Tony Elumelu entrepreneurs win big at 2018 Google Awards

Tony Elumelu Foundation is targeting to make 10,000 Africans entrepreneurs

By OKEY ONYENWEAKU

Three recipients of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs award have equally won big at the 2018 Google Awards. Two of the awardees, HelpMum (2016 Tony Elumelu entrepreneur) and Project Enable Africa (2017 Tony Elumelu entrepreneur), won $250,000 each, a quarter of the $2 million prize money Google has made available to deserving innovative entrepreneurs.
Another winner of the 2018 Google Award, Budgit Foundation, was a grant winner of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Innovation Fund in 2012.
The winners won the hearts of the judges who praised the impact of TEF on their presentations. The judges praised the Tony Elumelu Foundation for its role in discovering, unleashing and empowering the next generation of African entrepreneurs.
An elated MzamoMasito, Google’s Head of Marketing, Africa, who was a judge at the Google impact challenge said “Mr. Elumelu, if two entrepreneurs can walk away with the two top prizes, just imagine how others are leveraging the TEF Kite mark. I am humbled and honoured to be part of TEF. Well done, the small but mighty team.
“TEF signals market validation when Alumni apply for further funding. So, thank you from Google for the great work we are doing. I am heading home, still amazed that two TEF entrepreneurship programme Alumni from Nigeria won $500,000 of the $2 million prize money for Google Impact Challenge.
The winners, who credited the Elumelu Foundation for their first break, have continued to attract global attention and recognition for the awards.
According to the Head, Policy & External Relations, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Somachi Chris-Asoluka, their success at the Google award is a testament to the achievements of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship programme.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme is an entrepreneurial initiative run by the Tony Elumelu Foundation, based in Nigeria, spanning across Africa.
As part of his entrepreneurial initiative Elumelu has been a loud voice for what he has conceived and called ‘Africapitalism’ which is the spirit of the new entrepreneurship of emergent young and creative business minds on the continent.
Elumelu has taken the charge with the same hardnosed rigour that he turned the defunct Crystal Bank into subsequent industry leading banks, STB and then UBA.
The Africapitalism initiative has seen Elumelu support young enterprise initiatives in various African countries with thousands of young entrepreneurs benefitting from his money and his business experience.
According to BismarkRewane, one of Nigeria’s leading investment analysts and Chief Executive Office, Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), and an unapologetic Elumelu admirer, “I think that Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurship project is not only unique but it is visionary. It touches the delicate essence of the drive for a reinvented Africa with a thriving entrepreneurial class and culture’ notes Rewane.
According to him, “the Nigerian business class has been known to be selfish, monopolistic and opportunistic but this makes a clean break from the common mould. This is totally different from the narrow-minded and short-sighted entrepreneurial character familiar to these climes. One can only give Tony credit for his vision and vigour.
“And coming from a minority background in Nigeria with its social restraints and disadvantages this is truly a gift of love demonstrating confidence and commitment in Africa and in its common humanity. One thing about Tony is that whatever he thinks about and decides on, he implements;he is a sucker for execution,”Rewane said.
Established in 2010, the Tony ELumelu Foundation (TEF) is the leading philanthropy in Africa championing Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurs across the continent. The Foundation’s long-term investment in empowering African entrepreneurs is emblematic of Tony Elumelu’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions Africa’s private sector and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent.
Africa’s leading entrepreneurship focused philanthropy, The Tony Elumelu Foundation, plans to launch the world’s largest digital platform for African entrepreneurs and the African entrepreneurship ecosystem – TEFConnect. TEFConnect is an open source platform, which will provide bespoke tools and content to catalyse business development for millions across the continent, through technology and directly applicable content.