Ugandans in top Tony Elumelu Foundation awards winners

ANALYSIS | AGENCIES | Ugandan entrepreneurs are among the top three leading winners of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship awards which are the brainchild of Nigerian dollar multi-millionaire Tony Elumelu.

This was revealed recently among data issued at the unveiling of the 10th Cohort of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme in Lagos Nigeria. Building on its existing partnership with Sèmè City Development Agency, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will fund an additional 100 young entrepreneurs from Benin Republic in 2024.

The TEF used the occasion to celebrate the impact of its beneficiaries under what it dubbed “a decade of impact” 2015-2024.

The dominant majority at 33% came from the agriculture sector. Others areas supported are ICT, fashion, manufacturing, education, and commercial/retail sectors.

Nigeria, the home country of the founder, is the country with the highest number of beneficiaries at 7587, followed by neighbouring Mali at 3004 and then Uganda in far off East Africa, and Benin 799. Kenya has 782 beneficiaries, Rwanda 532, and Tanzania 367 in the East African region.

Over 50 business sectors from farming to technology were represented in the data, totaling 20,000 entrepreneurs from 54 countries across Africa that the Foundation has funded in 10 years – doubling original target. The winners, all young African entrepreneurs, received funding, mentoring, and capacity-building support from the Foundation.

Some Ugandan winners of the awards include Dennis Mutoro of Africar Logistics Ltd provides logistics services and door to door delivery, Richard Bbaale, a social entrepreneur and founder of BanaPads in 2010, a company using banana pseudostem wastes to make sanitary towels in Uganda and Tanzania to keep village girls in school and create jobs for local women, and Kaddu Davis Nkwanga of Siloa Medical Laboratory, a private health facility located in Kasubi zone III a suburb of Kampala which provides efficient laboratory-based health services to customers, including general medical care, laboratory services, health checks, maternity and antenatal, at affordable rates.

Other previous Ugandan winners are Juliet Namujju, the CEO of Kimuli Fashionability, a Ugandan fashion label she founded to create an equal opportunity for people with disabilities and environmental conservation through recycling, Joel Cherop of Ataari River Integrated Irrigation Initiative, a horticulture and rice production venture that identifies, trains and seeds young people to begin their own agri-business ventures in a model dubbed “Learn as you earn”, and Ishak Hazz Kanonya of the Total School Assistant (TSA) which is a data processing and information management solution for schools general human resource data, student biodata, financial data, and so on.

TSA can also complete other applications that use the same concept of integrated biometrics with wireless connections, including general human resource and payroll applications, biometric university cafeteria management system, etc.

President Yoweri Museveni commissioned their irrigation project for Ataari River Integrated Irrigation Initiative and Namujju has been featured on CNN’s African Voices Changemakers and sells her fashion in Uganda, Germany and Poland.

Since inception in 2010, the TEF has pioneered an innovative approach to seeding, capacitising and networking young entrepreneurs across Africa.

According to a statement issued to the press on March 26, the Tony Elumelu Foundation draws directly from its founder’s entrepreneurial journey to “democratise luck, spread opportunity, in a sector agnostic approach”.

The Foundation is driven by our Founder’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which advocates that the private sector, particularly entrepreneurs, must play the pivotal role in Africa’s development. The TEF says it has developed a bespoke infrastructure that reaches every country in Africa.

The statement said the robust ability of the Foundation to reach entrepreneurs across geographies and sectors has enabled it to conduct innovative partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the U.S. Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF).

It also has partnerships withthe Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the French Development Agency (AFD), the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the African Development Bank (AfDB), Sèmè City Development Agency, and Google.

Elumelu said: “As we mark a decade of impact, I am immensely proud of the incredible journey we have embarked on. Our entrepreneurs represent the driving force behind Africa’s economic transformation, and their resilience, determination, and innovation continue to inspire us all. The future of our continent is brighter because of their efforts.”

Elumelu majority owns Heirs Holdings with interest in Transnational Corporation, a diversified conglomerate in power, hospitality and energy sectors. He also chairs United Bank for Africa (UBA).

His Foundation’s mission is driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing women economic empowerment.

