Nigerian mogul Tony Elumelu signs $20-million deal to support African entrepreneurs

Nigerian multimillionaire businessman and philanthropist Tony Elumelu has signed a $20-million agreement with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to support African entrepreneurs and businesses.

The multimillion-dollar agreement was signed through the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an African non-profit organization. The signing of the deal aligns with the USADF’s commitment to the continent and Elumelu’s strategic efforts to invest in African women and youths.

The agreement, which was signed at a breakfast roundtable hosted by TEF and the Google Foundation in New York as part of the United Nations General Assembly, will play a critical role in lifting Africans out of poverty and bringing them to prosperity.

According to Travis Adkins, president and CEO of USADF, the collaboration between the two foundations will bring hope and joy to the continent.

“We live in a world where the majority of the continent’s population — women and youth — are treated as if they are a small niche constituency when they are the marginalized majority,” Adkins said. “To recognize that and incorporate them into everything we do: there is no mainstream, they are the mainstream.”

Elumelu, the chairman of TEF and United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria’s leading financial services groups, has been instrumental in assisting young entrepreneurs and business owners across Africa.

“What matters is the impact we bring, the lives we touch, the ability to help take people out of poverty to prosperity, so that we can share,” he said, restating his commitment to lifting Africans out of poverty and bringing them to prosperity.

Elumelu believes that by assisting and empowering young entrepreneurs through early-stage funding for their businesses, jobs needed to catalyze the kind of economic development that the continent requires will be created.

This he has done numerous times through TEF, an African non-profit organization dedicated to providing $5,000 non-refundable seed capital to young African entrepreneurs to help them start and scale their businesses.

Last year, the Nigerian banker selected 4,949 entrepreneurs from throughout Africa for his philanthropic foundation’s 2021 entrepreneurship program, where each of the entrepreneurs received $5,000, totaling $24.75 million in funding support.

The recipients were chosen from a pool of more than 400,000 applicants from 54 African countries based on their creativity, level of innovation, performance, and potential to create jobs and eradicate the continent’s endemic poverty.