The application portal for BeGreen Africa is now open on TEFConnect, the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s digital platform, to all waste management start-ups in Kenya, and green start-ups in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

BeGreen Africa is a green entrepreneurship pilot programme co-created by The Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU), IKEA Foundation, and young green entrepreneurs.

The key objective of this mission-aligned partnership is to create a holistic, sustainable, and youth-led green entrepreneurship initiative in the waste sector [in Kenya], and the green sector [in Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa], to advance marginalized youth’s social and economic prosperity, while addressing the triple planetary crisis by reducing inequalities, and creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their peers.

The founding partners of BeGreen Africa will leverage their collective expertise, close relations with government, the private sector and youth networks, and extensive field presence across Africa and in Kenya to: a) develop a green-focused curricula that addresses the gaps and capacity needs of the identified target youth, b) engage expert trainers to deliver the trainings via www.TEFConnect.com, c) facilitate mentor and alumni network connections, and d) provide seed capital funding that will empower the identified entrepreneurs to kickstart, develop, and scale their green businesses.

In this pilot, #BeGreenAfrica aims to train 1,000 Kenyan youth in the waste management sector, and economically empower 120 of them, as well as empower 25 green sector entrepreneurs in Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, all under the age of 35, with new or existing green businesses. The initiative will build evidence around youth entrepreneurship in high-impact green sectors, exploring how young entrepreneurs can contribute to circular economies and a sustained green revolution in Africa.

The multilingual Application Portal is open on www.TEFConnect.com from August 10 till August 31, 2023.

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 increasing women economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has provided over 1.5 million young Africans with access to training 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.

About UNICEF GEN-U:

Launched by the UN Secretary-General at the 2018 UN General Assembly, and anchored in UNICEF, Generation Unlimited is a leading global Public-Private-Youth Partnership, bringing together global organizations and leaders including Heads of State, CEOs, Heads of UN agencies, and civil society champions with young people to co-create and deliver innovative solutions on a global scale.

Generation Unlimited is on a mission to skill the world’s 1.8 billion young people and connect them to opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact.

About IKEA Foundation:

The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted more than €1.8 billion to create a better future for children and their families.

In 2021 the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions. In 2023, IKEA Foundation has already provided more than € 31 Million in emergency funding.

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The hall was filled with students and alumni of the Business School who were excited to hear Mr. Elumelu share his thoughts on entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and the role of the private and public sectors in fostering development.

“For you all, in the African diaspora, I’d like for everyone to be successful in what they do. Because the development of Africa is not just material, it goes as far as even in terms of characterisation, mindset, and perception.

Perception has brand equity. If people see that a continent is good, has industrious people, people who are succeeding; the propensity to invest in that kind of environment will be high.”

Also in attendance was a 2015 Alumni of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme; Ayoade Oyedotun.

Ayo was one of the first cohort of beneficiaries of the Foundation’s US$100million programme, and he was excited to share the impact of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme on his startup called Afrimash.

“I run an Agri-tech company for farmers. We run an e-commerce site like Amazon. Our products are agricultural products like planters, harvesters, and pesticides and chemicals. We deliver them to farmers across all of Nigeria.

I can proudly say that the US $ 5,000 that the Tony Elumelu Foundation gave to us in 2015, is less than our monthly salary today. We’ve just been multiplying what was given to us by the Tony Elumelu Foundation over 5 years ago.

Right now, we have and pay about 50 staff, and we serve tens of thousands of farmers across Nigeria. I am just really very grateful to you and the Foundation. Thank you very much for your support. I am very excited to see you”

Ayoade’s story is just one from thousands of Africans who can testify about the transformative impact of the Foundation in their lives, and Mr. Elumelu was happy to share tips on the best approach for African entrepreneurs to expand their brand from the domestic market to the global stage.

“Start small, make mistakes, apply the expertise, and move on. It takes time to make effective and lasting change”

Watch the full session here!

