The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has announced that it has chosen over 130 Kenyans for its annual TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. The Kenyans are among 3,050 African entrepreneurs drawn from all 54 African countries who will join the 5th cycle of its $100 million initiative.
They also announced that the annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum will be held on July 26-27 2019. The announcement was made at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja, following a presentation of the selection process by Accenture Development Partners.
This year, over 216,000 applications were received which represents an increase from last year’s 151,000. Nearly 90,000 were submitted by female entrepreneurs, an increase of 45%. The selected Entrepreneurs will each receive non- refundable amount of $5,000 in seed capital, access to mentors, and a 12-week business training programme. On July 26 – 27 2019, all the selected entrepreneurs will attend the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum.
Over 130 Kenyan entrepreneurs were selected in this year’s TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, nearly double the 74 that were selected last year. This brings the total number of Kenyan entrepreneur beneficiaries from the programme to over 480 over the last 5 years.
Marking the fifth anniversary of the 10-year programme, this year’s selection includes 2,050 entrepreneurs, supported by the Foundation’s partners. This is in addition to the Foundation’s annual commitment of 1,000, bringing the total number of entrepreneurs empowered by the Foundation to date to 7,520. Last year, the organization launched TEFConnect, a digital networking platform for African entrepreneurs.
The Foundation’s partners include; the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Federal Republic of Benin (Seme City), the Anambra State Government, Indorama, the Government of Botswana and the African Development Bank (AfDB).