Seeing the struggles of children who couldn’t access quality education due to overcrowded public schools and unaffordable private options, Ogechi Benyeogor took action. With a Master’s degree in education and four years of teaching experience, Ogechi decided to make a difference. She established a low-cost nursery and primary school in her rural community in Asaba, Delta State.

Initially hesitant to start her own venture, Ogechi’s breakthrough came when she joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). Through their twelve-week training and mentorship program, she gained a clearer understanding of business and felt empowered to launch Fidema’s Children Academy.

Today, Fidema’s Children Academy serves over 200 pupils and employs 15 staff members, generating $7,000 annually. This achievement supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of providing accessible and affordable education for all.

Beyond education, Fidema’s Children Academy has also created job opportunities for local residents, offering them a chance to contribute to the community and use their skills to educate the next generation.

Reflecting on her journey, Ogechi shares;

“The foundation helped me discover my potential. After joining the 2016 TEF class, my path to entrepreneurship began. The seed capital allowed me to rent space and buy equipment. Since then, with support from family and business savings, I’ve acquired land and built a suitable school. Despite fierce competition, the mentorship and business education from TEF have been crucial to our success.”

Sector: Education/Training

Full Name: Ogechi Benyeogor

Business Name: Fidema’s Children Academy

Country: Nigeria

Year of funding: 2016

Impact area: Available and affordable education services.

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After spending a lot of time on the streets searching for a job, Ogola Kange decided to become an entrepreneur, she began to make and deliver healthy food to customers within her location. See some months of business success, she went to register his business Smiley’z Mobile Kitchen in 2014.  

Seed Grant in 2015 from the TEF Program

Ogola’s company attempts to reduce post-harvest losses in various agricultural produce, especially tomatoes. She helps farmers with processing tomatoes organically, giving it a longer shelf life, while achieving some of the sustainable development goals. 

“The TEF program and the seed grant in 2015 was the real basis of my Entrepreneurship resilience and success today. That first application, the 12 weeks learning, and the boot camp are the things that I have built upon over the years, modifying and improving the business plan till what it is today.”  

Smiley’z impact focus has two-dimension, poverty reduction and environmental conservation.  The average woman living in rural Nigeria earns $0.3 a day, with limited skills or opportunities to increase their livelihood. Smiley’z addresses this in two ways: First by working with 35 smallholder farmers to purchase their excess tomatoes. Providing market access to these women, Smiley’z increases their sales by 25% on average per annum. Secondly, she trains women on how to develop cottage industry agricultural products.  

She has provided entrepreneurship training to over 200 women. Fifty of them are now successfully starting their own businesses to support themselves and their employees. Smiley’z Tomato products are part of Solar Impulse Foundations’ 1,000 Solutions and efficient ways of production. The small farmers it works with are trained in ecological farming best practices, including how to reduce CO2 emissions, energy and water usage, and reduce tomato production waste. While in its own production process it uses glass jars to enable recycling of its products, renewable energy and post-harvest waste reduction. 

Since TEF, Smiley’z has gotten many more certifications, trainings, awards, grants and VC investment. A Mandela Washington Fellow, USAID and USADF beneficiary, GOZ NICOP SENDIN beneficiary to name a few. 

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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Olanrewaju Samuel Faleye took the initiative to contribute to solving the problem of the spice and confectionaries segment of agricultural products. 

“I made the decision to become an entrepreneur to develop a solution that will reduce post-harvest loss, increase income of small holder farmers, increase access to quality foods at affordable prices and create employment.”   

He started his production of sachet powdered pepper, earning an average of $100 monthly with only himself as the employee. From the support he got through the TEF program with seed capital, he currently has 30 direct staff and over 80 distributors for his product across several zones in Nigeria. He sells an average of 240,000 sachets of his product monthly with an average earning of $6000. He has improved the livelihood of more than 20 small-scale pepper farmers, providing empowerment interventions for women in his society.  

