Tony Elumelu, the Chief Executive Officer of Tony Elumelu Foundation disclosed on Tuesday that the Foundation has plans in place to create over a million jobs across Africa in the next decade through its famed entrepreneurship Programme.
The Chief Officer made this known through a tele-conference coordinated at the Business Branch of UBA, Bank Road, Bauchi.
Elumelu revealed that the foundation, set up in 2014, had already trained and mentored 3,000 entrepreneurs in Africa in the last three segments of the programme.
According to him, the foundation which commenced operations in 2015 targets the training and mentoring of over 10,000 African entrepreneurs by 2024.
He also said that only 200 Nigerians had so far benefited from the programme out of the 3,000 African entrepreneurs that have keyed into the programme in the last three years.
Elumelu while speaking on the reach of the foundation in Nigeria said, “The North-East sub-region of Nigeria has the least beneficiaries because only four people from Azare town in Bauchi State have so far benefited from such gesture.
“The region is backward in terms of entrepreneurship and the least beneficiaries of the foundation and I urge the people within the region to avail themselves of this opportunity.”
Speaking on the scope of the programme, he added that the beneficiaries were trained and mentored in agriculture, education, manufacturing, health care, tourism, media and entertainment, commercial retail, telecommunications, ICT, Fashion and design and other professional services.
While commenting on the benefits, Elumelu said that apart from the three-week free training programme the beneficiaries attended, they were also supported with N1.57 million each to either startup new businesses or boost existing enterprises.
Furthermore, The Chief Officer explained that 180,000 applicants were expected to benefit from the programme designed to equip entrepreneurs with the skills needed to build strong and sustainable businesses from within and outside the African Continent in 2018.
He said that it was expected that the programme would identify, nurture and create 10,000 start-up businesses across Africa that developed ingenious solutions to pressing economic challenges in their communities and countries as well as improve lives, generate employment and wealth.
The chief executive officer said that the 10-year plan would also create one million new jobs and contribute N3.15 trillion additional revenues across Africa.
He encouraged prospective applicants to apply to enable them to benefit from the Programme.
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