There Is A Better Way To Develop Africa Than Aid– Elumelu
Billionaire businessman, Tony Elumelu, has expressed a commitment to eradicating poverty on the African continent through the empowerment of entrepreneurs.
Elumelu said this on Friday at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme and announcement of the 2024 beneficiaries of the programme which held at the UBA building in Marina, Lagos.
The founder TEF added that the motive for the foundation was to show practical example to the world that there is a better way to develop Africa than through foreign aids.
According to African Arguments, since 1960, Africa has received billions of dollars in aid. In the last 30 years alone, one estimate puts aid to the continent at $1.2tn, though distributed very unevenly across the continent.
Elumelu said, “This is just phase one and we are just getting started. Unless and until we eradicate poverty in Africa by Africans leading and showing the way, we cannot stop. We have 1.2 billion people in Africa, the poverty level is very high, our young ones are over 60 per cent, and we need to create jobs for them. We need them to empower to create jobs for themselves. That is why we do what we do. We are just getting started, we aspire to increase our impact and scale. We want to do more.”
Responding to questions about the future of the foundation, Elumelu said that TEF keeps track of beneficiaries and how they are doing.
“For us, what gets measured, gets done. We track how the beneficiaries are succeeding and impacting humanity, society and their communities. They have generated $1.2bn in revenue in their businesses. All have not succeeded but we told ourselves from the beginning that it was not about 100 per cent success, that even if 40, 50 per cent of our beneficiaries succeed, let’s through them eradicate poverty but more importantly show others. We are trying to crowd others into this space of entrepreneurship. We are trying to encourage other Africans and global citizens that we are in the 21st century there is a better way to give, a better way to develop Africa than just aid.
“If you ask for impact, we have created jobs, we have grown businesses but more importantly we have shown the light, we have told people in Africa our young people need support, mentors, and financial support to help them start their business and collectively we can develop Africa in a manner that is truly sustainable in the 21st century.”
Elumelu, whose birthday was on Friday revealed that the announcement of the 2024 beneficiaries of the Entrepreneurship Programme was a worthwhile avenue to mark his birthday.
“Today, I’m plus one and both my family and I, thought there was no better way to celebrate than announcing the 2024 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme beneficiaries. 1,104 beneficiaries as you heard from our partners from EY. These 1,104 young men and women from 54 African countries will each receive $5,000 non-refundable seed capital. We believe in spreading luck, we believe in democratising luck.
“We believe in spreading prosperity and we believe that the best way to spread prosperity in Africa is by identifying our young ones, encouraging them and helping them to start their own businesses. This is why we have done this. Awele (his wife) and I started this journey 10 years ago. We sought to democratise luck and improve lives. We are happy with the results we are seeing today.
“Today, over 20,000 young men and women from across Africa have received over $100m in support of their projects. We are happy to see our young ones progressing. We are happy to see that what we started alone as Tony Elumelu Foundation, we have been able to identiy and partner with other global institutions.
“Today is a day of impact, a day of gratitude and most importantly a day of reflection for me personally because God has been kind in so many ways to me,” he said.
He added that the foundation was set up not out of abundance but a desire to spread prosperity, saying, “My family and I do what we do not from the abundance of wealth but the realisation that poverty anywhere is a threat to us everywhere and that we cannot live alone in prosperity.