“The Seed Capital, training and Mentoring has made all the difference in my life. I have also leveraged on TEF Platform for networking and to grow my business.” 

Olarenwaju has participated in the 7th International Trade Fair for Agriculture in 2022, Participated in the Nourishing for Africa Entrepreneurship Program in 2021, Participated in Global Entrepreneurship Training supported by UNESCO in 2019, and also Participated in the International Breweries PLC kickstart Foundation Program in 2018. 

In Summary

Through innovation, determination, and strategic support from various entrepreneurship initiatives, Olanrewaju Samuel Faleye has not only built a successful business but has also made significant strides in combating post-harvest losses and empowering local farmers. His story underscores the transformative impact of targeted interventions in addressing key challenges within Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

By focusing on solutions like sachet powdered pepper and leveraging entrepreneurial programs, Olanrewaju exemplifies how individuals can drive positive change in their communities while building sustainable businesses.

This African success story highlights the importance of addressing post-harvest loss issues and showcases a tangible example of entrepreneurial success in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

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Onome Matilda Odogene, a computer engineer with ten years of experience in the oil and gas sector, was interested in entrepreneurship. Her goal was to get youths in the Niger Delta region employed in sectors of the economy apart from oil and make African chefs top in the global culinary ranking.

“I want to change the narrative that we can get the youths gainfully employed in other sectors of the economy beside oil. I want African chefs to be top in the global culinary rank by equipping the chefs with professional skills, knowledge, and competence needed to be a successful chef or food business owners/start- up.”

Styda is set to be a global culinary business, that is set to revolutionize the food/foodservices industry in Nigeria. Styda Culinary is an academy that provides affordable, convenient and quality culinary training to chefs, would-be chefs, food business owners/startups, food enthusiast etc to interested clients within Warri and environs.

“The seed capital, business management training and priceless networks that I have gotten through the TEF platform has made all the difference in my business and changed my life entirely.”

Today, she has trained over 300 chefs and revamped over 30 foodservice businesses. She generated $15,350 minimum direct annual revenue, employed about six staff directly, and created jobs for hundreds of people. She has impacted people within the Niger Delta region by creating countless employment opportunities.

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Hyacinth decided to be an entrepreneur because he thinks entrepreneurship provides the feeling of having the license to discover and solve problems. This mindset has greatly motivated him to look at problems from the standpoint of creating a solution that solves it. As the founder and team lead of Quick Waka he has encountered problems that his business provides solutions for, and this has validated the importance of his choice of being an entrepreneur.”

The growing population in Nigeria has also presented some opportunities for product marketing even in areas with peculiar commuting challenges. Logistics has been one of the limitations of effective online marketing in highly populated locations in Nigeria. So, Order fulfillments are mostly outsourced to a third-party fulfillment company whenever possible for increased efficiency.

“We registered over 350 vendors with us and 4000 users that daily uses our platform to buy and sell. So, a lot of persons were able to sell their products from their homes while we picked up the products and delivered it to doorstep of the customer that placed the order. The ministry of business development in Ebonyi state gave us special recognition for our service during the pandemic.”

Quick Waka is solving the problem of inconvenience for online shoppers by delivering orders, shopping from local vendors, and connecting them to Local vendors within their location. Quick Waka platform is designed in such a way that vendors do not need to own smartphones or have access to the internet to sell their products. The team uploads their products online and when a customer orders it, their logistic team assigns a dispatch officer to pick up the product from the vendor and deliver it to the customer’s doorstep.

In 3 years after being funded by the Tony Elumelu foundation, Quick Waka has 450 registered vendors with over 6000 users. They currently have 13 dispatch outlets, and they have raised about $50,000 in revenue since its inception. They are currently at the stage of launching and expanding Their services to 5 other states before December 2022. The cities have been mapped out and plans have already kicked off.

