wealth creation in Nigeria.

• We must invest in programs that support and encourage young people to pursue their dreams and develop the skills they need to succeed as entrepreneurs.

• Let us work together to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive in Nigeria, and to empower our youth to become active participants in the development of our country.

• Give them economic hope and they will transform our country.

• And finally, my advice to our Governors and Leaders: As you commence this journey – reflect on your legacy. How will history judge us?

• What greater legacy is there than your gift to the next generation – the great destiny that awaits Nigeria.

• Thank you.

Tony O. Elumelu, CFR

Chairman;  Heirs Holdings Group

United Bank for Africa (UBA) Group

Transcorp Group

&

Founder,   The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The post OUR FOUNDER’S REMARKS ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP, YOUTH ENGAGEMENT AND WEALTH CREATION AT THE NIGERIAN GOVERNORS FORUM INDUCTION SESSION appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Technology has an impact on every conceivable area, including education, workplace, personal life, etc., and there are over 1.35 million tech-startups worldwide.  It is estimated that by the end of 2022, there will be a 63% global internet penetration rate; and by 2030, there would be over 50 billion smart devices simultaneously gathering, processing, and sharing data, as the computing and processing capacity of computers hits double figures every 18 months.

Despite this exponential growth, Africa is lagging in development – as it is in all areas. With a 33% usage rate, Africa had the lowest internet usage globally in 2021. However, Technology is becoming a more important factor as Africa moves from the periphery to the center of the global economy. Regional trends in business, investment, and modernization are being supported by the emergence of a digital ecosystem, a developing patchwork of entrepreneurs, virtual businesses, and innovation hubs convergent, from country to country, and Nigeria is beginning to be recognized as a hub for new business development, as American Tech Giants like Netflix, and Facebook all made inroads to the country and investors from Silicon Valley are interested in Nigerian start-ups.

The global digital economy was created through the widespread use of technical instruments and infrastructure, big data, user interfaces, audience networks, new media, and content, which put together, resemble an ecosystem. This digital economy is worth almost three trillion dollars. To put it in context, this is about 30% of the S&P 500, six times the U.S.’ annual trade deficit or more than the GDP of the United Kingdom. What’s more is that this entire value has been generated in the past 20 years since the launch of the Internet. Nigeria’s Digital Economy is said to raise the government revenue profile by about 15% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025. This exponential growth of the tech sector demands skilled workers in the industry.

The amount of skilled and technologically savvy labor force that is present in a nation has a direct impact on how quickly digital firms advance the level of development of the digital economy, and how to make digital enterprises more competitive internationally.

Issues and Dynamics of the technology sector in Nigeria

In the past five decades, the technology sector has been considered a male-dominated industry across the globe, as women were, and still are, under-represented in the sector. The tech world has been largely designed by and for men, and women have traditionally been left out of the data story that feeds the development of the products we use. This is evident in tech goods, like the mobile phone, designed for men’s bulky hands, and virtual assistants programmed by default to be in the female voice. In 2020, a Guardian article asked why the percentage of women in the digital workforce still sat below 20%, and today, ten years later, nothing had changed. In 2022, the statistics remain just as woeful. The number of women versus men in the technology industry has declined over the past 35 years. A recent study by Deloitte Insights predicted that firms are likely to reach 33% female representation this year, only up by 2% points from the same survey three years ago. Perhaps what’s even more telling is that the Deloitte Insights survey said that this tiny percentage increase of only 2% was notable. Progress is slow.

Nigeria is the largest technology market in Africa with 24% of the continent’s internet users. Today, the IT industry in Nigeria contributes about 10% to the GDP of the country. In 2001, it was less than 1% of GDP. Despite this advancement, less than 22% of Nigeria’s graduates from engineering and technology universities are women. In fact, the number of women receiving computer science degrees has decreased over the last three years, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. According to the same source, women make up roughly a fifth of the total number of people working in the information and communication technology sector.

