Business mogul, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu has shared what inspired him to start up his philanthropy foundation, Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Speaking with a journalist at the just concluded Bahrain Economic Development Conference, Mr. Elumelu gave insight on how his philanthropy journey all started.
According to the Chairman of Heirs Holdings and United Bank of Africa, being born an African and witnessing the poverty that resonates with many African people pushed him to help individuals attain a poverty-free life.
Founder, @TonyOElumelu shares what inspired him to start The Tony Elumelu Foundation in this interview with @Alarabiya in #Bahrain. Read English version here https://t.co/hcjJoLVPiX pic.twitter.com/t7bjqWwgea
— The Tony Elumelu Foundation (@TonyElumeluFDN) July 3, 2019
[READ ALSO: What may amuse you about TEF Entrepreneurship Programme]
A Foundation set up to fight poverty: He said, “I was born in Africa, grew up in Africa and I witnessed the poverty here but I learned that it doesn’t matter how much money you have but what matters most is helping the community and fighting poverty.
We must help entrepreneurs who have creative and innovative ideas and deep vision to build added-value projects and that’s our mission at the Tony Elumelu Foundation.”
How he started: He noted the Foundation started off by helping young African entrepreneurs with capital to start up their own businesses, providing them a connected environment to help them mix and reach their customers and other entrepreneurs.
“The Foundation introduced a programme with a value of $100 million to support 1,000 entrepreneurs every year from African countries by giving each one $5000 as well as training them for 12 weeks on business management and we provide them with mentors to help them manage their businesses.”
Elumelu in his statement noted that the Foundation since its establishment in 2010, has participated in supporting more than 7000 entrepreneurs in Africa during the last 5 years and aims to support 10,000 more soon.
He also noted how important it is to support small and medium projects and visionary entrepreneurs.
“It’s very important to support small and medium projects to fight unemployment as well as supporting entrepreneurs who have hope, innovative ideas, and faith in success and that’s what we target at the Foundation.”