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On Friday, September 23, 2022, TEF Founder, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, C.O.N, CEO, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu and TEF Director of Partnerships, Somachi Chris-Asoluka, held a series of bilateral meetings to further drive the importance and urgency of global investment in Africa for jobs creation, economic opportunities, climate responsibility, environmental sustainability, and poverty eradication.

The team met with Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy, for conversations around climate change and the current global focus on green and renewable energy. Africa’s focus is and should remain, providing energy from both traditional and green sources for its citizens, including energy sustainability and clean cooking for women. It was determined that Africa’s full transition green and renewable energy sources will require considerable investment, and this cannot be at the expense of the drive to urgently address the current energy deficit. Green energy transition must allow room for Africa to power its development and sustain its economic growth. Anything else will be potentially detrimental to all across the continent.

The team also met with Benedikt Sobotka CEO of Eurasian Resource Group (ERG) – The 2nd largest producer of cobalt in the world operating in 8 African countries, as well as Bogolo J. Kenewendo, Africa Director, UN High Level Climate Champion to discuss the increasing need for African voices on climate change, ahead of COP27 in Egypt.

“Africa must go to Cop 27 with one voice highlighting the importance and need for capital to fund the energy transition”, Mr. Elumelu said. “African governments must provide the enabling environment to promote climate change and incentivise the private sector to own these initiatives and begin implementation in their various organisations.”

The bi-lat meetings closed with a high-level session with President Adama Barrow of Gambia, where the party discussed ways in which the country’s government can work with the Foundation to empower even more young Gambians. The President expressed his deepest appreciation to the Tony Elumelu Foundation for empowering entrepreneurs in The Gambia and across Africa.

So far the Foundation has mentored, trained and disbursed nearly US $200,000 directly in seed capital to hundreds of Gambian entrepreneurs.

“We look forward to exploring investment opportunities in the Gambian financial sector with UBA, and hospitality sector with Transcorp Hotels PLC”
– Mr. Elumelu

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As the world continues to experience the daily impact of global warming, whether the tragic recent flooding in Pakistan, or the less covered, but equally harmful, persistent environmental degradation of Africa’s Sahel region, leaders need to act, not just talk.

Equally, Africa should not just be in the conversation, but actively set the agenda.

While Africa’s 3.8% contribution to global emissions is immaterial compared to others, we are the most vulnerable region to the effect of climate change. Africa’s rain-fed agriculture focus, and a large share of agriculture in Africa’s GDP, add to the continent’s  vulnerability.  It is clear that climate change is not just a threat to the future, it is also a threat to the present.

Global conversations around climate change are geared towards a focus on green and renewable energy. However, Africa’s focus is and should remain, providing energy from both traditional and green sources for its citizens – this was the focus of my discussion with Senator John Kerry, Former Secretary of State and Current United States of America’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, along with the CEO of Heirs Oil and Gas (HHOG), Osa Igiehon, at Transcorp Hilton Abuja, yesterday.

We must be realistic about the inequalities that exist between Africa and the rest of the world. Africa has a significant energy deficit, with a substantial amount of its population living with minimal or no electricity. Africa transiting fully to green and renewable energy sources will require considerable investment, and this cannot be at the expense of the drive to urgently address the current energy deficit. Green energy transition must allow room for Africa to power its development and sustain its economic growth. Anything else will be potentially detrimental to us all.

There must be an equitable transition – that is why I welcome the US’s recent recognition of this concept in its much-awaited Africa strategy announced earlier this month.

Africa’s green revolution requires immediate and significant funding – funding that is larger than the resources available to African governments, that have so many competing priorities such as poverty, economy, education, healthcare, security, and more – all of which have a direct impact on the livelihood of Africans, especially the youth.

With this dilemma, the world must step up! Africa will require far more external support and the same policy flexibility that rich nations claim for themselves in the energy transition.

As the world gathers in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for COP27, African nations must engage with the rest of the world, with one voice about the massive support required for this transition – one that is frankly in everyone’s interest.  The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s work with the UNDP in the Sahel seeks to address the toxic cocktail of the lack of opportunity and extremism, and the frightening impact of environmental change has only made this task more difficult.

