The Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony O. Elumelu, received Executive Vice-President, European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, at a bilateral meeting between TEF and EU towards deepening the existing collaborative partnership between both parties. The partnership between the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the EU has empowered 2500 young women entrepreneurs across Africa, helping to generate impact in their communities, creating jobs and revenue, and contributing to eradicating poverty.

As the EU prioritises women, youth and digital skills in Africa over the next decade, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) continues to embody these priorities, while forging an even deeper partnership with the EU that impacts hundreds of thousands more youth-owned small businesses across all 54 countries in Africa.

Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, while thanking the European Commission for its landmark partnership with the Foundation to empower young Africans, emphasised the need for an expanded collaboration to reach even more youth: “When I see our young people die trying to cross the Mediterranean, my heart bleeds and I say to myself, what can we do to stop this? And the demonstration of what we can do to stop this, both you, EU and the OACPS did through the support for young African entrepreneurs on the 2021 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. Through your help and support, we were able to scale up support for women entrepreneurs in Africa. I look forward to an even deeper partnership.”

In response, the Executive Vice-President, European Union (EU), Margrethe Vestager expressed her support for the work of the Foundation in empowering young African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries. “It is promising that there are organisations not just giving hope,” she said, “but giving hands-on, specific skills enabling these young entrepreneurs to do business and of course also helping to develop financing instruments for later in their business life. This is your own model at the Foundation. There is a grant but also business education, mentoring, advocacy for ease of doing business, for the tax man to be predictable. I am very much aligned.”

Mr. Elumelu continued the meeting, providing additional guidance to the EU in furtherance of its mission to support African youth and women in particular: “As they say, the journey of one mile, starts with a step. There are certain building blocks that must be in place for African entrepreneurs to succeed. One is access to electricity, and two is creating enabling policies that will allow and support these young entrepreneurs. In addition to the support you give, policy advocacy will go a long way.”

Source: The Tony Elumelu Foundation