When I first met @PreetiSinha_, Executive Secretary of @UNCDF, I was struck immediately by her passion, enthusiasm and advocacy for youth and entrepreneurship – and I knew I had an ally and a friend.
Months later, what started off as a shared, but distant, vision is being executed, as we convened on Monday in NY, to sign the African Youth Entrepreneurship Agreement - a partnership between TEF and @UNCDF; UN’s catalytic finance entity capacitise even more African entrepreneurs
Youth unemployment is a tragic waste of talent and a betrayal of a generation. In Africa, we feel the harsh impact of youth joblessness. As African leaders, we must do something – more importantly, as global leaders, we must work together to address this issue.
If we cannot solve these challenges today, the world and the next generation will not forgive us.
We know what Africa’s young entrepreneurs need - we know, through our twelve-year experience, how access to finance can help change the trajectory of their lives.
I believe that by supporting and empowering our young entrepreneurs through early stage funding for their businesses, we can create the jobs needed and catalyse the kind of economic development our continent requires – we can help thousands and inspire millions.
At @TonyElumeluFDN, we are committed to supporting young African Entrepreneurs, with $5,000 non-refundable seed capital that they need to start and scale their businesses. This is but a tiny drop of water, we want to do more.
But we do not want to do this alone, it is our desire to work with other institutions, sharing our know how, access and methodology, which is why partnerships like this, with the UNCDF, are so important to us.
I thank Preti for leading this conversation and her team at @UNCDF for making this partnership come to reality. Without a doubt, this support of the UNCDF will see us further scale our impact at TEF and reach more promising African Entrepreneurs in the coming months. #TEFatUNGA
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Often, I am asked what achievement I am most proud of, and my answer is always the same – the sense of fulfilment I feel, when I interact with the beneficiaries of the @TonyElumeluFDN.
Hearing their testimonies, successes and challenges, the impact that $5,000 has on their businesses, ideas, and communities – this gives me joy and excitement. When people ask what motivates me – this is it!
Yesterday, on the side-lines of #UNGA77, @TonyElumeluFDN and @Google hosted a Roundtable at @UBAAmerica. We listened to 3African entrepreneurs; Ugochi Obidiegwu, founder - @TheSafetyChic; Kwabena Danso, founder - Booomers Intl. Ltd, and Chioma Ukonu, co-founder - @RecyclePointsNG
I am an example of success in Africa. There are a lot of opportunities on the continent, but capital is very difficult to come by. I come from a modest background and I have been able to grow multinational businesses from this modest background.
But I'm not the only one.
There are a lot of other young Africans who are more energetic, equally intelligent, if not more intelligent, but access to capital is very difficult to come by in Africa.
The @TonyElumeluFDN for the past 12 years has been catalysing and supporting African entrepreneurs and from my interactions with them and what we've seen, they need capital, mentoring and business education, so that when the capital comes they know how to manage it.
This morning, I am listening to my colleagues at the office bemoan the very pressing issues that they face everyday in this country, and how things have been getting worse and worse - no electricity for 5 days, hikes in the price of diesel, frightening food inflation, etc.
How can a country so rich in natural resources have 90% of its citizens living in hardship and poverty? I have often said that access to electricity is critical for our development, alleviation of poverty and hardship. And speaking of security, our people are afraid!
Businesses are suffering. How can we be losing over 95% of oil production to thieves?
Look at the Bonny Terminal that should be receiving over 200k barrels of crude oil daily, instead it receives less than 3,000 barrels, leading the operator @Shell to declare force majeure.
As a young man when we started at Standard Trust Bank, banks were still focused on metropolitan areas but we wanted to give opportunity to everyone and create access to financial services for all around the country. So we left the city and we expanded all over Nigeria. (2)
@UBAgroup was a one country operation in 2005 when I took over as CEO following the merger but our strategic intent was to do what we did w/ Standard Trust Bank & expand this time in Africa bringing excellence in financial services & again - access, uniting Africa through banking