Africa must do what it can in the present – African governments must provide the enabling environment to promote climate change and incentivise the private sector to own these initiatives and begin implementation in their various organisations.  At Heirs Holdings Group, with our integrated energy strategy, we are working to address Africa’s energy needs.  Our energy strategy comprises three pathways

1. an oil and gas pathway (with HHOG already providing up to 12million standard cubic feet of gas per day into the Eastern Nigeria Domestic gas hub);

1. a gas-fired electricity generation pathway (with Transcorp Group operating an aggregate of approximately 2000 megawatts, some 15% of Nigeria’s total installed electricity generating capacity); and

1. a renewables/green energy pathway currently being developed.

We cannot afford to ignore traditional energy sources, to power basic needs, but equally we cannot ignore our responsibility to future generations in developing alternatives.

We are great supporters of young entrepreneurs – and we are ensuring that we infuse green climate awareness in young African entrepreneurs, through the work of The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).  We believe that the current energy transition and future lies in the hands of our private sector, who through their actions or inactions can either perpetuate current ills or catalyse change.  Our over 1.2m TEF entrepreneurship seed capital/knowledge beneficiaries are being encouraged to create businesses that incorporate sustainability into their practices.

My conversation with Senator Kerry ended with a broad based discourse about opportunities for Africa in the renewables space, and technology-focused initiatives that will aid in addressing and improving access to energy in Africa.

I applaud the United States of America, for this inclusive approach to addressing the climate issues.  It is through such direct engagements that a comprehensive agenda will be developed for faithful implementation across Africa and the wider world.

Collectively, we can do better.  We must do better.  We have a dwindling window to address, probably the most significant challenge of our time.  Our children deserve and expect better.

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BanaPads is an award-winning social enterprise registered in Uganda and Tanzania with the aim of manufacturing affordable and eco-friendly (100% biodegradable) sanitary pads. The pads are also collected to be used as manure and this means that the waste that goes to the local landfill will be reduced since the banana pseudo-stem is a recyclable product.

In Uganda, Richard’s home country, the stigma and negative stereotypes around menstruation also means a direct impact on the education of girls in that region. 20% of girls aged 13-18 miss at least one day of school during their period, and girls who were menstruating missed school on 28% of ‘period’ days compared to 7% on non-period days. This aggregated to absence from school of around 11% of teaching days.

For Richard, the solution to this was in two folds – tackle the difficulties Ugandan women face in menstruation management, thus helping to keep girls in school and create jobs for women in poor rural areas. He created a unique business model to help him achieve these two goals seamlessly.

Some women in Uganda not only consider conversations about menstruation as ‘awkward’ they also struggle to afford adequate sanitary materials. To mitigate this, Richard created a network of female sales agents, called Bana Champions. They are trained to not only sell the sanitary pads directly to women at home but also spread awareness of menstrual hygiene, receiving a commission on sales in return.

Richard began selling BanaPads in a small Ugandan village in 2010 and has since expanded his customer base to 25,000 customers by the end of 2018 and distributes at least 5 million pads annually.

Thank to Richard and the remarkable work he continues to do with BanaPads, more women can access affordable sanitary products and earn a living by spreading the message of proper menstruation management with their fellow women.

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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.

The post Constant Ayihounoun Is Popularising Ecological Agriculture In Benin appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

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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On Changes made so far since the start of The Noble Savage

After the programme, I was able to get significant understanding of the business. In 2019.despite certain challenges, including setting up in a foreign country,  I moved the business from Zimbabwe to Botwana with the experience I gained from the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme and mitigated the fall out of the Covid-19 lockdowns. We were still able to grow as a business even though finances were a bit tight over the last year.

What has been the most rewarding part of your running your own business?

If you want to run a business just to get money, I advise you to get a job because running a business is difficult but the reward comes in when you find that the challenge has been fixed. For me, the reward is being able to see the progress I have made and to see where I have gotten from the point I  started. You can only see the rewards by looking backwards.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you?

