The roundtable session served to mobilize partners and drive towards commitments to supporting young entrepreneurs across Africa scaling the work of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. This event convened private sector leaders, policymakers, development agency heads, business experts, and young entrepreneurs, to foster dialogue, share best practices, and develop actionable strategies to unlock the full potential of entrepreneurs and MSMEs, especially women and young people on the continent.

From Left to right: Somachi Chris-Asoluka, CEO Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mark Elliott, Mastercard President for Africa, Dr. Rebecca Lissner, Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States of America, Dr. Beth Dunford, VP Agriculture, Human and Social Development, African Development Bank, Cristian Munduate- UNICEF Representative Nigeria, Kenise Hill, Deputy Political & Economic Chief US Consul, Weert Börner, German Consul General, Cecily Brewer, Special Adviser to the US Vice President for Africa, Zaya Kuyena, Senior Trade Commissioner Canadian Government, Bernd Tilemann, Regional Head West Africa, DEG.

The article below is a summary from the presentation at the 2024 Tony Elumelu Foundation – Mastercard Roundtable Event. Download full presentation here

Potential of Africa​

Africa is the continent with the youngest population worldwide. ​

As of 2022, around 40 percent of the population was aged 15 years and younger, compared to a global average of 25 percent. ​

Coalition Strategic Focus​

This coalition will focus on economically and digitally empowering Entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Who constitute nearly 90% of businesses and generate 80% of jobs and 50% of GDP in Africa. ​

We believe that Catalyzing entrepreneurship offers a robust and scalable tool to drive growth and sustainable development in Africa.​

Coalition Mission​

The coalition brings together global and local private, development, and public sectors. This is to empower African entrepreneurs and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). This will ensure that millions of individuals and businesses in Africa benefits. They will benefit from expanded access to economic opportunity and digital services. And to achieve a common goal of a self-reliant and empowered Africa. ​

Coalition Objectives​

The overarching objective of the coalition is working closely with African partners. This is to empower African Entrepreneurs and MSMEs. This is through funding, training, mentorship, and access to digital tools and services. This will include commerce, financing, and marketplaces. To promote economic opportunity, job creation, gender equity. And access to critical services, and financial inclusion. ​

Coalition Overall Target

By 2034, the Coalition aims to economically and digitally empower 100 million entrepreneurs and MSMEs across Africa, focusing particularly on women entrepreneurs and MSMEs. ​

By empowering entrepreneurs and MSMEs, the coalition will help to create millions of jobs, eradicate poverty, drive access to critical services, and economically support women and youth to achieve gender equity​.

Call To Action

​Digital and economic empowerment of 100 million entrepreneurs and MSMEs will require complementary efforts across the public, private, and development sectors. Your commitments are vital to accelerate entrepreneurship and enable MSMEs across Africa to scale. 

About The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

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• Tony Elumelu Foundation Hosts US Administration, WTO, UNDP, IFC, UNICEF, Rockefeller Foundation Leaders

• Champions equitable partnerships to catalyse a new generation of green entrepreneurs.

• Announces partnership to fund young African entrepreneurs in Green sector with Ikea Foundation, Dutch Government, and UNICEF Generation Unlimited.

• Secures commitments to support Africa’s youth to drive climate resilience from World Trade Organisation, World Bank, UNDP, Government of Sweden, IFC, US State Department, and others.

At a series of events across COP28, Tony Elumelu delivered a single message to world leaders:  Africa needs to be heard, Africa’s future is the world’s future and the continent that is most impacted by and the least contributor to climate change, needs our attention.  With African youth set to make up one third of global population later this century, the future of Africa’s youth, entrepreneurial, ambitious, resilient, needs to be given the highest priority.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation African Entrepreneurship Programme

Elumelu offered the infrastructure and experience of his own Foundation’s 10 year $100m entrepreneurship programme to partners, to catalyse a further generation of African entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs who can address climate change and drive the broader wealth creation that Africa requires.  Reaching and funding young entrepreneurs in every African country, the Elumelu approach of sector agnostic seed funding, mentoring, and networking has delivered robust impact.

The annual COP UN Climate Change Conferences unites the world to assess progress in combatting climate change.  Elumelu is one of Africa’s leading advocates for an equitable agenda for climate action and through the Tony Elumelu Foundation has empowered thousands of green entrepreneurs, shaping a more sustainable future for Africa.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation, in partnership with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), hosted a high-level session, bringing together Africans, and key players in the Gulf, Europe, and Americas, where UBA operates, underscoring the urgent need for innovative approaches to climate adaptation and mitigation, while fostering sustainable development, and bringing attention to Africa’s unique position.

Speakers included Dr. Okonjo Iweala, Director General, World Trade Organization; Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa, UNDP, Kevin Frey, CEO, UNICEF Generation Unlimited; Sergio Pimenta, VP Africa, IFC; Wendy Teleki, Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Financial Initiative, World Bank; Adam Wang-Levine, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate; Joseph Nganga, Vice President, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Rockefeller Foundation; Hassan Al Hashemi, VP International Relations, Dubai Chambers; Serge Ekué, Chairman, West African Development Bank (BOAD); Muyiwa Akinyemi, Deputy Group Managing Director, United Bank for Africa; and Mattias Frumerie, Swedish Climate Ambassador and Head of Delegation, UNFCCC.

