Tony Elumelu Bags PSN Philanthropy Award

The Chairman and Founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mr Tony Elumelu, on Wednesday, added another feather to his cap when he bagged the ‘2017 Philanthropist Award’ by Per Second News (PSN).

Mr. Femi Soyeye, PSN’s Managing Editor, said in a statement sent to The WHISTLER that Mr Elemulu earned the award for empowering thousands of entrepreneurs across Africa through the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP).

Soneye, who spoke during an event in Lagos on Wednesday, said the TEF alongside the Maraym & Yakubu Foundation and Dreams From The Slum Initiative who were equally honoured, have strategically used their initiative and leadership to support innovative solutions to problems in Africa.

“Philanthropy is dependent on the interest, passion, commitment, generosity and foresight of leaders like those we have honoured today. Never has such leadership been more important,” he said.

Soneye noted that the role of philanthropy in solving “our numerous social, environmental and economic problems” cannot be overemphasised.

In his acknowledgement, Mr Elumelu reaffirmed TEF’s commitment to empowering more entrepreneurs from the continent with innovative ideas.

He said the foundation’s target is to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs in 10 years.

Elumelu expressed confidence that doing so will help TEF add no less than 1 million jobs to the continent.

“The selected entrepreneurs, over the course of the nine months, were mentored, trained and they used the skills acquired to develop a business plan, following which they were eligible to receive up to $10,000 in seed capital.

“After three cycles, the TEEP, being the only African-funded business development initiative of its kind, has received 158,000 applications from African entrepreneurs in 107 countries including every nation of Africa, empowering 3,000 businesses with 12weeks of online training, world-class mentoring, access to TEF’s network start-ups and seed capital of $5,000.

“We must take advantage of our demographic dividend, millions of young people who are ready to make a change. We must welcome this new generation of new ideas and we must democratize access to opportunity for all,” he said.