The list is a part of AEC’s highly anticipated annual outlook tagged ‘The State of African Energy 2022’, a report which outlines Africa’s energy sector and provides insight into the various challenges and opportunities within the continent.

This recognition came following Mr. Elumelu’s action plan to increase the output of the OML 17 asset recently acquired through Heirs Holdings Oil and Gas – which currently produces 27,000 bopd. It is also owed to his control over the 2,000 MW of installed power capacity in Nigeria – via recent acquisitions, which is a major contribution to the country’s growing power demand.

Tony Elumelu is the Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, his family-owned investment company, committed to improving lives and transforming Africa, through long-term investments in strategic sectors of the African economy, including financial services, hospitality, power, energy, technology, and healthcare. He is also the Chairman of pan-African financial services group, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which operates in 20 countries in Africa, the United Kingdom, France, and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking licence in the United States. He also chairs Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp, whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, one of the leading generators of electricity in Nigeria and Transcorp Hotels Plc, Nigeria’s foremost hospitality brand.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading champion of entrepreneurship in Africa. Our objective is to empower women and men across our continent, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation. We believe the private sector’s role is critical for Africa’s development and that the private sector must create both social and economic wealth.

Our mission is implemented through our programmes, research, communities, advocacy and convenings, including the annual TEF Forum, the largest gathering of entrepreneurs in Africa, and TEFConnect, Africa’s digital hub for entrepreneurs. The Foundation leverages its strong relationships in the public, private and development sectors to drive its mission of creating prosperity for all.

See the full list of Africa’s Energy Sector most influential individuals here.

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The Business Management training was conducted exclusively on TEFConnect,  the Foundation’s proprietary digital platform that provides capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 Million Africans and counting.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme Business Management Training equips entrepreneurs with critical skills required to launch and run their businesses at the early growth stage. With a unique curriculum that encompasses topics on Starting Your Business, Business Management & Fundamentals, Leadership & Business Growth, Selecting and Building a Team, amongst others, entrepreneurs are effectively armed to achieve business growth, profitability, and sustained success.

Entrepreneurs were hosted to weekly information sessions, as part of the training, to address relevant concerns and share vital programme updates. All entrepreneurs received active support from coaches and mentors who provided technical guidance, counsel and one-one interaction throughout the duration of the training programme.

The training, which is one element of the 7 pillars of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, was carried out in the official African languages including English, French, Portuguese and Arabic, and over 40 percent of trained participants were women.

Commenting on this milestone, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, said “Every year, our commitment to transform Africa is further strengthened with the passion, resilience and talent of the high-calibre entrepreneurs who onboard our flagship programme. Our curricular provides a holistic opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn, grow and contribute to the development of their communities.”

The Chief Executive Officer added: “Furthermore, it is a testament to the eagerness and readiness of African entrepreneurs across all of Africa to make themselves available to transform the continent for good. I would like to commend these entrepreneurs for their discipline, dedication and hard work throughout the training and look forward to the immense impact of their businesses across diverse sectors in Africa. We remain committed to empowering African entrepreneurs with the required resources and support that will ensure that their businesses can scale and drive sustainable change on the continent”.

The TEF Entrepreneurship Training is immediately followed by a Business Plan review process for each entrepreneur. The top-performing entrepreneurs subsequently participate in the Pitching phase of the Programme after which successful entrepreneurs receive a non-returnable seed capital of US$5000 each.

The leading African philanthropy also hopes to train and empower thousands more across the African continent as part of its commitment to catalyze economic growth, drive poverty eradication and ensure job creation.

In 2020, the Tony Elumelu Foundation marked ten years of impact, having empowered and funded nearly 10,000 African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries as part of its US$100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. The Tony Elumelu Foundation is inspired by Tony Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the long-term social and economic development of the African continent.

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The initiative will fund 200 additional young African entrepreneurs complementing the US$100M Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme that has identified, trained, mentored and funded over 9,000 entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries since 2015. The partnership will also help to scale TEFConnect, the Foundation’s proprietary digital platform supporting African entrepreneurs and provide platform access to an additional 500,000 SMEs. The initiative is co-financed by DEG with 1.5 million Euro from the develoPPP Program funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

In alignment with TEF and DEG’s development policy, the partnership will create jobs and income, boost economic growth and generate local value in Africa. It will make important contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by providing funding, technical skills and comprehensive business readiness to drive better performance of SMEs in accordance with SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

Entrepreneurs will be connected to networking support for further skills development, knowledge sharing and market linkages through a lifetime membership on TEFConnect. In addition, periodic impact assessment of up to 10,000 SMEs will be conducted through the partnership to inform policies and laws that will improve the environment for small enterprises in Africa, directly catalysing Africa’s economic growth and contributing to the continent’s prosperity and social development. 