The statistics in Nigeria are very alarming. 8 out of 10 girls in Nigeria cannot use a computer, 7 in 10 girls do not own a computer, and 16.7 million girls are out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why does this under-representation of women matter? Research has shown that teams perform far better when Individuals from different genders, races, backgrounds, and experiences bring diverse perspectives to create solutions. They bring innovative solutions to whichever problems they are tackling, and Nigeria needs these innovations for development.

All hands should be on deck as the fourth industrial revolution approaches and the changes brought on by the technological revolution. Women’s abilities to read body language, form strong teams, coach others, and generally possess emotional intelligence are now valued and profitable. When businesses and organizations use a diverse staff, everyone wins. 90% of occupations in the next 10 years will require knowledge and abilities in technology, and the number of positions in the programming industry is gradually growing. In research published by the World Economic Forum, it is predicted that automation and computers will eliminate several jobs in the next years. In addition to being well paid, these positions are necessary for reaping the benefits of automation, which include rising living standards, more access to education and healthcare, and astronomical economic growth. Programming and digital skills are also essential for addressing the environmental effects of digitalization, including cybercrime, job sector reorientation, desolation, and climate change. These factors make it extremely important that women benefit from and participate in finding answers to these issues.

The poor engagement of women in digital skills can be attributed to several factors, including Early Girl Child marriage, harassment due to cultural restraint, peer pressure, a lack of female tech role models, encouragement, lack of access to digital products and services for Women and Girls, and programming possibilities. It has been demonstrated that there is no aptitude problem. In Nigeria, local women face twice as much bias as local males; in some communities, girls still struggle to get basic education and find acceptance at work.

Blue Sands Startup Story

Alero Thompson is a techpreneur and educationist who is passionate about building
the capacity of the girl child. She is the Founder and Chief Education Officer of Blue
Sands Academy, a social enterprise has impacted the lives of over 3000 girls in
northern Nigeria and created over 200 jobs.
Alero was one of the beneficiaries from a pool of tens of thousands of applications received in 2019 from entrepreneurs across 54 Africa on the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme – a 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor, and fund 10,000 entrepreneurs in Africa. Since 2015, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme has empowered 15,847 African entrepreneurs with a non-returnable seed capital

of $5,000 each, twelve weeks of business management training, access to experienced mentors, and a network of Africa’s largest entrepreneurial ecosystem. After three attempts, Alero was finally selected for the programme and accessed a $5,000 seed grant which she used to launch the Blue Sands Academy. Blue Sound Wave is one of the pioneer Edtech platforms that provide onsite and online tech training programs dedicated to women in Nigeria.

“This seed capital made a great difference in my life. I owe this life-transforming opportunity to the TEF Foundation.  I got trained and mentored by the foundation which gave me the transformational skills and business acumen that turned my business around. Being a TEF Alumnus has opened up lots of opportunities for me.”

Leapfrogging

Amidst the dystopia and myriad challenges of this gross under-representation, sprouted a young lady from the suburbs of the Nigerian State, who aims to tip the scale of imbalance by equipping women with the various technical skills that will position them for a job in the tech industry. First thrown into the entrepreneurship realm by the economic hardship bedeviling her family, she quickly developed the resilience and business skills needed to survive as a businesswoman seeing that she had never found fulfillment in the 9 to 5 job she does.

 “Technology is changing the world, but women are still underrepresented in tech. We need to train more women and encourage entrepreneurship in tech. The best way to do this is through technology edtech like what we are doing at Blue Sands Academy that focuses on developing strong female leaders”.

Upon receiving the seed grant, Alero Thompson started her learning academy in Kaduna State of Nigeria where she provides on-site, and online tech training programs targeted at Women and Girl Children between the age of 18-25 and 11-17 respectively in Private and Public Schools and aim to cover Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan Countries. The Academy offers face-to-face training for girls in coding (computer programming), UI & UX design, animation (cartoon), mobile app development, leadership, entrepreneurial skills training, etc. They also provide life-changing opportunities for women where they guide them on how to start a new business and introduce them to grant opportunities and other forms of investment and funding. Driven by her quick desire to address this under-representation, she charted an expansion plan by first opening a branch in Lagos State to penetrate other states in months to come. What sets her apart from other training platforms is that they are the first learning platform in Nigeria tailored toward meeting the IT needs of the Girl Child and connecting them to internship opportunities which other competitors don’t do.