There is one thing my dad says to me and have becomeone of my motivating factors:I am working to build what Im building not necessarily for you, but for your own children. Building a legacy means building a job/product;building for the next generation. At the end of the day, I ask myself: Was I able to solve the problems we are facing as Africans?

The second thing that drives me to wake up in the morning is the spirit of Ubuntu. It is the spirit of togetherness: I am because you are. I started my business, The Noble Savage, to solve the problem that our fellow men have on a daily basis.

What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

The first thing is: think. Thinkof your idea.Find that one thing that speaks to you, that you can feel in your marrow. When you get that, when the days get dark or times get hard, you can keep soldering on because of your belief in that idea.

The second is to Build a product/service that is solving a problem.

The third is to have the market for it.

You also need options that will keep you moving when the road gets dark. You also need to set your goals and determine how to execute them.

Who inspires you?

My dad, who always spoke a lot about intrapreneurship, and Tony Elumelu. One thing I have appreciated is his life story:how he started from the beginning to get to where he is today and the luck that he had. There is this saying that luck favours the prepared, and I love that he believed and prepared himself to get to where he is today. The third person is Elon Musk.

What are your future plans?

Our goal is to take operations throughout Africa to bring affordable housing and affordable energy across Africa in the next 10 -15 years.

The post TEF Alumni Spotlight with Msindazwe Ndhlovu appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

35-year old Rwandan entrepreneur Ange Imanishimwe, who is also a 2016 alumni of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of Biodiversity Conservation Organisation (BIOCOOR), an organisation that integrates biodiversity conservation, community health, ecotourism, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development of the people around Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda.

In this interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ange shares his approach to maintaining a positive, holistic and beneficial interrelationship where humans contribute positively to sustainable development.  

“My goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and malnutrition in Rwanda by creating 1,000 green jobs every year,” Ange says. “I grew up thinking that I owed young people something to make sure I can change the lives of the community in National Park, Rwanda.”

Ange, who is also a President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellow, is providing opportunities for the ex-poachers, developing ecotourism businesses outside protected areas, and creating jobs through natural ecosystem restoration.

In a paper he co-authored, Ange explored the integration of biodiversity conservation and ecotourism development and its contribution to poverty alleviation around Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda, one of the largest African high altitude forests.

“I did biology in secondary school because I was interested in biodiversity. I didn’t start with any money. I started by convincing people to give us money, while emphasizing the ways that biodiversity can make spaces green and beautiful. In 2012, we negotiated $2000 from scratch, and that is how we started.”

Since then, Ange has made it his mission to convince people to change their minds and become the protectors of the national park.

For Ange, the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme was important to the growth of the initiative.

“The seed funding we got from Tony Elumelu Foundation was very important to sustain what we are doing,” he says. “What I will do, and what I will keep doing, is to make sure that we can conserve our biodiversity and the community.

“We can end poaching in our ecosystems by developing the communities around protected areas. Because they do not have basic needs, my work is to make sure that I can create the basic opportunities so that they can have what they need and with that I am sure that there can be a win-win approach to conserving biodiversity. This is important because humans are a part of our biodiversity.”

Ange also highlights the need for public and private sector to recognise the dire need to sustain the ecosystem, especially as humans are largely dependent on it.

In Rwanda, despite the country’s conservation efforts, its biological diversity continues to face threats from habitat degradation, climate change, pollution, mining, and poaching.

“We started an education program on conserving urban biodiversity,” Ange also adds, highlighting that Biodiversity is not only for marked protected areas.

“The work done by birds, butterflies, and bees is very crucial to the ecosystem and even greater than the farmer’s work. There should be complementary effort between the people and biodiversity, especially considering the issue of climate change. It Is the responsibility of everyone to conserve biodiversity.”

Ange has cofounded a community-based ecotourism project Nyungwe EcoVillage dedicated to promoting ecotourism in Rwanda.

