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

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

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

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

Prospective mentors are encouraged to Apply Now.

The post TEF Opens Call for Mentors appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, over 1000 mentors from 33 countries in Africa and 23 countries worldwide, representing over 20 sectors have participated in the programme. They have provided guidance to 3000 entrepreneurs from 54 African countries, helping them to build businesses from the ground up. Today these entrepreneurs are deploying their skills, creativity, and innovations for the economic development of Africa. Tinashe Gombiro is a mentor on the programme, who is passionate about guiding Africa’s future business titans.

Tinashe Gombiro is the managing consultant of TFG consulting group operating in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Starting his entrance into business consultancy in 2012, he discovered he had a gift and passion for performance and training and this he harnessed by becoming a mentee to established business practicioners “I began to seek mentoring from established consultants and coaches who had experience in leadership development, analytics, change management and organizational culture transformation”

With little capital to do business and no capacity to get loans from financial institutions, Tinashe started by offering business development, company registration, tax advisor and corporate branding services in 2013 and this helped him to build a reputation and slowly gain an audience for training activities. He has now further introduced program curriculums, impact assessments and consulting specialization alongside goal setting and career development trainings. Over the past five years he has witnessed steady growth and satisfactory business expansion and this he says he owes to perseverance “My biggest success driver has been perseverance. Consulting services in a developing economy are not valued and appreciated as in developed countries. This means consultants need to work very hard to prove their value and worth to corporate clients and government departments that would need their services. Perseverance helped me to stand out and distinguish myself in a dormant market.”

With financial and operational challenges along the way occasioned by unpredictable cashflows, he has had to develop robust financial planning and modelling to keep his business running and he remains inspired by testimonials of change, improvement and transformation in organizations and individual lives and by the evident impact on the lives of his clients.

Passionate about sharing his experience with upcoming African entrepreneurs and help them become successful without struggling in the areas that he did, Tinashe took to mentoring on the TEF programme. “This program keeps me responsive to my goal of sharing my entrepreneurial experience with those who has business ambition and hope to become future entrepreneurs. As a consultant, I am committed to empowering people and this mentoring engagement fits perfectly into that commitment. Being a mentor benefits me through the learning opportunity from my mentees stories of triumphs and difficulties. TEF mentoring experience has been good with several learning points particularly on the matching of mentors with mentees. I feel that while every mentor may have some useful information to share with their mentee, they may not be the most ideal to develop the mentee holistically. I believe a matching system along business or career lines would go a long way in mentee, mentor alignment. “

Currently a mentor to Albert Olodi, Agriculture , (Agri-business,. Farming), Tinashe openly shares his personal and professional values with his mentee as he believes sharing values gives an opportunity to appreciate other cultures, industries and nationalities on the African continent. For Tinashe, Time management is essential in mentoring. Balancing mentoring duties with a demanding personal schedule requires a regimented approach to time and maintaining exceptional levels of organization consistently. He is however appreciative of the benefits that come with mentoring on the programme, “TEF entrepreneurship programme has helped me to appreciate the opportunities in other parts of the continent and challenged me to broaden my horizons for business growth and expansion. My business has adopted a renewed philosophy of warming up to potential African clients starting with offering services in Portuguese, French and Arabic. I am grateful for the opportunity of mentoring African Entrepreneurs”

The post Mentoring is About Sharing Experiences – Tinashe Gombiro appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.