The groundbreaking hybrid event will launch 4,800 African entrepreneurs selected from all 54 African countries to the Foundation’s yearly program’s 2021 cohort.

The TEF opens its application portal to African entrepreneurs with enterprises that are less than five years old every year on January 1st. This year’s recipients were picked from a pool of over 400,000 submissions, with their innovative and impactful company concepts being the deciding factor.

The selected beneficiaries will include both fresh start-ups and existing young enterprises in various operational phases across several sectors, according to the foundation’s objective to catalyze entrepreneurship in Africa.

As part of TEF’s objectives to ensure that African entrepreneurs are well equipped to build investable and profitable businesses, each beneficiary has undergone world-class business management training and mentorship 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 platform’s unique training curriculum covered insightful topics such as Starting Your Business, Business Management & Fundamentals, Leadership & Business Growth, Marketing Strategy, Product Design, and Selecting & Building a Team, amongst others.

Commenting ahead of the Selection Announcement event, CEO Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, said: “This year, with support from our global partners, we will be scaling our impact and empowering nearly 5000 entrepreneurs. A major priority for us at the Foundation for 2021 remains the economic recovery of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) following the Covid-19 disruption to economic activities. We are very excited to be unveiling the 2021 cohort of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship programme. I believe the $5,000 we are giving to each entrepreneur will address some pressing demands and reduce the burden brought about by the pandemic.”

“Year after year, we are greatly inspired by the tenacity and quality of business ideas that come out of Africa. This only proves that young Africans need organizations like the Tony Elumelu Foundation who are willing to take a chance on them and their ideas”, she concluded.

The Foundation empowers thousands of entrepreneurs each year through the US$100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, which began in 2015. Participants receive mentorship, business management training, access to new markets, US$5,000 in non-refundable seed capital, and networking opportunities to promote their businesses to a global audience. TEF has trained over 1.5 million young Africans and sponsored over 10,000 entrepreneurs throughout 54 African countries since its start.