Commenting on the partnership, the CEO, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, stated, “In our continued quest to invest in African entrepreneurs, this partnership will fully capacitize young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. DEG is a global player in fostering efforts in emerging markets and developing economies to generate employment, which is a mission we are dedicated to through entrepreneurship. African Entrepreneurs are the engines of growth, innovation and wealth creation in Africa, and there is no better time to invest in their development. The projected outcome of this partnership encompasses the entire entrepreneurial value chain and will create massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to build their ventures while equipping them with the skills to sustain business growth.”

Bernd Tilemann, Head of DEG’s West Africa office added that “DEG is delighted to start this cooperation and especially eager to support TEF’s digitalisation efforts and the drive for impact inclusion and its critical evaluation, which are topics that DEG is very passionate about. We believe these measures will form a great foundation to enable TEF to scale its efforts to boost entrepreneurship and small enterprise development in Nigeria and across the continent.”

The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s US$100 million Entrepreneurship Programme was launched in 2015 to empower 10,000 entrepreneurs over 10 years. Successful applicants receive world-class business training, mentorship, non-refundable seed capital of US$5,000, and global networking opportunities.  The Programme is open to entrepreneurs across all countries in Africa, both new start-ups and existing young businesses, operating in all major economic sectors.

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To commemorate the 2021 Africa Day, TEFConnect, the leading digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs is introducing its annual initiative “#TEFConnectAfrica50: 50 Entrepreneurs to Connect with in Africa” to highlight and project entrepreneurs across the continent whose businesses are making a positive impact.

In a year characterised by uncertainty, some of these entrepreneurs adapted to match the demands of their market, while some are leading conversation for a more inclusive and climate-conscious society by promoting eco-innovation, waste management and energy efficiency.

Unique in their individual mission to reshape, transform and impact, these new entrants and existing players, are celebrated for their entrepreneurial spirits. Whether it is in Agri-business, healthcare, ICT, Fashion, or environmental conservation, these African entrepreneurs are skilled and dedicated.

TEFConnect currently provides capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1million Africans and counting. Launched by the Tony Elumelu Foundation, TEFConnect enables African Entrepreneurs foster meaningful relationships and partnerships with each other, while connecting small businesses to growth opportunities in Africa and beyond.

Indeed, as Africa is estimated to witness 29million entrants in its labour force by 2030, of which SMEs are expected to cater to 90% of the pool, there is no better time to look inwardly at our young entrepreneurs.

Here are 50 entrepreneurs in Africa we recommend connecting with:

Download PDF

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TEFConnect, the digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs, can help entrepreneurs who are keen to grow their businesses.

Here are six ways to easily move the needle with your small business:

1. Find customers and relevant business connections:

As a small business, TEFConnect offers the opportunity to connect with other business owners in relevant industries and people that would be interested in your product or service.

2. Personalise your Business

Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you that the key ingredient to a business is its people. You can easily shape the perception of your business by showcasing the employees who make up your organisation by getting as many as possible to create and complete their profiles, or by setting up a block of time where employees can be coached on how to share the work that they do at your company.

This helps to give an idea of the people and culture of your business, as well as showcase the talent.

3. Stay up to date:

Keeping your profile up to date is one of the most impactful ways to improve your contact rate. Remember to add new skills, achievements, and examples of your latest work.

4. Join Relevant Community Groups

Joining groups that are relevant to your target demographic is a great way to ‘listen in’ on what your audience is talking about and identify trends before they become popular, thus keeping you ahead of the curve.

This enables you to predict and prepare for outcomes using insights gleaned from the conversations.

5. Find next employee or partner

Interacting with entrepreneurs on TEFConnect is a great way for a business owner to connect with prospects, strategic partners, referral partners, and other business owners. Time should be taken to nurture specific connections to grow the relationship.

6. Utilise media

The world is now more visually driven than ever, especially as attention spans continue to decline. Utilise more of clear, clean, custom images that showcase your company and brand. You can also share links to your work anywhere on the internet to showcase your brand.

Other media types are Live video, documents, like PDFs or PowerPoints, which can showcase what makes your brand unique.

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How can entrepreneurs take advantage of the digital economy to expand their business beyond their country?