“Addressing climate change is the paramount challenge of our era.  The urgency is unmistakable.”  Elumelu stated.  “It is critical that Africa, as a continent, and African voices, play a key role in global climate conversations, as meaningful participants, and no longer as bystanders.  Africa is least responsible and is disproportionately impacted by climate change.  I am investing in a generation of green entrepreneurs, and we are extending the hand of partnership, so that others can benefit and use the infrastructure and platform we have created to reach entrepreneurs across Africa.”

Elumelu represented the African private sector at the 2023 New Global Financing Pact in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, and the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum in London, at the invitation of King Charles III of the United Kingdom and U.S. President Biden.  At the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) in New York, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) launched a first-of-its-kind Green Entrepreneurship Programme, the #BeGreenAfrica Initiative, in partnership with the IKEA Foundation, Dutch Government and UNICEF GenU, to support green entrepreneurship and youth development.

Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur from Madagascar in the green economy, Marie-Christiana Kola, shared a compelling impact story.  “As a beneficiary of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship programme, I was able to create a recycled and 100% biodegradable hand soap made with waste cooked oil – the number one water polluter of water in African urban cities.  These soaps do not only protect the environment, but they are also solidarity soaps.  I was also able to attend the COP27 conference in Egypt, where I won the Innovation Prize.  Today, I have employed over 30 people because of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.”

Speaking at the TEF #COP28 high-level event, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, DG, World Trade Organisation stated, “I am proud of what my brother, Tony Elumelu, has done in empowering and inspiring so many young entrepreneurs.  We have no choice; the future is green.  The future of growth is two things – it is green, and it must be inclusive. I am very interested in partnerships with organisations like TEF.”

Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa, UNDP added, “The reason why UNDP associated itself with the Tony Elumelu Foundation years ago is because of the leadership and courage of the Foundation to trust and invest in young Africans.  It was one of the first organisation to do so at that scale.”

TEF Partnering to impact young african entrepreneurs

The Foundation partnered with the UNDP to empower thousands in the Sahel, with an ambitious project to impact the lives one million young Africans.

Sergio Pimenta, VP, Africa at the IFC, also stated, “Tony, I salute you and your Foundation for what you have been doing to support young entrepreneurs in Africa. The IFC has deployed $2billion in funding for African SMEs in the last fiscal year and we are very excited to be able to do more, working with you.”

Kevin Frey, CEO UNICEF Generation Unlimited added, “With TEF, we have moved in a concerted way into the entrepreneurial space. Generation Unlimited now have a flagship programme with the Tony Elumelu Foundation called #BeGreenAfrica, launched in Kenya, and now with the support of the IKEA Foundation and the Dutch Government, we have scaled to Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, and Senegal. We will train and seed 500 green entrepreneurs this year in the pilot project across those countries.  So Tony, thank you so much, you are right it is all about partnerships.”

Wendy Teleki, Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Financial Initiative at the World Bank, announced, “Our women-focused initiative has been able to secure $3.6 billion to finance women entrepreneurs in 67 countries across the world, and is set to launch a new programme focused on financing African women entrepreneurs to drive the continent’s green energy transition, and we are keen to work with the Tony Elumelu Foundation.”

Mattias Frumerie, Swedish Climate Ambassador and Head of UNFCCC Delegation stated, “My Government and I commend the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s incredible impact across Africa, and will facilitate connections between the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and the Swedish embassies across Africa to drive innovation, digitalisation, and green-energy transition, which promises to bring about new jobs and growth.”

Adam Wang-Levine, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate, added” Before coming to the United States Treasury, I was working in venture capital, and I know first-hand that it is incredibly important what the Tony Elumelu Foundation is doing. I have seen two pillars of their work – financing and the mentorship – just as I have seen with Silicon Valley, which helps to drive innovation and jobs creation. We are excited to begin partnership conversations.”

Muyiwa Akinyemi, Deputy GMD, United Bank for Africa, announced, “For us, UBA, we give market access into 20 geographies in Africa.  Everything that we do is around Africa, and that is why we have partnered with the Afrexim Bank to launch the $6billion fund for SMEs with a focus on import substitution, working in four key areas including climate emission reduction.”

Earlier in the day, Tony Elumelu joined Ajay Banga, President of World Bank Group; Brian Moynihan, Chair of the Board and CEO of Bank of America; Ms. Ruth Porat, President, Alphabet and Google; and Ms. Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder & President of Emerson Collective as a panelist in a session titled “Big, Audacious and Green: A Convergence of Visionaries”, moderated by Børge Brende, President of World Economic Forum.

On Sunday December 3 Mr. Tony Elumelu, also participated in a fireside conversation with Ms. Teresa Ribera, Vice President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Change, moderated by Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and with closing remarks from Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization.

About the Tony Elumelu Foundation:

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation in all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has connected over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

Contact Information:

Moyo Awotile

Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Tony Elumelu Foundation

Email: moyo.awotile@tonyelumelufoundation.org

Phone: +234 809 975 1482

The post Tony Elumelu Convenes Global Leaders And Calls for Immediate Climate Action for Africa at COP28 in Dubai appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The roundtable will bring together a powerful group, distinguished by their commitment to creating substantive momentum in addressing climate change, and united with the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s mission to empower a new generation of young African entrepreneurs.

The TEF-UBA roundtable will address delegates and also the largest community of young entrepreneurs across Africa, our programme alumni and network. Africa is the continent that contributes least to climate change and is impacted most. Catalysing a new generation of young Africans, not only represents equity, but it is also a critical path in tackling climate change.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the United Bank for Africa (UBA) are pleased to share this unique opportunity to present our vision of the role that young Africans can play in combatting climate change to an audience of global leaders, policymakers, and young African entrepreneurs.

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