Taiwo Afolayan
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading champion of entrepreneurship in Africa. They aim to empower women and men across their continent, catalyzing economic growth, driving poverty eradication, and ensuring job creation. They believe the private sector’s role is critical for Africa’s development and that the private sector must create both social and economic wealth.
Founded by African investor and philanthropist, Tony O. Elumelu, C.F.R., and representing his personal commitment to creating a new generation of entrepreneurs, through his investment company, Heirs Holdings, the Foundation is active in all 54 African countries.
Their mission is implemented through their programs, research, communities, advocacy, and convenings, including the annual TEF Forum, the largest gathering of entrepreneurs in Africa, and TEFConnect, Africa’s digital hub for entrepreneurs. The Foundation leverages its strong relationships in the public, private, and development sectors to drive its mission of creating prosperity for all.
In 2015, the Foundation launched the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, a $100 million commitment by Tony Elumelu to empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs over 10 years. Building on the Programme’s success and its unique ability to identify, mentor, and fund entrepreneurs across Africa, the Foundation is increasingly sharing its robust delivery platform and working in partnership with institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme, the African Development Bank, the International Committee of the Red Cross, GIZ, and United Bank for Africa Plc, to create meaningful and permanent impact across Africa.
Thus far, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has trained, mentored, and funded over 15,847 young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries through its Entrepreneurship Programmes. It provides capacity-building support, advisory, and market linkages to over 1 million Africans through its digital networking platform, TEFConnect.
TEFConnect is a proprietary, in-house built networking and empowerment platform of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. It is the largest digital networking platform for African Entrepreneurs. TEFConnect is a gated community and requires all users to register.
Location:
African Countries
Benefits
- The platform offers networking/connections with over 1 million African entrepreneurs.
- Hundreds of learning content on Finance, Marketing, Branding, Talent Management, Technology, and many more.
- The Marketplace creates access to the African market and offers its Alumni the opportunity to showcase their business products and services for increased visibility.
- View and apply for global business opportunities made available by their network of Partners.
- View and access business tools to ease the management of your business.
Eligibilities
- Applicants must be 18 years of age and above.
- Only the government-issued ID is admitted and any other ID will render the application void.
- Members of the same family are not allowed to apply to the Programme, which would result in disqualification.
- Applicants are expected to apply with only one existing business or business idea. Applicants found to have applied multiple times in the same cycle or in different cycles will be disqualified.
Eligible Regions: 54 African countries
APPLICATION PROCESS
Register/Login to TEFConnect, on the HomePage, click on the Applications link. Select the Programme you would like to apply for and follow the instructions. The application portal opens on the 1st of January of each year. It’s free to apply.
She is known for her philanthropic work and has been involved in several charitable initiatives, including the Toyin Abraham Foundation, which provides financial assistance to women and children in need.
Abraham has been married twice, first to Nigerian actor Adeniyi Johnson, and later to Kola Ajeyemi, who is also an actor. She has a son with her husband Kola Ajeyemi, named Ireoluwa Ajeyemi.
