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Friday, December 11, 2020 / 08:50AM / Tony Elumelu Foundation/Header Image Credit: Africa on the Rise
The Tony
Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa's leading philanthropy committed to empowering
young African entrepreneurs, has announced a partnership with the European
Union to identify, train, mentor and fund 2,500 young African women
entrepreneurs in 2021. The partnership will disburse 20 million Euros in
financial and technical support for women-owned businesses, across all 54
African countries, in addition to providing increased access to market
linkages, supply chains and venture capital investments.
The joint
initiative will significantly strengthen and deepen the EU-Africa partnership,
builds on the platform and experience of the US$100m TEF Entrepreneurship
Programme, and forms part of the EU
External Investment Plan to support women economic empowerment within the EU
Gender Action Plan (GAP III).
Commenting on the
landmark partnership, Tony Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation said
"We are delighted to partner with the European Union, sharing our unique
ability to identify, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs across
Africa. This joint effort will priorities and provide economic
opportunities for African women, whom for too long have endured systemic
obstacles to starting, growing and sustaining their businesses. Our
partnership will alleviate the funding, knowledge and market constraints
threatening the livelihoods of women entrepreneurs on the continent, to create
more income, jobs, growth and scale for women-owned businesses."
The EU Commissioner
for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said "This partnership
with the Tony Elumelu Foundation will help women participants in economic development,
realize their full potential and accelerate economic inclusion.
Empowering women entrepreneurs is a key driver for sustainable jobs and growth,
especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in line with the
objectives of our African Strategy. Women and girls represent half of the
world's population and they deserve equal opportunities."
The Tony Elumelu
Foundation, which marks ten years of impact this year, is empowering a new
generation of African entrepreneurs, catalyzing economic growth, driving
poverty eradication, and ensuring job creation across all 54 African
countries. The Foundation has trained, mentored, and funded nearly 10,000
young African entrepreneurs from 54 African countries, and continues to provide
capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 million
Africans through its digital networking platform, TEFConnect.
TEF's female
success stories include Joyce Awojoodu, from Nigeria, who launched a luxury
botanically based product line and spa clinic in Lagos, in 2015. The
brand ORÃKÃŒ, caters to both men and women, and strictly uses raw materials and
natural ingredients from Africa. Awojoodu's favourite element of the TEF
Entrepreneurship Programme was the mentorship, which she described as "phenomenal" and "invaluable" for ORÃKÃŒ. In her own words, "each Tef
Entrepreneur was assigned a mentor and I could not have asked for a better
one. TEF connected us. Now the mentorship continues, and I know I
will always have an ear to share my thoughts about the business with a person
who can also offer advice".
Mavis Mduchwa, an
agribusiness entrepreneur from Botswana, founded Chabana Farms, a poultry farm
providing training and work for unemployed young people. Even though
agriculture accounts for 32% of Africa's gross domestic product, landownership
and access to land remains a significant challenge for many farmers, especially
women. According to Mduchwa, "in Botswana, about 80% of people survive
on agriculture, and many of them are women. But, if as a woman you want
to turn it into a business, you have a challenge of finding land."
Mduchwa has used the seed capital and training from TEF to significantly expand
her operations.
The Tony Elumelu
Foundation and the European Commission are proud to partner to unlock the
dynamic potential of African women entrepreneurs, directly catalysing African's
economic growth and contributing to Africa's prosperity and social
development. The programme co-funded by the European Union, the
Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific State (OACPS), and the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), will further
scale the Foundation's efforts in directly addressing some of the most endemic
challenges to African start-ups - skills and capacity gaps, financial constraints,
and lack of access to mentoring, networks and market linkages.
Following
completion of the programme, the entrepreneurs will stay connected to partners
and to each other through their lifetime membership on TEFConnect. TEF
has set up Country Chapters in 54 African countries to support the
entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their businesses.
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