Tony Elumelu: Advancement of private sector initiatives key to unlocking African potential.

UGO AMADI

Tony Elumelu, one of Africa’s leading investors, economist, entrepreneur and philanthropist has expressed his enthusiasm for harnessing the potential of African citizens, believing that the advancement of private sector initiatives holds a particular key to unlocking African potential.

He stated this while speaking at that groundbreaking case study on  Tony Elumelu Foundation Philanthropy For Entrepreneurs: Democratising Luck Across The African Continent by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, London, stressing that for decades, Africans have demonstrated an impressive ability to directly serve in their continent’s development and its capacity to create economic benefits

Daily Champion reports that the event was hosted by the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy (CSP)  which features in-depth interviews with key international philanthropists working in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

According to him ‘’a strong private sector, spurred by entrepreneurs, is critical to advancing peace, stability and development. While promoting business formation is no substitute for strengthening Africa’s weak infrastructure, governance and institutions, neither are challenging business conditions a reason to delay unleashing the entrepreneurial energies of African youth,’’ Elumelu said.

Elumelu noted that TEF was founded in 2010, with the desire to help alleviate poverty and create prosperity in Africa. ‘’We don’t just give seed capital but we engage young people in Africa to create jobs and prosperity.  We need to have an army of enterprising young people and we have found a way of developing our continent and that is through entrepreneurship. He stated

Elumelu cites his own story as a hopeful example of what African entrepreneurs can achieve and the impact they can have. Born to a modest family in Jos Plateau, Nigeria, Elumelu began his working life as a copy machine salesman after university. He says a lucky break landed him his first job in banking, where he worked his way into the executive ranks. In 1997, he led a small group of investors to acquire a distressed bank that he turned around to profitability and in 2005 he led one of the largest bank mergers in sub-Saharan Africa, buying the United Bank of Africa, where he remains chairman. He is also chairman of Transcorp, one of Nigeria’s biggest employers and capital investors. In 2010, he formed the family investment firm Heirs Holdings, whose portfolio companies include oil, power generation and hospitality businesses.

Looking back on what brought him to his current position, Mr Elumelu believes that ‘luck’ is an important element of his success. When he first came to the workplace from university, he was lucky to enter a financial institution, that developed his skillset with supportive mentors, where his career prospects were boosted from a formative age. The experience inspired him to think about creating similar opportunities for all young African entrepreneurs – often considered the lifeblood of Africa’s rise in the 21st century.  With such a vision, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) was established in 2010 as the philanthropic arm of Heirs Holdings, an investment company founded by Mr Elumelu, to bring these visions and ambitions to life.

Mr Elumelu acknowledged the challenges on the African continent, having experienced many of them himself throughout his life and career – his philanthropic endeavours, therefore, explore sustainable ways to generate economic and social impact on Pan-African development. This Pan-African vision is not exclusive to his philanthropy, as even in his early career Mr Elumelu successfully transformed a single-country bank into an international institution. TEF, as a result, is guided by the philosophy of ‘Africapitalism’, which is underpinned by the belief that a vibrant and competitive private sector is the key to unlocking Africa’s economic potential and creating sustained social wealth’¹.

He noted ‘’Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last decade witnessed a moderate socio-economic improvement across Africa³ though this growth did not always necessarily lead to a sustainable, broad-based increases in prosperity. In fact, Africa’s economic growth has often been heavily dependent on extractive sectors dominated by foreign capital, therefore leading to the exacerbation of wealth disparity. Facing the challenge of lack of inclusivity and the urgent need to facilitate local value creation, Africapitalism – with its focus on the empowerment of emerging entrepreneurs – serves as a powerful driver for Africa’s economic growth and social development.

“By 2050, half of the world’s youth population will be African. If they don’t have opportunities and prosperity in their own land, it is a ticking time bomb. The only solution to avoiding this devastating consequence is to create opportunities on the African continent.” – he stated

‘’To achieve the vision of Africapitalism, TEF has explored and implemented different initiatives with a focus on entrepreneurship since its inception in 2010. The Foundation has executed its mission of supporting entrepreneurs and catalysing entrepreneur-led development across Africa. To date, its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme has been well-developed to promote the creation of an enabling and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.

As an institutionalized philanthropic organization, what distinguished TEF from other funders was its operational model, which has involved adopting a business approach that focuses not only on its impact but also on its growth. The Foundation built and expanded a proactive digital platform, TEFConnect.com, to make the Pan-African coverage feasible, thus deepening its impact.

As the Entrepreneurship Programme has scaled up over the years, there have been considerable challenges, particularly given the overwhelming interest in the Programme from new and aspiring entrepreneurs across the continent. Such challenges include but are not limited to 1) restricted funding capacity compared to the enormous demand, 2) diverse contexts with different national policies, government capacity, languages, and financial regulations, 3) the imbalance and inadequacy of infrastructure in different regions, such as access to electricity and Internet connectivity, 4) gender inequality and the need for higher female engagement, and 5) difficulties around assessing the long-term impact of the Programme.

In response to these challenges, the TEF team has developed a data-driven approach to measure and evaluate their impact, further facilitating their internal transformation for sustainable growth and driving a more inclusive Programme. Moreover, building strong partnerships with local and international organizations has become an essential element to expanding their own capacity. Through leveraging local and global resources, the barriers which hinder the growth of young African entrepreneurs are being slowly surmounted by the joint commitment of TEF and their partners.

To ensure greater success of the Programme, Mr Elumelu and the TEF team also actively engage in policy advocacy to draw global and pan-African governmental attention to the voices of young African entrepreneurs, thus enabling a more supportive and conducive environment for their business and growth.

It is expedient to note that this case study which was written by Dr Shonali Banerjee, Senior Research Associate, and Xiaoyu Dai, Research Assistant, of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School highlighted how Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has built a philanthropic reputation that takes more innovative and focused approaches than other African empowerment initiatives.

Other themes that emerged from the case study include: Taking the philosophy of ‘Africapitalism’ as its guiding principle, TEF focuses its narrative on solutions developed for Africans by Africans across all 54 countries.

Believing in the value of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in 2015 TEF established its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme to empower aspiring African entrepreneurs through capacity building and direct funding.

The Programme has been scaled up through digital technology, strong multi-stakeholder partnerships and policy-focused advocacy.

TEF developed a rigorous monitoring and evaluation mechanism to assess the performance of the programme, including its significant impact on job creation, revenue generation and inclusion.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing women’s economic empowerment. Since its inception, the Foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalysed over 18,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans.