BUJUMBURA January 4th (ABP) – The application portal for the 6th cohort of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP) is now open.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading African philanthropy focused on empowering African entrepreneurs, is looking for the most innovative business ideas on the African continent.
Applications are made through TEFConnect, the digital networking center for the ecosystem of African entrepreneurship, established by the Foundation.
The TEF entrepreneurship program is open to entrepreneurs from all over Africa, either with new start-up ideas or existing businesses less than 3 years old, operating in all sectors.
Successful applicants will join the current 9,000 beneficiaries from 54 African countries, and will receive business training, mentorship, $ 5,000 non-refundable seed capital and global networking opportunities.
For the 2019 edition, the Foundation received around 216,000 applications, 42% of which were women entrepreneurs from all over the continent.
For the case of Burundi 200 applications were registered for that edition and 52 were selected, and this is already a step taken compared to the previous edition (2018) where only 5 Burundian candidates were selected for this program.
The selected candidates have just undergone a 12-week training in business and are waiting for investment which will be sanctioned by the release of seed capital of US $ 5,000 non-paid off.
Some young people who spoke to the check by ABP about this program say they are ready to try their odds.
Thus, the Program consists of a commitment of $ 100 million over 10 years to identify, train, mentor and finance 10,000 young African entrepreneurs.
The objective is to create millions of jobs and the income necessary for the sustainable development of the continent, by applying the philosophy of African capitalism, which positions the private sector as an engine of growth in Africa and underlines the importance of creation of social and economic wealth.
According to the Foundation’s 2018 impact report, 70% of the total number of businesses in its network of former beneficiaries were still operational two years after receiving the program.
The report also indicates a 189% increase in the income generated and a 197% increase in the number of additional jobs created by beneficiaries after graduation from the program, as well as a 100% commitment to the objectives of sustainable development. According to the same report, the number of applicants to this program has increased over time.
Thus, 20,228 candidates were received in 2015, 45,658 in 2016, 93,246 candidates in 2017, 151,692 in 2018 against 216,000 candidates for 2019.
According to the classification of the countries applying to this program, it is very visible that the English-speaking countries in particular Nigeria, Benin, Kenya, South Africa, and son on, take the lion’s share.
It is worthy to note that the deadline for submitting applications is March 1, 2020.
