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Tag: Elumelu Foundation

  • Elumelu Foundation partners Federal Fire Service to train 7,400 Nigerians on fire safety

    Elumelu Foundation partners Federal Fire Service to train 7,400 Nigerians on fire safety

    The Federal Fire Service announced on Monday a national capacity-building initiative, following a collaboration with the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), to train 7,400 Nigerians on fire safety and awareness.

    According to the Public Relations Officer of the FFS, Peter O Abraham, the training would cover the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

    This partnership was part of an agreement reached at a meeting with Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Chairman of Heirs Holdings and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), at the Hilton, Abuja.

    The Controller General, Federal Fire Service, Samuel Adeyemi Olumode, led a delegation of senior management officers to the high-level engagement.

    During the engagement, the Service also formally inaugurated Mr. Peter Ashade, Group CEO, United Capital Plc, as a National Fire Safety Ambassador, in recognition of the Heirs Group’s significant contributions to enhancing safety consciousness and advancing community-focused fire safety initiatives nationwide.

    Abraham said the honour underscored the expanding partnership between the Federal Fire Service (FFS) and the Tony Elumelu ecosystem.

    “As part of the collaboration, FFS personnel would be deployed across all infrastructures under Mr. Tony Elumelu’s business portfolio nationwide, serving as safety officers to support compliance, strengthen safety monitoring, and enhance fire prevention awareness across all facilities”, Abraham said.

    According to him, Elumelu emphasized the urgent need to deepen community-level fire safety awareness, noting that thousands of households, local markets, and indigenous settlements remain vulnerable due to limited access to structured fire prevention education.

     He underscored that empowering citizens with practical, life-saving knowledge will significantly improve national resilience and reduce both the frequency and severity of fire outbreaks.

    Under the collaboration, the Federal Fire Service would train 200 persons in each state of the federation and the FCT, totaling 7,400 beneficiaries.

    The programme would focus on essential fire-prevention skills, early warning practices, and basic emergency response procedures. Participants will also be groomed to serve as fire safety advocates within their communities, creating a multiplier effect that promotes vigilance and responsible safety behaviour nationwide.

    The Controller General of the FFS, Adeyemi Olumode, described the partnership as a milestone in Nigeria’s journey toward a more preventive approach to fire management.

     He expressed profound appreciation to Mr. Elumelu and the Foundation for championing a community-centric model that aligns with global best practices. He further assured that the Service will deliver the training with professionalism, transparency, and measurable impact across all zones.

  • Elumelu Foundation to empower Young Entrepreneurs

    Africa’s leading entrepreneurship philanthropy the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is partnering with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Government’s Agency for International Cooperation to empower young entrepreneurs in East and West Africa.

    About 210 young African entrepreneurs, focusing specifically on female entrepreneurs and tech-enabled businesses, are the direct target of the peogramme.

    The Entrepreneurship Programme of TEF launched in 2015, has supported more than 4,000 entrepreneurs with seed capital.

    The largest gathering of African entrepreneurs – The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum –will hold on October 25 in Lagos.

    The joint partnership will equip more African entrepreneurs with the skills needed to build strong and sustainable businesses.

    The partnership will be implemented by Make-IT in Africa, a programme GIZ is implementing on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

    Make-IT is already working in close collaboration with more than 20 corporate and financing partners, social enterprises, hubs, and networks to support an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs, to enable better access to finance, markets, and skills.

    By signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on  August 8, , GIZ and TEF strengthened the entrepreneurial ecosystem to support African entrepreneurs. GIZ and TEF share the common understanding that young companies, especially from the technology sector, have the potential to radically transform the business landscape in Africa and are key drivers of sustainable development.

    “The partnership with GIZ ensures that more entrepreneurs across Africa will access seed capital, as well as the world-class TEF proprietary online training and mentoring programme. Since the launch of the programme, we have received over 300,000 applications, and we are actively looking at leveraging our success, so we can greatly exceed our own commitment to 1,000 entrepreneurs annually over 10 years,” Parminder Vir, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, said

    The Country Director of GIZ Nigeria Dr. Thomas Kirsch, said: “Employment is the key measure for socio-economic development in Nigeria. Entrepreneurs and start-ups have the capacity to facilitate job creation in a way that wasn’t imaginable ten years ago.

    “We’ve entered a new era where initiatives by the German government, such as Make-IT in Africa, could be instrumental in empowering youth by addressing the skills gap and connecting them to markets, corporates, and financing opportunities. We are encouraged by this partnership with TEF and the opportunity to create lasting impact in the lives of many.”

