1,000 African Entrepreneurs have been selected out of 93,000 applicants for the 2017 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. They join 2,000 alumni from the 2015 and 2016 rounds.
They are a diverse group of emerging business leaders — over 93,000 entrepreneurs across 55 countries in Africa applied, more than doubling the number of applications received in 2016 (45,000) and quadrupling the number received in 2015 (20,000). 32% of all applicants were women, up from 36% in 2016.
In the next nine months, the 2017 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs will be trained and mentored and will use the skills acquired to develop a business plan; after which they become eligible to receive up to $10,000 in seed capital to develop their business concepts.
Agriculture is the sector young African entrepreneurs see as cool with 29% of applicants proposing agriculture ventures; followed by, ICT (11%) and manufacturing (9%). Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Cameroon produced the most applicants.
In the words of the Founder, Tony O. Elumelu, “Standing here today to announce the successful applicants is bittersweet. There are 92,000 aspiring entrepreneurs who have been unsuccessful. These young African men and women have demonstrated passion, innovation and creativity in their applications and we should not relent until we help them ALL realize their aspirations. I call on other well-endowed Africans and friends of Africa, to support us to do more.”
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