In order to expand and boost the revenue and effect of her business, she created partnerships with other TEF Alumni and the WE4A network in India—THEV YLIP. By 2023, it is intended to penetrate the Sub-Saharan market.

Speaking about the impact she has on her community she said, “I never knew that my organization could train secondary school girls and make them win national and international ICT Competitions. We are growing to become like the Udacity face of Africa and the first ever female e-Learning platform that goes beyond learning but also creates an inclusive and connected economy. It gives me the pride to say that an African woman like me is making giant changes in my small community and it is being noticed in Nigeria and the global world.”

Since the launch of Blue Sands Academy in 2019,with a $5,000 seed grant, the Academy has successfully trained over 3,000 women and girls and 70% of these girls have taken computer-related courses in their university studies while the women got jobs and started their businesses. The academy generated total revenue of $14,000 in 2020 and 2021, they realized total revenue of $55,000 and it is projected to raise $100,000 in 2022. The Academy has also opened doors to other women through mentorship and providing gender-inclusive and responsive employment within the team by creating over 15 full-time workers, 20 direct jobs, and 15 indirect jobs.

In her quest to impact the lives of women in her community, Alero Thompson In 2020, got appointed as the National Advocacy Officer of the African Union Youth Commission and the Director of Events and training by Unite 2030, a youth-led organization on the SDGs. In 2022, she was featured in Time Square Towers in New York City[i] for the impact of her business and for helping to solve SDGs 4, 5, and 8. To be featured on this Time Square Towers cost up to a million dollars but impact took her there.

The European Union’s game-changing moment

The European Union and the African continent have a long history of cooperation focused on security, peace, and sustainable and sustained economic development and prosperity for Africa. Given the EU’s strategic global investment approach to women’s development in Africa, the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) programme was launched. The WE4A is an EU, OACPS, and BMZ-funded program to provide 120 female entrepreneurs from the TEF alumni network access to €10.000 in grant financing, matched with 3 months of technical support through a virtual acceleration program. The initiative aims to boost women-led businesses’ entrepreneurial skills to maximize their prospects of obtaining additional investment from private investors.

Alero saw the enormous opportunities for her Academy to scale after receiving rigorous training, business mentoring, and a seed grant from TEF. She continued to look for other opportunities despite the difficulties in obtaining financing for scale-up operations, a difficult task for business owners, particularly women. Despite this, Alero persisted in establishing a long-lasting company. She applied to the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa program in 2021, which is run by the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and the German Development Agency GIZ and is supported by the European Union (EU), Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (E4D program). Although she did not advance to the Growth level after receiving 10,000 euros from the Accelerator program, she used the money to purchase business supplies, technological resources, and other necessities for her company. She used the training she received from the WE4A program to restructure her company and get it ready for further investment.

 “Women entrepreneurs face unique challenges in obtaining financing for their scale-up operations. As a result, the ability of women to obtain funding is limited. However, there are ways to overcome these challenges by taking proactive steps to search for opportunities to scale”

Prior to this, she got selected for the Young Africa Leaders Initiative Alumni grant program and got funded. In 2021, she also got the opportunity to be selected for the Friends of Prof (Vice President of Nigeria) business grant. She took advantage of the skills she had learned during the WE4A program and was chosen for an impact investment of at least $200,000 afterward. Within a few weeks of receiving this offer, she was chosen for the MS11 SDG Challenge, sponsored by Mohammed Sanusi, the Emir of Kano, and offering grants of up to $100,000 over the course of several stages and milestones.

“The Seed Capital, training and mentorship from the Tony Elumelu Foundation is a ‘seed that just keeps growing and I am very grateful for this.”