  • Elumelu Foundation plans digital platform for entrepreneurs

    The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will be launching digital platform for African entrepreneurs and the African entrepreneurship ecosystem – TEFConnect at this year’s TEF forum holding on October 25 in Lagos.

    The TEFConnect is an open source platform, which will provide bespoke tools and content to catalyse business development for millions across the continent, through technology and directly applicable content.

    Harnessing and building on the success of Africa’s largest entrepreneurship catalyst, the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, which has attracted over 300,000 African entrepreneurs as applicants and trained and funded 4,460 to date, is further democratising access to opportunity.

    Positioned as the “Facebook for African Entrepreneurs”, the TEFConnect platform is a contemporary, intuitive, informative and user-friendly go-to entrepreneurship space, that provides five specific benefits to its users.

    Speaking on the launch of TEFConnect, the CEO of the Foundation, Parminder Vir OBE said: “The Tony Elumelu Foundation is simply about empowering African entrepreneurs. First, we launched the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, to provde 10,000 African entrepreneurs, over a period of 10 years with seed capital, mentorship and training. Next, we convened the full entrepreneurial ecosystem at the TEF Forum to forment engagement and deliberate discussions to change the narrative of Africa. Now, we are scaling our impact by connecting African entrepreneurship ecosystem on a single platform.”

    The Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony  Elumelu, also said: “In the four years, since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, we have shown that entrepreneurship can change a continent – we have invested in people and processes. We have already helped create business successes and brought policy makers into the entrepreneurial dynamic”.

  • Elumelu foundation donates N500m to Delta 

    The Tony Elumelu Foundation has donated N500 million in support of the Delta State Wealth Creation programmes

    Its founder, Mr. Tony Elumelu who led some beneficiaries of his foundation on courtesy call to Governor Okowa, yesterday in Asaba, the Delta State capital, expressed joy that within three years of being in office, the administration has impacted a lot on the lives of the people both in terms of provision of infrastructure and encouraging the jobless to be wealth creators through different skills acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes of the administration.

    He said: “This is homecoming for me, I want to thank the governor for everything he is doing in our state, there is a lot of improvement and from the airport to this place (Government House), we have seen a lot of projects.

    ”We are happy that within these few years, you have programmes where the beneficiaries have become employers of labour, we are going to create specific programme in Delta State and we are committing the sum of N500 million to the programme, the money will be from the Foundation, the UBA group, Heirs Holdings, Transcorp, among others.”

    Okowa commended Mr. Elumelu for his empowerment programmes, especially Africans, through his foundation, disclosing that his administration has created a lot of entrepreneurs through different skill acquisition and empowerment programmes.

    Okowa urged the Federal Government to emphasise the need for Nigerian youths to go beyond acquisition of education certificates to include the acquisition of relevant skills that will enable them to be self- employed.

    “We must be looking seriously at technical education to enable our children acquire relevant skills, as a government, we are changing the narrative when it comes to empowerment programmes, empowerment in our state has gone beyond just buying items for the people, but requires equipping the people with relevant skills that will enable them contribute to the growth of the society,” he said.

    He urged well to do individuals to assist the poor in the society, asserting, “Assisting those who cannot help themselves in the society is the way to go for us to have a better nation.”

    High point of the event was the sharing of success stories by beneficiaries of wealth creation schemes of Tony Elumelu Foundation and the State’s interventionist schemes.

     

  • Elumelu Foundation selects 1,000 entrepreneurs

    More than 150,000 Africans from 114 countries worldwide applied to join the fourth  cycle of The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s (TEF) 10-year, $100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. Today, the Foundation announced the African entrepreneurs with the most innovative, high-potential business ideas.

    The 2018 cohort includes an additional 250 entrepreneurs to the standard selection of 1,000 – thanks to: a $1,000,000 partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to support 200 entrepreneurs in conflict and fragile zones of Nigeria (the North East where the Boko Haram scourge is felt and the Niger Delta region which suffers environmental degradation from oil spillage) a $200,000 agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support 40 pan-African entrepreneurs; and a $50,000 partnership with Indorama to support 10 Nigerians.

    TEF Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, commented : “The number and quality of applicants, 151,000   in total, was outstanding – it illustrates the strength and depth of entrepreneurial promise and commitment on our continent. Selection is never easy, and we profoundly regret that we cannot help all. Our partnerships with the Red Cross, UNDP and Indorama, alongside ongoing discussions with other international organizations.”

     

     

  • Elumelu Foundation has taken youths off streets, says Sultan

    Elumelu Foundation has taken youths off streets, says Sultan

    Sultan of Sokoto Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III has commended the Tony Elumelu Foundation for its contribution to entrepreneurship and job creation for young people in the North.