Hyacinth has gained extensive knowledge on business management through the training she got on the programme

“TEF gave me the best entry opportunity into the entrepreneurship space- My biggest catch was not only the $5000, the 12 weeks training was the changer for me. It gave me a strong foundation in business. I call it a mini–MBA Today I can write a standard business plan, business report, financial projections and more. As a matter of fact, I have mentored several entrepreneurs online and on-site to
become TEF entrepreneurs.”One of the things that stood out for Hyacinthe was having access to a seasoned mentor. The mentor that was assigned to him during the training did not stop at the conclusion of the 12 weeks, he has also guided him through several business decisions. Today he is not just a TEF alumni, he is an idea development coach and business strategist cum entrepreneur.

“The best thing that happened to me in 2018 was to have been selected as a TEF entrepreneur.”

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Worried that her gender would affect Hasanat Ventures’ reputation, Binti considered hiring a man as the face of the business. But she eventually decided against it, standing firm in her pride as a solo founder and committed to tearing down the perception that women-run businesses in Africa aren’t as successful as those run by men.

“I think we should be challenging the outdated narrative that businesses run by men are guaranteed to be more successful,” Binti says. “Based on research, we’ve seen that businesses run by women actually perform better. We should use this as an opportunity to prove that as a woman, you do stand a chance to succeed in everything that you do.”

Just as important to Binti as breaking this bias was giving Kenyans more access to affordable nutrition. “I realized that many people couldn’t afford premium yogurt. So we entered the market with a high-quality product that’s affordable for lower and middle-income earners who have become more health-conscious,” she says.

Binti knew she had to drive awareness for her brand, particularly to reach Kenyans who needed convincing about yogurt’s health benefits. So she turned to Google Digital Skills for Africa, which offers virtual classes to help entrepreneurs grow their skills and businesses, and completed a digital marketing course to help her get Hasanat Ventures online.

“After participating in the course, we knew our online presence had to be bigger than just social media,” Binti says. “Now that we have a fully functional website, we are actually getting leads from outside Kenya.”

As part of the course, Binti learned how to use Google Analytics to measure her website’s performance. She could now monitor traffic insights, analyze pageviews and better understand who was visiting her site.

Binti’s determination and passion for her business are showing up in the results. In its first year, Hasanat Ventures supplied over 300 retailers with affordable dairy products. Three years later, it’s grown to support more than 50 farmers and even built its own production facility to keep up with demand.

“I really want to make sure that I am visible and speaking up in spaces women don’t usually have access to,” Binti says. “As Hasanat Ventures continues to grow, I am confident I can help change the perception of African women in business.”

58% of Africa’s entrepreneurs are women. That’s why we’re empowering them with the platform and tools to grow their businesses. Learn more about our #LookMeUp campaign, highlighting Africa’s women entrepreneurs like Binti who are working to break the bias

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Growing up in Giyani, Limpopo province in South Africa where water as a basic need is not easily accessible and even when the water is accessible it would not be clean. The problem of lack of access to clean water affects many households and can potentially cause illnesses. Additionally, businesses that depend on clean water to operate are affected. It affects their human resources (employees), which affects production, and which will ultimately have a direct effect on profitability. 

Jeslu Puro water decided to come up with a solution to use green methods to purify the water. As a start-up venture, they aim to be the solution by using a Green Water purification system that uses Macadamia nut filter to purify the water and will supply and distribute water to affected parties.

“I saw a need to establish a water purification company due to lack of access of clean water in my local community and the need to create jobs for young people while making profit contributing in the circular economy”

Since launching and being selected into the TEF Entrepreneurship programme, they have employed 2 permanent staff and 2 temporary staff. They are supplying funeral parlours around the town and have also managed to make an average of $800-1500 monthly.

“The mentors that were assigned by TEF were professional and very helpful. The Financial planning tools was very impactful for me as it helped me to have better understanding of figures, projections and at the end of day achieving profitability. This aspect made me understand that financials are quite pivotal to the success of any business. The seed funding came in handy as operations kickstarted after funding.”

In the coming months, they plan to expand the business to other provinces within South Africa. They have managed to secure space with innovation hub South Africa for product development and further research and innovation.

