TEF grants $15m to 3,000 entrepreneurs across Africa

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has stated that it will disburse $15 million to 3,000 successful applicants for the 2025 Cohort of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme Somachi Chris-Asoluka, CEO of the Foundation made the disclosure in Abuja on Saturday during the unveiling of the 2025 enterpreneurship cohort. She said, “We have now announced an additional 3,000 […]

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has stated that it will disburse $15 million to 3,000 successful applicants for the 2025 Cohort of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme

Somachi Chris-Asoluka, CEO of the Foundation made the disclosure in Abuja on Saturday during the unveiling of the 2025 enterpreneurship cohort.

She said, “We have now announced an additional 3,000 young African entrepreneurs from across 52 countries on the continent, who will be receiving 15 million United States dollars from the Tony Elumelu Foundation for the 2025 cohort of the Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurship program.

“These 3,000 entrepreneurs were selected from over 200,000 applications through a diligent process handled by our partners, Ernst and Young.”

She added that “Each Entrepreneur on the program receives 5, 000 US dollars seed capital from the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

This 5,000 US dollars is not a loan. It is not equity. It’s not a stake in their business. It is a grant. It is nonreturnable and we don’t expect it back. Since 2015, our founder has disbursed over $100 million of his own wealth towards these young African entrepreneurs.”

Earlier in his remarks, founder of TEF, Tony Elumelu noted that through the programme, entrepreneurs have created over 1.5 million jobs across the continent and generated over $4.2 billion, adding that it has now lifted over 2 million Africans out of poverty since 2015.

He further stated that the entrepreneurs were selected based on merit while urging them to bring their innovation onboard and contribute to the growth of the economy.