    The Sultan spoke during a visit by Mr. Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA Group and Founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation.

    Elumelu was in Sokoto to give a speech to students and leaders during the National Dialogue Series at the Usman Danfodiyo University.

    The Sultan said through his Foundation, and entrepreneurship advocacy had created jobs and helped in creating security in the North by keeping youths off the streets.

    “We need more Tony Elumelus. We need more Aliko Dangotes,” he said, adding: “We continue to appreciate what you are doing for our youth because when you take these children off the streets, you provide the means for them to live a simple life. In that regard, we have a bit of security”.

    Tagged “Entrepreneurship: An Antidote to Nigerian Youth Unemployment”, the ensuing event, which was held at the university campus was hosted by Vice Chancellor Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, who commended Elumelu on his dedication to encouraging entrepreneurship among the youth.

    “We have been following your activities. Of recent, the activity that caught our eyes is the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme where you set aside $100million for the next 10 years to ensure that African youth, not only Nigerians but African youth develop Africa,” he said

    Elumelu appreciated the university for the opportunity to share his message of Africapitalism with the students. He charged the students to adopt the philosophy, noting that it would help them understand their place in transforming Africa.

    “To attain long term success, I want you to adopt Africapitalism as a guiding philosophy. I want you to develop a keen sense of awareness that Africa is in dire need of leaders both in the private and public sectors and your ideas can indeed transform the continent,” he said to the students.

    He challenged the students to take on entrepreneurship as a means of eradicating poverty and creating more jobs in the society.  “Only entrepreneurs can create the millions of jobs we need to power our economy out of poverty,” Elumelu said.

    He charged them to assume responsibility for developing the African continent, saying: “Nobody but us will develop Africa. Africa’s destiny lies in the hands of all of us, Africans,” he concluded.

  • BoI to boost SMEs with N310b cash

    BoI to boost SMEs with N310b cash

    The Acting Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Waheed Olagunju has said the bank is committed to its five-year plan of growing the small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) by pumping N310 billion into the sector.

    Olagunju who spoke with reporters at the weekend in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, added that the bank will continue to support potentially viable business enterprises.

    He said: “A good credit officer is not the one that throws money after any entrepreneur.

    “He is trained to identify potentially viable businesses, because anytime he is lending, what he is doing is determining the probability of project repayment. Its repayment is very important, because one of the barometers for measuring the success of a venture is when you are able to honour your obligations which include debt servicing.

    “We have five years strategic plan that we adopted in 2014. Under that plan, we earmarked N310 billion for small and medium scale enterprises (SME) over a-five year period. So we are still committed to that plan. We now have about three years to go in that plan which terminates in 2019.

    “We still have three more years to go. We are still committed to funding  SMEs in the country; because that is where you have multiplier effects per unit of investment especially the agricultural sector.

    “Nigeria is richly endowed with agricultural raw materials. So if you add value to agricultural produce, you are producing food and also supplying raw materials to industry. Agriculture produces input for industrialisation like solid mineral resources.

    “I don’t know of any country in the world that is better blessed than Nigeria. It is for us to harness our potential; our human resources are the biggest assets, and then we have natural resource endowment.”

    According to Olagunju, the multiplier effect and developmental impact vertically and horizontally is in the agricultural sector because the value chain is very extensive.

    He is optimistic that Nigeria will get out of recession sooner than later because of the resilient and creative spirit of the citizens. “It is possible for Nigeria to get out of recession. Nothing is impossible to a Nigerian; we have succeeded in many other fields. For example in telecoms, we have recorded the highest growth rate in the telecoms sector anywhere in the world. We moved from less than 500,000 telephone lines in 2001 to more than 150 million today; there is no other part of the world where such a feat is achieved.

    “Those who financed the telecoms industry are doing well; it is possible to turn the economy around within a short while. When it comes to Nigeria’s prospect and prosperity, I am an incurable optimist. I do not know of any country in the world that is better blessed than Nigeria. It is for us to just harness our potential,” Olagunju said.

     

  • Elumelu Foundation, UBA, US partner on entrepreneurship

    Elumelu Foundation, UBA, US partner on entrepreneurship

    The Tony Elumelu Foundation and United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) have partnered with the United States Department of Commerce to host a Panel and Roundtable discussion between members of the U.S. Presidential Council on Doing Business in Africa (PCDBIA) and a diverse community of African entrepreneurs.

    The 11 person U.S. delegation, along with representatives of several US government trade and investment-focused agencies, was led by the Honourable Penny Pritzker – US Secretary of Commerce. The Council visited Lagos as part of a fact-finding mission to help inform their upcoming report to President Barack Obama on how to strengthen commercial engagement between the US and Africa, which will result in mutually-beneficial growth.