The prospects for women in the booming Nigerian Tech Sector

Women have a great role to play in the growing tech industry in Nigeria and Africa at large and Blue Sands is just one of the few Academies offering women this rare opportunity to actively participate in the industry.

Efforts should be made to encourage the participation of women in the ICT sector. Government intervention is crucially needed to bridge this gap, which is why the National

Assembly’s still-pending Gender and Equal Opportunities bill would go a long way toward eradicating all types of gender discrimination if it were passed and put into effect. Angel Investors and Venture capitalists should do well by giving women equal investment opportunities. More Entrepreneurs should go into the business of educating women in a bid to address this under-representation.

For women’s entrepreneurship in Africa, Alero Thompson of Blue Sands Academy serves as an excellent role model. She is still dedicated to advancing leadership for sustainable growth and development for African women as well as advancing the education of women. She continues to empower and mentor girls and women around Nigeria and Africa by sharing the success stories she has achieved.

The post Growing an Ed-Tech in a Digital  World appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Agricultural entrepreneurship refers to farmers’ ability to change or abandon old models and enter new phases of agriculture.

And this leads us to today’s episode of the #TEFAdvocacy space where we talk about the policies that affect entrepreneurs in Burundi.

Burundi’s economy is dominated by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). According to research done by finclusionlab.org, micro firms (those with less than 5 full time workers) represented 34% of the population of formal firms while small firms (those with 5 to 19 full time workers) represented 46% of the total number of formal firms. Hence, micro and small firms represented 80% of all formal firms in Burundi in 2007.

Among 9 countries surveyed in East and Southern Africa, Burundi has the lowest level of financial inclusion with 85.7% of the population not using any financial product (BRB — Banque de la République du Burundi, 2012.)

Even though MSMEs in Burundi seem to have the same level of access to formal financial services as in other developing countries, the term structure of commercial banks’ resources is too concentrated on short-term credit. As a result, MSMEs use bank loans for short-term needs such as working capital or lines of credit rather than investment, as the latter requires medium and long-term loans. It is also relevant to note that the cost of credit is prohibitive. Data from Burundi’s central bank (or BRB) Short-term lending rates vary between 14.3 per cent for import to 17.4 per cent f or working capital credit, the most dominant form of short-term credit. These high levels of credit imply that to be viable, an MSME must have a very high rate of profitability in order to pay back its loan and cover its other costs.

Our Recommendation

• With respect to the sectoral distribution of credit, productive sectors such as agriculture and industry benefited from 0.5% and 7% of total credit, respectively, while credit to trading represented 43 per cent of total credit (Nkurunziza et al., 2016; Nkurunziza and Ngaruko, 2008). Burundian banks also allocate a substantial amount of their credit to the government. On average, credit to the government represents 38 per cent of total credit, which is high even by African standards, as credit to government in the rest of Africa represents, on average, 25 per cent of total credit. Combined with the inefficiency of government resource use in Burundi, the large number of financial resources allocated to government by banks crowds out resources that could have been more efficiently used by private firms. We recommend the excess allocation of financial resources to the government be minimized and more, up to 40%, be allocated to the private sector. We believe this will strengthen the country’s primary revenue sector, Agriculture, by more than 50% increase in production.
  
  
• The pattern of credit allocation in Burundi illustrates a disconnect between the financial sector and the real economy. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy in Burundi . In 2014, it represented 39 per cent of GDP against 42 per cent of GDP for the services sector (World Bank, 2015). Agriculture is also where most jobs are created. According to estimates, the sector employed 70 per cent of the work force in 2009 (LO/FTF Council, 2014). We also recommend that the financial resources availability should be higher for the Agricultural sector, as this is the country’s primary revenue sector. This will also lead to more job creation, which will aid the eradication of poverty and increase the country’s economic GDP.

In conclusion, the size of a firm in developing countries is the major determinant of its efficiency, resilience, profitability, and access to inputs. The dominance of Burundi’s business sector by MSMEs makes its flagging private sector particularly vulnerable to the country’s political and economic instability, which brings about the need for availability of financial resources to MSMEs to bring about rapid growth of the country economically.