Let’s start by defining what exactly the digital economy refers to. In simple terms, it refers to an economy based on digital technologies; mostly perceived as conducting business over the Internet.

The rate of globalised trade is on the increase and has become intense with the advent of the digital economy. To scale your business for maximum profit, you will need to diversify your business and you can make this easier with the effective use of technology.

To achieve this, here are a few things to consider:

Get Mobile: Your business should never be tied to a single physical location. Enable your business’ global expansion with technology that facilitates “working from anywhere” e.g. laptops, smartphones, tablets etc.

Get Online: Who can see or access your products or services? Create a global presence for your business for maximum impact.

It’s in the Cloud: Augment your business by taking advantage of Cloud services. This will not only ensure you and your customers can access products and services globally, you will also save a great deal on cost of infrastructure, software, platforms, storage, security, databases etc. and not have to worry about associated operational cost.

Invest in virtual collaboration tools: Save travel costs and time by investing in online meeting/collaboration tools e.g. Zoom, Google Meet for meetings, Slack, MS Planner, shared calendars. The right combination of virtual collaboration tools will support cross-border project collaboration and advancement.

Find the technology that works best for you and your team: This is the most important of it all. There is a ton of digital tools out there. However, also be mindful that the technology that worked well for one business may not necessarily work for your business.

Don’t be in a hurry to overhaul technology you already have; sometimes an upgrade may be all you need.

Take time to choose the right technology/tools to accelerate your global expansion and your market reach will be inevitably astronomical.

How does TEFConnect, the platform, facilitate connections among African entrepreneurs?

TEFConnect is the largest online networking platform for African entrepreneurs and facilitating connections is one of its core foci.

We onboard different players in the entrepreneurship ecosystem i.e. Mentors, Investors, Buyers, Sellers, Trainers and Entrepreneurs across Africa; providing a platform for our subscribers to connect on varying levels. Interactions can be through the discussion forums, which connects people with common interests; the marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers; the training centre, connecting mentors to mentees and with study group options; and opportunity offerings, which connects investors to entrepreneurs.

TEFConnect is simply a giant connection-enabler for African entrepreneurs.

One of important things about expanding internationally is about finding the right partners and team members. How best do you think entrepreneurs can do that?

As an entrepreneur, ensuring you find the right partners and team members cannot be over-emphasised; even more so, when you are thinking of going global. This is very important and very difficult but not impossible. Try a few of these tips as you search.

Due Diligence: Ensure you do background checks before entering into a partnership. Do not be overtaken by the charm at first meet nor be swayed by immediate display of knowledge of the industry or country. Do not also be tempted to jump into a partnership for its quick gains. Take the time to conduct a proper due diligence on the potential partner/team member. Many business relationships have started great and gone sour as quickly as the relationship was formed. Ensure that your intended partner has the same values, expectations, objectives and conflict management style that match yours. How do they react when money is involved?

Follow their track record, their digital footprint; be careful not to stalk them. That’s just weird.

She’s my childhood friend syndrome: “My best friend” is not a good enough attribute to make them a great business partner. Business is a totally different ballgame and a partnership gone sour may ruin a good friendship and you lose on both fronts. I have witnessed many estranged friendships / partnerships that have stemmed from the childhood friend syndrome. Categorise all relationships appropriately and engage with focus. Friend, Employee, Consultant or Partner; where does this person fit in the business puzzle? Apply wisdom.

Trust and a Trial: Can you trust them with your life?….Ok, that’s a little extreme but can you trust them with your bank account? Perhaps, you may want to rethink the partnership if the answer is ‘No’. If you do want to try the partnership nonetheless, then let it be with someone you have worked with in the past with qualities you admire or a referral from a trusted source. Execute a partnership agreement for a short period to begin with. This way, you are not tied to the partnership should things not work out.

Complements of Strengths: This applies to finding a right business partner or team member. Make sure you and your partner’s strengths are in different areas. Make sure your team has a good cocktail of strengths. A great ideas generator may not be a good executor; a good salesman may not have good project management skills. Onboard someone/people that will complement your strengths.

Technology has made us closer than ever. However, to succeed, a business needs to adapt to the local culture, that may mean customising products or services to meet local customers’ tastes. What role can technology play in adapting to new countries and cultures?

With technology, we now have information at our fingertips, so use it to its maximum.