Covid-19 pandemic

With the Covid-19 restrictions and the lull in human activities, it was no surprise that the biodiversity was noticeably impacted. “The pandemic had some positive impact,” Ange says. “In our area, the weather was somewhat clean, and we saw animals walking about in town.”

“This is an opportunity to see how we can create initiatives for humans and wildlife to live in a way that is more beneficial to the other.

“Because humans are more intelligent than animals, we took the land of animals,” Ange says. “Houses being scattered everywhere is not a good strategy for living. Maybe we can have the strategy of reserving land for animals, instead of taking all the land for farms and people.

“We can explore land sharing – that is taking some percentage of land for conservation: so for example, we give 30% of land to the owner, and 70% to biodiversity and we implement ecotourism initiatives to incentivise people in those areas to protect these areas.

Ange believes that protected areas should play a role in sustaining local communities around them. And that ecotourism has the potential to generate sustainable local benefits that are beneficial for the community and ecosystem in the long run.

“In Africa, we are very rich in terms of natural resources, we should have the accountability to restore the ecosystems in order to conserve biological diversity.”

See more of Ange’s work in Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda

Ange’s vision for BIOCOOP is to place Rwanda on the level of middle-income countries by integrating biodiversity conservation, ecotourism, climate protection, community health, natural resources management, and sustainable development. Currently, his organisation’s efforts have created 27 permanent jobs and 1800 part-time jobs in his community.

He also launched the Dr Imanishimwe Conservation Leadership Center around Nyungwe National Park to inspire and empower more youths in the community by integrating leadership and entrepreneurship in biological sciences.

Ange is currently the Consultant of Biodiversity study and monitoring in Nyungwe National Park buffer zone. He plans to extend his projects in East Arica within the next 5 years and create 15,000 green jobs.

The post Transforming Poachers into Protectors appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Recent reports show that less than 30% of urban waste in developing countries is collected and disposed of appropriately, and the implications of such are dire and numerous. From growing health concerns to environmental pollution, Lalita found herself contemplating the impact of the work she was involved in, which made her design a new concept for her company. Instead of discarding the waste, she decided to collect them in the basement of the house she shared with her husband. 

After 4 years however, after the waste had piled and become increasingly, and obviously a misfit, it was time to get rid of them. In this crossroad, Lalita got the idea of upcycling the old banners into bags. It took her almost two years to set up a proper chain to upcycle the banners. Sakili, the brand name of her upcycle bags made from advertising trash was launched in 2018 and has since made more than 100,000 products. Through this journey, Lalita has made a name for herself in the upcycling industry in Mauritius, which is a booming market being a tourist haven and environmentally conscious.

Keeping her entrepreneurial spirit alive, Lalita went further into her career and started researching on natural sanitary napkins as well, using her curiosity to explore business opportunities that are nature-conscious and sustainable. After a trip to India in 2017, where she first used natural pads, she was convinced that she could improve the quality and made something better for the Mauritian women.

After eighteen months of lab research and testing, Lalita and her team made the first natural biodegradable sanitary pad in Mauritius. It is 100% natural, made of corn and bamboo fibres. Recycle Moi, the brand name of the pads, was launched in October 2019 and have so far developed 3 categories; regular, extra-long and in March 2021, introduced the panty liners. 

This idea is what made her a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur in 2019, and so far, her most significant achievement has been the ability to bring sustainable and affordable solutions that are more sustainable alternatives to plastic products. Through her eco-friendly brands, Lalita is raising a more mindful community. In addition to that, she is creating jobs for women in the community.

For the future, Lalita hopes to expand production by introducing more biodegradable products in the personal hygiene section and reduce her organization’s carbon footprint as much as possible in the manufacturing industry. During the first lockdown in Mauritius in March 2020, Lalita shifted her bag manufacturing production to fabric face masks production, always willing to be innovative and reinvent her business model if there is the need to in order to get things done. For her, entrepreneurs need to know when and how to adjust their sails.

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