~ Author: Oluwadamilola Oladepo

The post Burundi – The Heart of Africa appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Education Is The Most Powerful Weapon Which You Can Use To Change The World

Education provides entrepreneurs with cognitive skills to better evaluate and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. 

On today’s episode of #TEFAdvocacy, we will be discussing challenges affecting entrepreneurs in Senegal. 

Shortage of jobs in Senegal means people are forced to fend for themselves to generate their own income. This “survival entrepreneurship” could be a unique opportunity for the country, however, if used as a catalyst to create SMEs with the capacity to develop long-term activities. 

This is the reason why the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has stepped in to assist in funding young entrepreneurs in countries like this to help generate income for themselves and create direct and indirect jobs within the country to further improve the economy of the country.  

Despite the opportunity granted by TEF and the “survival spirit” of the Senegalese, they are still faced with several challenges limiting them to achieve their goals and have financial freedom which in turn improves the country’s economy.  

Amongst the many challenges faced, poor investment in education has been a major issue. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), Senegal is not only one of the poorest countries in terms of GDP per capita, but also in terms of its human development. The lack of investment in the education sector has led many citizens to settle for menial jobs which is now a norm among the citizens. This has limited a lot of citizens to birth ideas that can change the narrative of the country.  

A research done by AfDB in 2009 shows that 47% of total education expenditure was allocated to primary education, 27% to secondary education and 24% to higher education. This breakdown reflects the belief that primary and secondary schooling are more important than tertiary education for poverty reduction, and has been encouraged by international development agencies. 

The issue has also been a major reason for unemployment leading to more employment in industries that require little to no educational background. 

Our Recommendation

We recommend that the government invest more in education and ensure there is a significant rise in the number of school students across every state in Senegal. These investments should cut across primary to tertiary as this will help meet the standard efficiency required of the education sector.  

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), the efficiency of education is assessed based on two criteria: internal and external efficiency. Internal efficiency is jointly measured by the ability of the system to retain the maximum number of pupils in school, results obtained by pupils and available resources (teachers, classes, equipment, etc.). External efficiency corresponds to the match between the provision of education and market needs. The rate attained in Senegal falls far short of the target rate of 83% set by the World Bank and it is considerably lower than the rates recorded by other West African countries (Ghana 73%, The Gambia 91%, Mali 79% and Cape Verde 85%). The secondary education enrolment rate is much lower – 31.4% in 2008, while enrolment in higher education did not exceed 8.3% in 2008.  

Strategic investment in the education sector will help see this rate rise reasonably and give future entrepreneurs the exposure they need to ideate, plan, develop and deliver solutions. It will also provide the platform they need to have the basic knowledge every entrepreneur needs to provide solutions to problems facing the country. 

We at TEF also propose that the government should create initiatives that will expose citizens to vocational training that can help them be independent rather than the norm of bare labor jobs. This platform will also help them think of innovative ways to do carry out tasks thereby making them enterprising.  

We believe that prosperity in Senegal is prosperity for Africa at large which is why we at TEF are working tirelessly to fulfill our mission of improving lives and transforming Africa.  .

~ Author: Oluwadamilola Oladepo

The post To be educated is to be informed appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

” We need to prioritise our women. As a father of five girls and being surrounded by women in the workplace, I see first-hand, the energy, the potential, and the professionalism in women’s leadership and I encourage it.” 

Africa leads the world in terms of numbers of women business owners. In fact, women in Africa are more likely than men to be entrepreneurs. Women make up 58 % the continent’s self-employed population. However, a recent World Bank report, profiting from parity, shows that women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa continue to earn lower profits than men (34 % less on average).  

On average, women-owned microenterprises in Uganda generate 30 percent lower profits than their male counterparts (World Bank 2019). Lower levels of innovation, lower use of capital and labour, and sector-based sex segregation are all factors associated with women entrepreneurs’ poorer business outcomes relative to men in Uganda.

