Business

Elumelu’s foundation launches world digital platform for African entrepreneurs

Per Second NewsSeptember 19, 2018116

Africa’s entrepreneurs will now have a world digital platform known as TEFConnect, an open source platform providing “bespoke tools and content to catalyse business development for millions across the continent,” thanks to the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).

TEFConnect is planned for unveiling at this year’s fourth annual entrepreneurship conference where more than 5,000 people operating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem including broad investor community, government and policymakers, leading developmental organisations, private sector representatives, heads of states, investors and global business leaders will converge on Lagos to discuss entrepreneurship development in Africa, among others.

“The Tony Elumelu Foundation is simply about empowering African entrepreneurs. First, we launched the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, to provide 10,000 African entrepreneurs, over a period of 10 years with seed capital, mentorship and training. Next, we convened the full entrepreneurial ecosystem at the TEF Forum to forment engagement and deliberate discussions to change the narrative of Africa. Now, we are scaling our impact by connecting African entrepreneurship ecosystem on a single platform,” Parminder Vir OBE, CEO of the foundation said in an emailed statement.

The platform will give entrepreneurs access to five specific benefits, including one-stop digital home for entrepreneurship ecosystem players such as entrepreneurs, incubators, investors, academia and the private sectors and will provide news, informative resources, entrepreneurship events and opportunities.

The platforms will also allow the entrepreneurs create the space that allows them to transact across countries and regions in “Africa’s largest digital marketplace, with traffic reaching millions of consumers”; while providing access to free business tools such as financial planning calculators, business plan generators and marketing templates, among others.

Known also “Facebook for African Entrepreneurs”, the platform will grant access to the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme Application Form, Enterprise Toolkit and business mentoring by global business leaders; as well as enable them promote their businesses to potential investors and other entrepreneurs for cross-border collaboration, the foundation said.

TEF Forum which holds on October 25, 2018, at Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria is a testament to the foundation’s efforts at harnessing and building on the success of Africa’s largest entrepreneurship catalyst.

To date, the foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme has attracted over 300,000 African entrepreneurs as applicants and trained and funded 4,460 as it further democratises access to opportunity.

“In the four years, since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, we have shown that entrepreneurship can change a continent – we have invested in people and processes. We have already helped create business successes and brought policy makers into the entrepreneurial dynamic.

“But in many ways, we are scratching the surface. This year we are broadening our scope, taking the conversation to where interaction is increasingly occurring – the digital realm. By connecting African entrepreneurs globally on TEFConnect, we are further unleashing the true potential of our entrepreneurs and transforming the continent,” the foundations’s founder, Tony Elumelu said.

This year’s forum will feature an interactive dialogue between the President of Ghana, HE Nana Akufo-Addo and President of Kenya, HE Uhuru Kenyatta, moderated by TEF Founder, Tony Elumelu.