In his inspiring speech, Benjamin underscored the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s pivotal role in revolutionising green entrepreneurship across Africa. He elaborated on how our initiatives are instrumental in addressing some of the continent’s most pressing challenges, including poverty alleviation, job creation, inclusive empowerment, and sustainable development.

Key Highlights from Benjamin’s Address

1. Alleviating Poverty: Benjamin highlighted the Foundation’s commitment to empowering African entrepreneurs through various funding and support programmes. These initiatives are designed to provide the resources and opportunities needed to lift communities out of poverty.

2. Catalysing Job Creation: By supporting innovative green businesses, the Foundation is fostering an environment where new jobs are created, contributing to the economic growth of African nations. This focus on green entrepreneurship ensures that job creation is not only abundant but also sustainable.

3. Ensuring Inclusive Empowerment: The Foundation places a strong emphasis on inclusivity, ensuring that all segments of society, including women and youth, have equal access to entrepreneurial opportunities. This inclusive approach helps to bridge economic and social gaps within communities.

4. Driving Sustainable Development: Our initiatives are aligned with global sustainable development goals, promoting environmentally friendly practices and sustainable business models. By championing green entrepreneurship, we are contributing to a healthier planet and a more resilient economy.

Join the Conversation!

We invite you to stay connected with us and follow our journey in Mozambique. Exciting updates, insights, and behind-the-scenes moments from the conference will be shared on our social media pages. Stay tuned and be part of the conversation as we continue to drive positive change across Africa.

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Together, we can create a brighter, greener future for Africa.

The post Tony Elumelu Foundation: Championing Green Entrepreneurship in Africa at the 19th Annual CASP Conference appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

While being the least contributor to greenhouse gas emissions with less than 5%, there is still an urgency for our continent to respond to the impending effects of climate change. This presents multiple opportunities to assist African households and communities while targeting growth and reducing poverty.

As entrepreneurship continues to be a means of economic development and job creation for African youth, a focus towards green entrepreneurship has become more necessary. Green entrepreneurship is crucial to the economy as we think about making our world and continent a greener and safer place.

According to the ILO, Green entrepreneurship can be defined from two perspectives related to the output (products and services) as well as the process (or production) of an economic activity.Entrepreneurs can enter an overtly ‘green’ business sector, providing green and environmentally friendly products and services (e.g., waste management).

Alternately, green entrepreneurs can provide their products or services through an environmentally friendly process or with the help of clean technologies (e.g., eco-tourism).

Green Entrepreneurship at TEF

Till date, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has had a total of 525 entrepreneurs with businesses addressing environmental issues, with the popular sectors being energy/power generation and waste management. Entrepreneurs from Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda had the highest representation in this group.

Entrepreneur stories: 

Leroy Mwasaru is a 23-year-old renewable energy social entrepreneur and sustainable design thinking prodigy. He founded Greenpact, a social enterprise obtaining biogas from both agricultural and human waste and works with communities to redefine renewable energy as a sustainable and necessary part of everyday energy needs. Since completing the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, Leroy has gone on to other exciting projects and was the young person listed on Forbes Africa 2018 30 under 30.

Steve Matenda from the Democratic Republic of Congo founded EcoTech RDC, a Congolese start-up specialised in the development of innovative technologies focused on ecology. With a business based on the principles of circular economy, EcoTech has developed a new product made from recycled plastic waste. Through a long-term partnership with UNICEF, his products are being shared across the country and region.

Chioma Ukonu from Nigeria founded Recycle Points, Nigeria’s foremost waste recycling and social benefit venture that motivates consumers to recycle while creating value from their everyday waste. Recycle Points developed a point-based incentive model where waste collected from registered post-consumers and in turn reward them with POINTS, with the seed funding from TEF, Chioma was able to drive innovation by procuring two electric cargo tricycles (first of its kind in Africa) for door-to-door recyclable material collections.  With a revenue of over $400,000, Recycle Points has been instrumental in empowering women in low-income communities. By doing this, they have been able to add more greenpreneurs to their business model while creating 250 direct and indirect jobs.

Looking ahead:

As the world continues to focus on climate change and its impacts, policies and business regulations that support green entrepreneurship need to be created. By encouraging and investing in green businesses the Tony Elumelu Foundation is continuing its commitment to support African entrepreneurs focused on creating long term solutions to some of Africa’s most pressing challenges.

Working with entrepreneurs on key climate issues such as energy production and distribution, waste management, the circular economy and advanced agricultural practices is of utmost importance. Entrepreneurs play a major role in sustaining the green economy and have the power to push the needle in how the world thinks about sustainable businesses. Investments as well as policies favourable for green business sectors are therefore crucial to helping green SMEs expand their operations.

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