Women in Africa are more likely than men to choose entrepreneurship not because they have a burning passion or the right skills, but because of a lack of better opportunities. Wage job opportunities are relatively scarce in Africa and this is even more the case for women who often have lower levels of formal education and may face discrimination in hiring practices. Additionally, women tend to be given most of the responsibility for home-based work, including childcare, so small-scale home-based businesses may be one of the few ways they can generate an income to help cover the needs of their families. 

Hence, many women who become entrepreneurs out of economic necessity do not intend or have the skills to build large and successful companies. Their decision to start a business instead of seeking wage work is influenced by important constraints such as differences in skills, capital, networks, time and family formation, occupational opportunities, and safety 

According to Oppong (1994), women’s work has often been hidden in the tasks associated with domestic and marital roles, which has led to women’s relative invisibility in the official labour statistics of many countries in sub-Saharan African.  The reason for this admitted bias towards women’s work, in contrast to men’s work, is that economic activities of females have suffered from misconceptions, poor measurement and recording, and consequent neglect, since they have tended to be subsumed under, women’s roles as daughters, house-wives and mothers. 

Furthermore, findings from Uganda also pointed to sectoral segregation as an important determinant of the gender earnings gap in entrepreneurship. In Uganda for example, the average monthly profit in the female-dominated saloons sector is just USD 86, while those in the male-dominated electrical sectors enjoy average monthly profits of USD 371.

Recommendations  

To address the drivers of gender gaps, the Ugandan government could consider implementing policies and programs focused on enhancing women’s entrepreneurial skills. Providing these women entrepreneurs with the training they need to develop the right skills and a growth-oriented mindset to spur innovation; improving their use of and control over capita.

Also improving women entrepreneurs’ skills through adequate training in male-dominated sectors, and providing access to capital could support women entrepreneurs in crossing over into more profitable male-dominated sectors. 

~ Author: Eniye Aduwari

The post Empowering Female Entrepreneurs in Uganda appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Corruption remains a major barrier to doing business in Angola, despite some progress. It creates private and social deadweight losses and hence, entrepreneurs are willing to pay corruption rentals (bribes) in order to circumvent red tape that reduces productivity. Estrin et al. (2016) suggest that less corruption and stronger protection of property rights increases the growth of entrepreneurship. Angola has developed a comprehensive legal framework to combat corruption, but still confronts challenges with implementation.  

In 2021 Angola was ranked 136 out of 180 in the Transparency International’s latest corruption perception index.  

Public servants routinely ask for bribes, what they refer to as “gasosas” in the local language. This is usually to supplement their low wages, levying additional charges for bureaucratic services such as permits, licenses and registration of businesses. Business owners are expected to make informal payments to “get things done”. 36 %of companies identified corruption as a major constraint to doing business in the country (World Bank & IFC, 2006). 

While progress has been made in recent years to improve the overall regulatory environment, the business environment remains difficult. It is plagued by pervasive corruption, complex bureaucratic procedures and an underdeveloped financial system (US Department of State, 2010). 

President Lourenco has prioritized the anti-corruption fight, putting forward new laws on Anti-Money Laundering, Combatting the Financing of Terrorism, and the Proliferation of WMDs; the Law on Repatriation of Financial Resources; and development of a national anti-corruption strategy. There have been a number of high-profile court cases against senior officials which have resulted in some custodial sentences and a slew of dismissals. This fight against corruption is a vehicle to ensuring a conducive business environment for Angolan entrepreneurs.  

Recommendation   

We further recommend hat policy makers reduce taxes, reduce red tape and increase the efficiency of public institutions that deal with entrepreneurs. 

Also, companies should assess the business climate in the sector in which they will be operating or investing, have an effective compliance program or measures to prevent and detect corruption, and become familiar with the relevant anticorruption laws of both Angola and the United States. 

~ Author: Eniye Aduwari

The post Corruption Barriers to Entrepreneurs in Angola appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

On today’s episode of #TEFAdvocacy, we will be discussing challenges affecting entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Quintessentially policy-based logistics challenges. 