• Research: there is a world of information on the Internet. Navigate the Internet, Read & Learn.
• Network & Collaborate: You can do a lot on your own, but no man is an island. Join online communities and build relationships, learn from other people, ask questions, take polls/surveys to understand the country’s needs and pain points.
• If it helps, learn the language of the country of interest. There are lots of apps out there that can help you with this e.g. Babbel, Duolongo, Memrise etc.

With every new technological feature, the digital world is becoming even more important. How best can entrepreneurs expand their online presence?

Expanding your online presence can be seemingly slow, time-consuming and sometimes maddening but very important especially now that businesses and consumers have moved their focus online. Competition has also become fierce with the rapid growth of the digital world.

These tips never fail:

Show up Online: You probably have social media presence, but do you have a website? If the answer is no, start building one. Having a website is one avenue where you can show off your products online If you already have a website, optimize it, make it mobile friendly. This is crucial because by the end of this year, projection indicates that there will be 2.87billion smartphone users across the globe so searches will be done more on mobile phones than on laptops. Equally essential is the need to ensure your pages load quickly and perhaps include live chat functionality.

Embrace SEO (Search Engine Optimizer): Figures show that 75% of all online transactions start with a query through a search engine e.g. Google, so considering SEOs to get your website higher up on search engine ranks will give your business an edge. It is also worth noting that many people do not go past the first page of search results when looking for information on a search engine so the higher up your search ranking, the better.

The building blocks of SEO are using keywords relating to your business. Start by choosing 3 to 5 essential keywords that someone would search for that would lead them to your website.

Consistent Value: Steadily look to provide valuable content in different mediums e.g. articles, podcasts, publish an e-book/white paper etc. across different social media channels in your area of expertise. Be careful not to be everywhere on the Internet. Test the waters but stick to a couple of social channels that will best benefit your business and consistently provide value. Seek to become the authority in your niche. You know the saying, “if you build it, they will come”. Like a moth to a flame, followers are attracted.

Now, here’s the thing: content doesn’t always have to be your own original creation, you can also share content of value by another author. Have a good percentage mix; 60-70% of other people’s content and 30-40% of your own content works.

Engage: Don’t just post; engage with your audience/followers.

Network: Join online communities/groups with same interests as you; TEFConnect is a good place to start. Be an active participant in those groups (ask questions, provide solutions, give feedback), generally interact all with the aim of building relationships. Be seen, provide value, be known. Only then can people look for your social channels to follow and introduce you to other people or communities, invite you to conferences/events, refer you to others et al.

What advice does TEFConnect give to entrepreneurs interested in new markets?

Define your market: Define the location(s), demographics, and your target market; their interests and needs

Analyse your market: This is arguably the most critical step. Invest enough time to research your intended market thoroughly; who are your competitors? what are the potential entry barriers? what pain point are you solving?

Have realistic expectations: This way, you are not demotivated too early on in your venture.

Win at least 3-5 strategic accounts as early as possible: These are the fundamentals in the new market.

Invest adequately in Product Development, Sales & Marketing and Support for two years minimum. New market entries typically fail because they are starved of the resources they need.

Does TEFConnect have any other useful tools or guides for growing businesses?

TEFConnect, the largest online networking platform for African entrepreneurs offers an array of valuable tools for business management and growth.

Check out the:

Learning Page: Here you will find specially curated library of learning content packed with useful information to grow your business. Look out for our 12-week Entrepreneur Toolkit; a mini-MBA as it is fondly referred to by some of our entrepreneurs.

Business Tools: Take advantage of a few tools to help you manage your business better e.g. the Business valuation / Financial Management Tool and the Business Plan Assistant.

Community: Engage and collaborate with over 1 million like-minded entrepreneurs across the globe in a variety of discussion forums.

Coming Soon:

TEFConnect is undergoing an extensive upgrade and coming back to you bigger and better by November 2020. Here are a few things to look forward to:

• Tools: Find the right tool to grow your business from our directory of business management tools e.g. tools for: SEO, Content Management System, Sales & Marketing, building a website etc.
  
• Marketplace: Create a global presence for your products/service with our fully functional online trading platform (TEF Marketplace).
  
• Discover: Keep learning, Contribute content on the world-class online business library.
  
• Opportunities: Key into Partner/Investors opportunity offers.
  
• Community: Learn from and give back to a network of over 1 million entrepreneurs. Collaborate with international entrepreneurs, expand your market reach.
  
• Alumni All-starts: A dedicated Alumni page

The benefits and opportunities are endless on TEFConnect. Sign up today.

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Meet all the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs here

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