On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has marked 15 years of transformative impact across Africa, releasing a comprehensive 15-Year Impact Report that highlights the profound success of its entrepreneurship program.
Founded 15 years ago by Tony Elumelu and his wife, Awele, with the vision of proving that empowering African entrepreneurs could drive continent-wide transformation, the Foundation has deployed more than $120 million to fund 24,633 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries.
According to the milestone report, TEF-backed enterprises have collectively generated over US4.2 billion in revenue and created more than 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
The data reveals that 80 percent of entrepreneurs funded since 2015 remain in business, more than 25 percent have successfully attracted additional investment, and over 7,183 women have been empowered, with 85 percent actively leading their ventures.
Furthermore, an independent assessment highlighted the cost-effectiveness of the model, showing that businesses supported with the Foundation’s US5,000 seed capital created jobs at a cost of less than US$80 each.
Despite these monumental achievements, Tony Elumelu in a blog post noted that during high-level meetings in New York with global leaders including IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and executives from Afreximbank and Bank of America, drew attention to a sobering statistic: 263,578 young Africans applied to the Foundation in 2026 alone but could not be selected due to resource constraints.
Elumelu emphasized that this massive turnout featuring young applicants completing rigorous applications with nothing but an idea disproves narratives questioning Africa’s readiness for investment.
He stressed that Africa is not looking for aid, but is home to a generation demonstrating the raw power of entrepreneurship through the philosophy of Africapitalism.
To steer the Foundation into its next chapter, Elumelu also convened the organisation’s Advisory Board, bringing together distinguished African and global leaders tasked with strengthening governance and expanding its reach.
Concluding his reflections, Elumelu maintained that the proven model of providing seed capital, mentorship, and validation must be scaled up to ensure that Africa’s vast human potential translates into lasting economic transformation.