At the stroke of midnight, as the year 2014 slipped into history and 2015 made its raucous entry into Nigeria, local billionaire Tony Elumelu went live with the online portal that will allow young African entrepreneurs to apply to his foundation’s flagship initiative.
The $100 million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program, announced exactly one month ago at the foundation’s headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, aims to create 10,000 entrepreneurs and one million new jobs across Africa over the next 10 years by identifying 1,000 startups and young businesses each year from across the continent and providing them with the training, mentorship, and funds to grow.
Africa is home to some of the world’s highest entrepreneurship rates. The sub-Saharan region is considered a mecca for business development and growth.
“I believe this is your year,” Elumelu, founder and chief executive of the venture capital and private equity firm Heirs Holdings Ltd., said in a New Year video message to entrepreneurs that emphasized his philosophy of “Africapitalism,” a term he coined. “I also believe that the private sector, and entrepreneurs in particular, have an important role to play in the growth and transformation of our continent. This is why all hands must be on deck to relentlessly create and nurture African entrepreneurs like you.”
Elumelu reasons that the 10,000 startups and young businesses selected for the program ultimately will create one million new jobs and add $10 billion in annual revenues to Africa’s economy. Opening his New Year message with the declaration, “I am an entrepreneur,” he described some of the difficulties entrepreneurs face in Africa, but expressed confidence in the stick-with-it-ness of their entrepreneurial drive.
“Our development and business challenges are well documented. These include limited access to finance, to electricity and to markets, to mention but a few. These are all real challenges and there are many more,” he said. “But entrepreneurs have the resilience to overcome and even thrive on challenges. I know from experience that with every successful challenge comes a business opportunity.”
Elumelu threw down his own challenge.
“If you think you can be Africa’s Steve Jobs, then 2015 is the year for you to start the journey,” he said, referring to the late co-founder, chairman and CEO of U.S. consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. “If you believe in yourself, then I believe in you. If you have a business idea and a drive to succeed, I want to invest in you. We are counting on you to create the much-needed jobs and products that will enable Africa’s economies to compete globally in the 21st century. Your ideas can transform Africa.”
Entrepreneurs who are citizens or legal residents of any of Africa’s 54 countries and who are ready “to move your dream from idea to enterprise [and] ensure that the year 2015 is in fact the year of the African entrepreneur,” as Elumelu urges, may apply to the entrepreneurship program at the Tony Elumelu Foundation website, www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/TEEP.