We started advocacy [through the Tony Elumelu Foundation] to get the public sector to understand the need for businesses to do well.

Tony O. Elumelu, CON

In a discussion with some Nigerian entrepreneurs, the foundation found that logistics poses a major challenge for entrepreneurs in commerce. We had a chat with two entrepreneurs; Hills-Tech Stores and The Salesman Phones & Gadgets. They deal in buying and selling of smart phones and gadgets in Ikeja computer village Lagos, and they represent majority of similar businesses. 

These businesses have the same challenge with logistics. They stated how the cost of deliveries through dispatch riders within the same city are incredibly high and continue to increase. It was discovered that the state government exploits these logistics companies dry with one payment or the other and so they have no option but to correspondingly increase their fares.  

Inter-state cargo logistics is now a grave opposition to these entrepreneurs. There is a need to ship fragile and time sensitive items within the shortest timeframe through the airports, but the exorbitant prices and frequent flight cancelation has crippled these efforts.  

Road users are not left out. “There is always the issue of police stop and search or the no movement in the south-eastern part of the country.” These things cripple business activities and raises the issues of extra cost and integrity issues between these entrepreneurs and their customers. Items spend longer on the roads and even get damaged in some cases. 

Recommendations 

With the mind that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the nation’s rise, the Nigerian government ought to do right by these young entrepreneurs in providing a smooth landing into starting a business and running same. The government is responsible for policy making, and should be such that champions entrepreneurship. We propose that certain fees and charges specially pertaining to logistics services should be properly regulated and standardised to favour all parties involved. 

The post Logistics Challenges are Crippling the Activities of Nigerian Entrepreneurs  appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

“We need a more active private sector. The private sector must engage with the government to let them know the need to address the job issue so as to get massive investment to create job opportunities for the youths.” 

Libya has recently experienced significant political, social and economic changes in its state and society. Due to decades of state dominance on most of economic activities under the former regime, the country’s private sector has been small and marked as informal (Ali and Omar, 2015). In the context of Libya’s oil-dominated economy and continued large role of the state as an employer (with the public sector employing some 75% of the country’s labor force), there is little understanding of the propensity for significant and sustained entrepreneurial activity.

The situation is changing rapidly as more Libyans can see new opportunities in the emerging private sector. Even though some efforts towards creating a more private sector – oriented economy have already occurred, there are still significant difficulties in actively supporting these aspirations in the emerging private sector. 

“Young people’s idea of the ‘dream job’ is changing because of the economic situation and the reality they are facing in Libya. They realize that the kind of job they would like to have is hard to get so they conclude that they would rather create that job themselves to do what they love and what is best for the society,” Amir Neihoum, Tatweer Entrepreneurship Campus (TEC) manager.

Our chairman was absolutely right when he said, “Young entrepreneurs and those they inspire are the lifeblood of Africa’s rise.” 

There is a general agreement in entrepreneurial research that entrepreneurship fosters economic growth, creates new jobs, opportunities and generates prosperity in an economy. In addition to launching new products and services, entrepreneurial activities support innovation and are capable of effecting social change. 

A further crucial point is that entrepreneurship with its above-mentioned abilities can be a key driver in the upcoming peace building – and stabilization process for the country. Hence, creating a more private sector – oriented economy would be of upmost importance since a well-functioning private sector contributes to an encouraging business environment, which in turn fosters entrepreneurship. 

Recommendations  

The National Expert Survey by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies environmental factors—in GEM’s terminology— Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) that were proved to influence the development of entrepreneurial activity and quality of entrepreneurship in a country. These include; entrepreneurial finance, government policy, government entrepreneurship programmes, entrepreneurship education and training, commercial and legal infrastructure, entry regulations, Physical infrastructure, Culture and social norms, Research and Development. The level of entrepreneurial activity in Libya depends, among others, on the quality of the respective EFCs in the country.  

