The Tony Elumelu Foundation, an African philanthropic organisation committed to entrepreneurship development, has announced the selection of another 1,000 successful African entrepreneurs.
The foundation said in a statement on Tuesday that the beneficiaries of the business training and $10,000 fund were selected from over 93,000 applications.
It said that applications it received from the 55 participating African countries increased by over 100 per cent from last year and nearly quadruple the number for the 2015 cohort.
It explained that 50 per cent of the 2017 cohort participants were from Nigeria, followed by Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Cameroon.
According to the foundation, agriculture led the pack with nearly one in three successful applicants, saying it was an indication that African youths were ready to feed the continent.
The TEF said that the 11 per cent of applicants operated in the Information and Communication Technology sector, followed by manufacturing, which had nine per cent.
It said the trend was an evidence of a paradigm shift away from the extractive industry to a more sustainable mind-set that embraced industrialisation and diversification.
The Founder, TEF, Mr. Tony Elumelu, said, “Standing here today to announce the successful applicants, it is bittersweet. There are 92,000 aspiring entrepreneurs who have been unsuccessful.
“These young African men and women have demonstrated passion and creativity in their applications and we should not relent until we help them realise their aspirations. I call on other successful Africans and friends of Africa to support us to do more.”
Speaking on the foundation’s impact in three years, the Chief Executive Officer, TEF, Parminder Vir, said, “We recently sampled 600 of our existing 2,000 entrepreneurs to understand the extent of our programme’s impact. We discovered they have turned our investment into real returns with 1,297 jobs created so far.”
