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Over 100 Kenyan startups get funding, training under Elumelu plan
The number of Kenyans who will benefit from the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Forum has gone up to 113 from 74 last year.
According to Business Daily, the entrepreneurs who are among 3,000 selected from across 54 African countries will receive $5000 (Sh500,000) in seed capital for their ventures and training.
The Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist started the TEF in 2015 to invest in young people on the African continent and spur economic growth. The Abuja forum was the fifth edition.
Overall, the foundation received about 216,000 applications this year. Around 10,170 applications made it to the evaluation stage from which the 3,050 winners were selected.
Startups in the agriculture sector benefited the most with 26.4 percent getting the funding. The fashion sector was second with 13.6 percent followed by retail at 9.1 percent.
Healthcare, identified at the forum as pivotal to the continent’s growth, was represented by only 3.8 percent.
Other sectors included ICT (7.6 percent), manufacturing (6.2 percent), media and entertainment (4.9 percent), professional service (4.1 percent) and hospitality (2.6 percent).
This year, 42 percent of the beneficiaries are female entrepreneurs. Around 69.2 percent of the applications were from urban and 30.8 percent from rural areas.
Since the forum was started five years ago, 7,521 beneficiaries have received seed capital of $5,000 each and have access to mentoring and training.
UNDP, TEF partner to empower 100,000 Young African Entrepreneurs
Last month The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the global development network of the United Nations, has partnered with the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) – Africa’s leading philanthropy committed to empowering entrepreneurs – to train, mentor and financially support 100,000 young entrepreneurs in Africa over 10 years towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The TEF-UNDP Sahel Youth Entrepreneurship Programme, which is expected to mobilize support for businesses, aims to generate millions of new jobs and contribute at least $10 billion in new annual revenues across Africa.
This was announced this at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU), where TEF Founder, Tony Elumelu and UNDP Regional Director for Africa, Ahunna Eziakonwa joined African Presidents at the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum, where the agreement was signed. The President of Niger, H.E Mahamadou Issoufou joined UNDP and TEF to launch the programme.
The partnership will target young Africans in under-served communities, starting with the Sahel, given the region’s opportunity as the youngest population in the world with 194 million people under 25 years of age (64.5% of the total population).
The TEF-UNDP Sahel Youth Entrepreneurship Programme will be implemented through TEF’s flagship Entrepreneurship Programme, which has already benefited 7,520 local entrepreneurs across 54 African countries in just five years of existence. Similarly, the programme builds on UNDP’s YouthConnekt initiative. The aim is to increase job creation through dynamic entrepreneurship and create sustainable economic growth that anchors the development of communities and states.
The TEF-UNDP programme is fully aligned with the 1 Million by 2021 Initiative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, His Excellency Moussa Faki Mahamat. Launched in April at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, the 1 Million by 2021 Initiative aims to concretely reach 1 million African youth from across the continent with opportunities and interventions in the key areas of Education, Entrepreneurship, Employment and Engagement (4Es) to accelerate Africa’s socio-economic development.
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