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In 2016, Abideen came across a call for applications to the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme. “I was just this guy who was always surfing the internet for opportunities, especially in the development space and entrepreneurship space, because I’ve always had a passion for business [for as long as I can remember]” Abideen says.

When Abideen came across the call for applications, he remembered that it looked like an unrealistic opportunity. It seemed, to Abideen, highly unlikely that any individual or organization would willingly part with as much as $5,000 alongside the other life-transforming opportunities just to empower African entrepreneurs without asking for endless documentation and expecting nothing in return. “My thought was that this would be a loan, and people are going to be paying back,” Abideen remembers thinking. But he applied anyway. 

“I thought it was a dream.”

Although he didn’t get in on his first application, he would try again two more times before finally getting selected for the programme. It was in 2018 and it was made possible due to one of the Foundation’s numerous partnerships – this time, with GIZ – the Foundation entered at the time. And of the moment when he learned he had been selected, Abideen says, “I thought it was a dream.”

Before getting selected to the programme, Abideen had started a small business, where he provides LPG, Liquefied Petroleum Gas to college students in and around Kwara State, his hometown. “What I do is I buy gas and liquefied petroleum gas in bulk. So, I resell to majorly student communities who want to refill their cooking gas,” Abideen says.

The training, funding and rich network of like-minded business networks was a huge catalyst for the growth of Abideen’s business. 

“The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme was like a mini-MBA to me, because every aspect of running a business; from business communication, business ethics, HR management, business financing, documentation etc, all the things a young SME needs is what the training encapsulated. We were given a case study and that case study analysis helped me picture my business and where I needed it to go,” Abideen recalls. 

After going through the training and receiving funding, Abideen saw his business transform. He changed his business model, switching from a stationary gas station where people came to refill their gasses, to a mobile service named “Gas on the wheel” where students could get their gas filled right in their hostels by just making a call. The goal, for Abideen, is to introduce convenience to buying domestic gas and remaining economically friendly for the students who make up a large customer base for the business.  “What we used to do before was, when we get called for delivery, we’ll come to your house or your house, we pick up the cylinder and go back to the gas station to fill it and then return the filled cylinder. Now, when customers call us, we have the gas ready in our bus to fill, saving them money on delivery fees.”

At the heart of it, it is about giving his customers value for money while also maintaining trust and integrity. The funding, alongside income from his business, helped Abideen move from two gas cylinders to buying 58 more cylinders. The business has expanded to five different locations, making it possible to serve more people, with sales reaching as high as 20million Naira annually on average.

Cooking gas is one of Nigeria’s most preferred cooking methods. With over 4 million cooking gas cylinders being used in homes across Nigeria, cooking gas remains a stress-free means of cooking that also reduces the risk of cooking accidents, while remaining economically compatible with most Nigerian mid to high-income households. Although it is preferred by many, cooking gas is not the most easily accessible cooking product in the country as it can either be expensive, retail prices continue to rise every few months, and for people who live in remote areas, like most of Abideen’s customers do, refilling one’s cooking gas also causes immense financial strains.

Therefore, businesses like Abideen’s take a thoughtful and intentional approach to bridge this gap and make cooking gas a lot more accessible. Abideen’s business utilizes data, drawn from customers, to better understand how to optimise their services. The data has helped his business figure out better ways to serve their customers and how to make their services more convenient. The data also enables the tech-addled direction Abideen is working to move his business into; with plans to create devices that will better inform users of cooking gas to monitor the usage of their gas either via mobile apps or through updates via SMS. This solution, which will immediately notice gas leaks, is a forward-thinking approach that will revolutionize the domestic use of gas in Nigeria and even across the continent, while also ensuring that the rate of gas explosions will considerably backpedal.

