On March 22, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, marked his birthday with a celebration of impact and entrepreneurship, reflecting on a vision that has transformed the lives of thousands of young Africans. Elumelu shared how his understanding of opportunity evolved over time.
“For a long time, I believed luck was something that simply happened to you,” he said. “Then I realized: luck can be engineered. Opportunity can be democratised. Hope is not just a feeling, it is a system we can build.”
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This system of hope began in 2010, when Elumelu and his wife established The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) to empower African entrepreneurs. Recognizing that Africa’s greatest resource was its people, they sought to harness the creativity and ingenuity of the continent’s youth to drive economic transformation.
From the outset, TEF set out to train, mentor, and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs with $5,000 in non-refundable seed capital. Over the past 16 years, that goal has been nearly tripled. To date, the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme has provided over $100 million in seed capital to more than 24,000 entrepreneurs, with 80 percent of these businesses scaling beyond their early stages, a significant increase compared to the global average of one in five.
The programme’s achievements have been remarkable, positively impacting over 4 million African households, lifting 2.1 million Africans out of poverty, generating $4.2 billion in revenue through Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs, creating 1.5 million jobs, and granting access to training for more than 2.5 million Africans. Through this work, TEF has helped redefine Africa’s development narrative, shifting from aid dependency to partnership, a model now studied by governments, global institutions, and think tanks around the world.
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During the graduation of the 12th cohort of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme at Transcorp Hilton Abuja, Elumelu highlighted the transformative power of entrepreneurship. “Every year, I reflect on something far greater than myself,” he said. “Through TEF, we plant certainty in the lives of young African entrepreneurs. We believe in Africa, its people, and its future. And together, we are building it.”
The event served as a testament to Africapitalism in action, the belief that Africa’s private sector, particularly its entrepreneurs, must lead the continent’s economic and social transformation.