According to the Foundation, it has disbursed US$100m directly to young African entrepreneurs, who have created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa’s economic growth and development. Up to 45% of these beneficiaries are women, reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to gender inclusion and equity.

The Foundation’s programmes specifically target female empowerment and growth in fragile states.

One of the past women winners, Stella Sigana, founded Alternative Waste Technologies in Kenya which produces fuel briquettes by converting organic and charcoal waste from slum settlements, and dedicates a portion of the revenues to providing education, skills training, and job placement for adolescent girls and young women aged 18-24.

Since her selection, Stella has created 12 jobs, generated over $79,000 in revenue, and recycled over 500 tons of waste into fuel briquettes for cooking. Her business model has also empowered hundreds of women entrepreneurs in slum settlements in Kenya, enabling them to build businesses by selling her products directly to their communities, thus significantly increasing household income and wellbeing.

Another is Nora Chaynane, a Moroccan entrepreneur, and founder of Shine Space, a socio-educational initiative aimed at bridging the knowledge gap and guiding students toward the right career path, helps young Moroccans develop technical and interpersonal skills beyond school curriculum requirements. Through Shine Space, Nora has upskilled and capacitised over 2,500 young Moroccans.

The Foundation also runs the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A), a partnership between the European Union, GIZ and the Aguka Entrepreneurship Programme, a partnership between UNDP in Rwanda.

The key objective of the WE4A programme which is in its first year is to improve the business capacity of women-led enterprises and increase their chances of raising follow-on funding from private sector investors.

It offers 10,000 Euros in grant funding to 120 women entrepreneurs from the TEF alumni network, 3 months of technical support through a virtual acceleration program, and up to €50,000 additional grant funding for up to 15 enterprises with high-growth potential.

The Foundation is also piloting a programme called Be Green Africa which aims to build evidence around youth entrepreneurship in high-impact green sectors, and explore the contribution of young African entrepreneurs to circular economies and a sustained green revolution in Africa. On offer under this programme is $1.1 million in seed capital for winners to scale the green ideas or existing businesses of 220 green sector youth. The pilot, which offers training, mentoring, and economically empowerment to green sector youth under the age of 35, is piloting in five countries; Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa. The programme is built around a Green Curriculum; the first-of-its kind business management training tailored to the development of green businesses.

Meanwhile, The Aguka Entrepreneurship Programme provides comprehensive support to young entrepreneurs, from the initial stages of ideation, through skill development, seed funding and the expansion of their ventures.

The programme aims to enhance youth employability and generate over 100,000 jobs, contributing to private sector development and the socioeconomic transformation of the country.

It offers a wide range of services to micro, small, and medium-sized youth-led enterprises. The ultimate objective is to prepare young entrepreneurs to succeed in the highly competitive business landscape while encouraging them to become leaders and innovators in their respective sectors.

Fact Sheets

The Tony Elumelu Foundation beneficiaries over 10 years

45% male -55% Female

TOP 10 SECTORS FUNDED

33% Agriculture

6% Education &Training

8% ICT

4% Healthcare

6% Commercial/Retail

4% Food & Beverages

7% Fashion

7% Manufacturing

3% Energy/Power Generation

BENEFICIARIES BY COUNTRY

Burkina Faso
370

Chad
596

Gabon
72

Djibouti
14

Kenya
782

Malawi
243

Mozambique
52

Sao Tome
And Principe
29

South Africa
251

Togo
111

Algeria
18

Burundi
14

Egypt
16

Comoros
40

Gambia
44

Lesotho
34

Mali
3004

Namibia
62

Senegal
79

South Sudan
61
Tunisia
23
Angola
36
Cameroon
689
Equatorial
Guinea
18
Congo
90
Ghana
364
Liberia
99
Mauritania
334
Niger
322
Seychelles
10
Sudan
4
Uganda
974
Benin
799
Cape Verde
34
Eritrea
13
Cote D’ivoire
144
Guinea
78
Libya
5
Mauritius
23
Nigeria
7587
Sierra Leone
87
Swaziland
61
Zambia
335
Botswana
182
Central African
Republic
24
Ethiopia
130
Democratic
Republic
of The Congo
344
Guinea-Bissau
86
Madagascar
158
Morocco
22
Rwanda
532
Somalia
10
Tanzania
367
Zimbabwe
200