    The event was titled “Unleashing Africa’s Entrepreneurs: Strengthening the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem to Empower the Next Generation of Africa’s Business Leaders”.

    It brought together American business leaders and Nigerian entrepreneurs to discuss challenges, solutions and innovations in the current African business environment.

  • Elumelu Foundation, others join forces on global entrepreneurship initiative

    Elumelu Foundation, others join forces on global entrepreneurship initiative

    Representatives of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), and Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), have come together to answer President Barack Obama’s call at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, to advance entrepreneurship and economic growth around the world.

    The organisations participated in a formal signing ceremony at the Summit, committing to lead the Spark Global Entrepreneurship initiative. Spark is a coalition that is seeking to mobilize like-minded organisations, companies and investors that collectively generate more than $1 billion in private investment for emerging entrepreneurs by the end of 2017.

    “The world is full of nascent entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas—but they need stronger ecosystems to help them unleash those ideas and grow them into game-changing startups,” said Jonathan Ortmans, President of GEN and one of three Spark coalition co-chairs. “Spark increases coordination and collaboration among startup support programs and amplifies their efforts,” he said.

    The first wave of companies that have stepped forward include Citi, EY, GE, Google and IBM. Two African companies, Rendeavour, the continent’s largest urban land developer, and SkyPower, the largest provider of utility-scale solar power projects in the world, have joined as well.

    “African entrepreneurship has been the missing link in Africa’s development. The actions of just one entrepreneur sends ripples across a community and entrepreneurship lifts people permanently out of poverty and creates social wealth,” said Tony Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

    He further said, “We all know entrepreneurship, anywhere in the world, is not easy nor is success guaranteed. All stakeholders – the private sector, governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and donors – must make a commitment to use their respective powers to address the hurdles facing African entrepreneurs. That is what Spark is all about.”

    Spark taps into the growing involvement of government programs in helping entrepreneurs start and scale new firms.

    U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden announced the Spark initiative at the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Morocco and outlined the commitments of some of the most active and effective U.S. government programs such as the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Young African Leaders Initiative, African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program and more.

  • Elumelu Foundation hosts 1,000 African entrepreneurs

    Elumelu Foundation hosts 1,000 African entrepreneurs

    As part of Tony Elumelu’s $100 million commitment to empowering African entrepreneurs, 1,000 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs, representing 51 African countries from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) Class of 2015, converged at Ota for an intensive two-day boot camp session, an unprecedented gathering of emerging African entrepreneurs.

    The entrepreneurs travelled from across the continent – from as far as Madagascar and Morocco – and convened in Ota, Nigeria for an entrepreneurship bootcamp made up of interactive sessions with successful entrepreneurs, political and business leaders, and an open mic session with the Founder, Tony O. Elumelu.

    Gambian Badje Modou Lamin, whose business is in the agricultural sector, said, “The bootcamp has been a great experience. I have been able to exchange ideas with a number of entrepreneurs. This has really changed my perspective on Africa.”

    Maalainine Mohamed Bouya, from Morocco, said: “The bootcamp has been a blast! Right from our journey from the airport down to the bootcamp, we have been discussing and sharing ideas among ourselves. Africa has huge potential.”

    Nigerian Obinna Chukwu, said: “The bootcamp has been a wonderful experience – I have met people from all over Africa. It makes me proud of being a Nigerian. I thank Tony Elumelu and the Tony Elumelu Foundation for making this happen.”

    Mr. Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, spoke on his life experiences and the principles that he learned from mentors, such as Chief Ebitimi Banigo, that he applied towards his own successful entrepreneurship journey.  He answered an array of questions during a two-hour question-and-answer session, offering perspective on innovation, strategy, governance, financial management and decision-making.

    He said: “Entrepreneurship is not a short-term journey and I am pleased that we can help these emerging leaders, as they seek to join me in transforming Africa. My commitment towards creating a thousand new entrepreneurs who can change Africa forever, has now become a reality.  This is only the beginning.”

    Vice President of Nigeria Professor Yemi Osinbajo, GCON, welcomed the entrepreneurs from across Africa and called on them to take advantage of the networks built in Ota to develop pan African investment and trade networks.  According to Vice President Osinbajo, “This programme deserves all the commendation it is getting. Tony Elumelu has courageously put his money where his mouth is. Societies can’t develop without social entrepreneurs. I charge you to be little Elumelus and create opportunities for others.”

    The Vice President was joined by other senior political leaders including Kaduna Governor Nasiru El Rufai, and Lionel Zinsou, the Prime Minister of Benin Republic.