- Highlights the Relevance and Urgency to Support Entrepreneurial Led Economic Growth in Africa
Tony Elumelu, CON engaging the distinguished audience at the convening on Africa’s
economic transformation convened by the Tony Elumelu Foundation in Brussels on April 10,
2019
L-R: Carl Michiels, Director, European Centre for Development Policy Management
(ECDPM); Former Prime Minister of Benin, HE Lionel Zinsou; Bruno Wenn, Former
CEO/Chairman at DEG-German Investment and Development Company, and Advisory
Board Member, Tony Elumelu Foundation; Minister Phillippe De Backer, Minister for Digital
Agenda, Telecommunications and Post; and Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu
Foundation.
Brussels, Belgium, April 11, 2019— At a time when Europe’s relationship
with Africa is high on foreign policy and developmental agendas and with the
European Union beginning to deliver on its 2017 External Investment Plan,
targeted at attracting investment and job creation in Africa, the Tony Elumelu
Foundation brought together leading stakeholders in the development finance
sector, at a case study session in the EU capital, Belgium. The convening
demonstrated that Africa also had solutions to bring to the table and
platformed the Foundation’s unique approach to catalysing entrepreneurship
in scale across the continent.
Themed “A Convening on Africa’s Economic Transformation: A Case
Study of the Tony Elumelu Foundation”, the event presented the results of
the first five years of the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme a unique
programme, which has trained, mentored and seeded 4,470 African
entrepreneurs with 3,050 newly announced to receive seed funding, and
drawn over 200,000 applications to its 2019 cycle. Tony Elumelu’s $100m
investment in entrepreneurial philanthropy was held up as an example of how
vital capital could be targeted efficiently and effectively, at African businesses
best able to create significant economic and developmental impact.
Opening the event, Mr. Koen Doens, Deputy Director General, DEVCO, EU,
said: “Africa needs to create jobs by the millions to match the needs of its
exponentially growing population. It will achieve this only if it unleashes a
generation of empowered entrepreneurs. The Tony Elumelu Foundation
contributes to this massively. The European Union wants to play its part and
contribute to this endeavour.”
During an indepth question and answer session with EU-Africa relations
expert, Annie Mutamba, Founder, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu CON, highlighted the
growing interest in the Tony Elumelu Foundation and its unique approach,
while welcoming a new type of intervention in Africa. “We very much believe in
collaboration, mutual respect and a shared commitment to transform
Africa. Africa is ready but we need to do this through the right sustainable
manner, that enables our people to become self-reliant, and independent,
instead of perpetuating dependency. We need to implement practical solutions
on ground through entrepreneurship, which empower people economically
and addresses issues of extremism, migration, and insecurity.”
Minister Phillippe De Backer, Minister for Digital Agenda, Telecommunications
and Post, Belgium, also commented: “There is an increasing desire in Europe
to engage Africa, including its grassroots in a structure and targeted approach
with the right processes. The Tony Elumelu Foundation offers this platform.”
The Tony Elumelu Foundation, which last month in March announced 3,050
selected entrepreneurs for its 2019 cycle, continues to grow in scale, ambition
and impact, and now actively leverages technology to support entrepreneurs
through TEF Connect – a digital hub designed to link entrepreneurs across
Africa, and which already has 500,000 users.
On the Foundation’s future plans, he stated: “We want to make sure that we
impact more, reach more, touch more lives and get more women involved. We
want to see more Northern Africa participation. We would like to reach 10,000
a year, with support from partners to empower additional entrepreneurs. We
want to eradicate poverty and create wealth in a sustainable way. Ultimately,
\we want a larger and broader entrepreneurship ecosystem, that supports
young Africans, and we want to deepen our engagement with government to
create the enabling environment to support these Africans to succeed – the
right investment climate, training, education, access to capital and most
importantly creating the right investment culture.”
Other dignitaries at the event included: Carl Michiels, Director, European
Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM); Bruno Wenn, Former
CEO/Chairman at DEG-German Investment and Development Company, and
Advisory Board Member, Tony Elumelu Foundation; Mr Viwanou
Gnanssougou, Assistant Secretary General, African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) at the European Council of the European Union, and Ifeyinwa
Ugochukwu, CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