Although they are still a small business, “Gas On Wheels” is committed to passing on the Tony Elumelu Foundation ethos of impacting the community, by causing a positive effect on their immediate community. From encouraging and sponsoring young girls who are out of school and resort to hawking to survive, to resume their academic journey, to hosting Ambassadorial programmes that will enable their customers, who are mostly students with limited financial capacity, to earn money by amplifying the brand. The effect of the training and overall experience of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme continues to be evident in many areas of Abideen’s life.

After getting overpaid for a consultancy job last year, Abideen made the decision to return the rest of the money, a move that got him public ridicule, but which he said came because of the ethics he picked up while in the Entrepreneurship Programme. Despite the public ridicule, Abideen was granted an award for his exemplary behaviour, and at the base of it, that moment affirmed his integrity as an honest businessperson.

Through the help of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Abideen is not only able to meaningfully contribute to the nation’s reputation, but he is also many steps away from bringing innovative means to everyday services and products. It is a clear sign of the Foundation’s commitment to investing in disruptive ideas with the potential to change the continent for good.

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Agreco is a company that produces organic fertilizers and pesticides and sells them to agricultural cooperatives and green spaces. Unlike chemical fertilizers, those produced by this company are obtained from natural microorganisms.

The bright 21-year-old began his entrepreneurship journey at the early age of 18 while he was still in high school. He founded Africabio House, an NGO focused on raising awareness in his home community about sustainable agricultural practices which greatly impacted his diversion to social entrepreneurship.

During this journey, Constant became more aware with the challenges that farmers in Benin face with regards to low soil productivity and pest management which automatically led to the decline in agricultural yields and the gradual destruction of soils in rural areas.

Constant’s agricultural solution allows farmers to significantly increase their agricultural yield and ensure the protection and sustainable management of land while preserving the health and biodiversity of living things through the adoption of the use of organic fertilizers and bios pesticides. He has successfully run this business without neglecting his studies.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, The agriculture sector in Benin Republic is struggling to meet the food security needs of its growing population particularly in the face of highly variable weather and changes in climate with factors such as declining soil fertility, poor, financial services, land tenure complications, limited infrastructure and underdeveloped markets hampering agricultural growth.

This agricultural solution by Agreco serves as a beacon of hope. Over 100 farmers have directly been benefitted from Agreco’s products. To further advance his mission to improve the agricultural ecosystem in Benin, Constance is currently in the process of industrializing its production to maximize its impact on the development of sustainable agricultural practices.

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This commendable feat will not only see to the creation of direct and indirect job opportunity through these new enterprises but will equally increase public awareness about recycling and environmental sustainability in the communities where these franchises are established. Each franchisee is provided with logistical, financial education, environmental education, business planning and management support by the Wecyclers team.

Taking into consideration, Bilikiss’s entrepreneurship journey, one thing continues to stand out – she is driven by a desire to positively impact individuals in low-income communities. This undeniable desire earned her the audience of the TEF’s founder, Mr. Tony Elumelu to pitch her idea directly. The Wecyclers team were part of the 20 businesses from the Co-Creation Incubation Hub who received funding from the foundation in 2012.

When Wecyclers was launched, Bilkiss and her team started operations in Lagos using low cost cargo bicycles called Wecyclers to provide convenient recycling services to households across Nigeria when only 40% of the city’s waste was collected and only a mere 13% was recycled. This company has since grown to incorporate motorized tricycles, vans, and trucks to expand their reach across the Lagos metropolis and enable them provide materials to manufacturers who turn the recyclable material into new items such as tissue paper, stuffing for bedding materials, sturdy plastic furniture, aluminium sheets, and nylon bags.

Bilikiss and her team have built a system that promotes socioeconomic development, and community health by providing convenient recycling services in densely populated urban neighborhoods, gives households a chance to generate value from their waste and provides a reliable supply of raw material to the local recycling industry.

The success of Wecyclers is largely reliant on the unique model in which the business is built – a rewards-for-recycling model that incentivizes people in low-income communities to capture value from recyclable waste.

Bilikiss has done a commendable job in not only converting recyclable waste to wealth but also empowering other young people to tow the same path.

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