Some authors (Omar, A., Ali, F., & Imhamed, S. 2020.) have provided recommendations in their scholarly paper on how to provide good and actionable insights into possible improvement opportunities for making the Libyan entrepreneurship environment more positive and attractive and able to enhance the start-ups.  

The followings represent policy implications suggested for Libya:

• Libyan government should adopt SMEs development policy that seeks to improve the performance of SMEs and enhance the Libyan entrepreneurship environment in general. This policy should include a strategy for strengthening the overall legal and institutional framework. It should also promote enterprises creation and their diversification, which can provide employment and income opportunities and contribute to economic growth.  

•  There is an urgent need to make a shift in the current Libyan education system – on what is being taught at all levels of education system and methods used in teaching at these levels. To this end, entrepreneurship education and training can have a role, where entrepreneurship should be taught, at this early stage, at the higher education level in all academic disciplines. In addition, entrepreneurship training should be available for all graduates, with a more focus on knowledge and skills needed to manage a new business. It should provide a better understanding of the entrepreneurial capacity of Libya. Hence, education and training related to entrepreneurship should perhaps pay more attention to EFCs in Libya and the relevant aspects that may get limited attention but could play an important role for entrepreneurs.  

•  It is becoming clear that all unfavorable factors of EFCs in the Libyan business environment can be directly linked to the major weaknesses and limitations from which the national innovation system in Libya suffers for a long time. The main aspects of these weaknesses and limitations are reflected in the absence of some important institutions and the weak linkages and interactions between the existing relevant institutions. These represent obstacles that can hinder the growth of entrepreneurial activities in Libya, especially high-growth businesses. Thus, specific improvements need to be urgently applied to develop relevant elements of the national innovation system, where the propriety should be given to reforming the education and funding systems and government regulations related to entrepreneurship. 

~ Author: Eniye Aduwari

The post Libya: Healthy Economic Environments to Stimulate Entrepreneurial Activities   appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

“I see a future driven by fundamentals. Entrepreneurship is the only way to help create access to further opportunities.” 

According to Kasi Insight, industries and enterprises in Kenya are hit with new laws and regulations every day. These laws are often carried out by the government and stakeholders to regulate the operations of enterprises. These laws can pose a huge threat to the growth of the economy because enterprises don’t have control over certain operations, therefore, their potential is limited. 

Recent changes and developments to business laws and the regulatory environment.

According to the 2017 Doing Business in Kenya report, the ease with which businesses can be registered has a bearing on the number of entrepreneurs who start businesses in the formal sector, where governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, creating more good jobs and generating more revenue for the government. In Kenya, starting a business involves seven procedures, takes 22 days and costs 21.1 percent income per capita for both men and women. 

Regulatory policies and environments should encourage entrepreneurs to set up their businesses and explore new opportunities, ideas and also take on calculated risks by keeping administrative, regulatory and licensing burdens minimal. 

Hence, government needs to create the optimal environmental conditions for individuals to start and grow businesses. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s National Entrepreneurship Context Index (GEM NECI) provides policymakers with insights on how to foster such an environment. The index measures the 12 entrepreneurial environment conditions (EFCs) that make up the context in which entrepreneurial activity takes place in a country. Our focus here is one of these environments: Government policies, regulations and bureaucracy. 

The heavy impact of these regulations will typically limit the potential of these enterprises and the growth of the economy will equally be affected. 

Recommendation 

With the world’s technological advancement, we propose the introduction of ICT-based procedures for business registration and reporting. Online registrations, where feasible, are one of the most effective ways to speed up company registration and streamline procedures to ensure entrepreneurs do not have to go to multiple government agencies. It serves as a way of eliminating bureaucratic processes and red-tape attached to business registration and obtaining of licenses. Once these steps for business registration can be conducted online, entrepreneurs can easily access documents and obtain certificates, with the right regulations in place as well. 

The long and tedious procedures for start-ups should be eliminated to encourage entrepreneurs bring their ideas to fruition. Among the benefits are more registered businesses, financial resources and job opportunities. 

~ Author: Eniye Aduwari

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