By Frederick ASIAMAH
The rate at which young people are developing enterprises in Ghana, and across Africa, is becoming clear as the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme prepares to announce the third batch of 1,000 businesses to win support from the Nigerian business mogul.
The selection team has been inundated with tons of applications, the numbers reaching 93,000.
Tony O. Elumelu, who was in Ghana for two days last week, disclosed the number of applications at a seminar for students of the Business School of the University of Ghana.
He spoke of his frustration at being able to help only 1,000 (1.07%) of the applicants in line with the tenets of the Entrepreneurship Programme.
“The true development of Africa will come from the success of young people and entrepreneurs…Therefore, what we do at Tony Elumelu Foundation is an investment in Africa’s future,” he told his audience.
Elumelu, who is also Group Chairman of UBA Plc, revealed that so far 2,000 young entrepreneurs have been supported during the first two calls of the Foundation.
“For Ghana, we are happy to say we have inspired 79 Ghanaian entrepreneurs,” he disclosed, positing that this is an example of his theory of democratising and institutionalising luck in the sense “these people didn’t know us. We just put the criteria out” and they applied.
The goal of the yearly programme is to invest $100 million over 10 years to identify, train, mentor and seed 10,000 African businesses with a view to creating one million new jobs and $10 billion in additional revenue for the continent by democratising and institutionalising luck. “Only in Africa is our story even possible,” the UBA Chairman stated.
Mentorship
Elumelu stressed the need for established African business leaders to mentor and support the young generation and budding entrepreneurs with knowledge and resources.
“Often times, most of us will travel very far to other places – we go to Harvard, Oxford University – to share our experiences. But many a time, we do not give so much attention to share those experiences with our people at home.
“So, I have taken it upon myself and I have also started impressing upon my peers that we should, indeed, engage more with our people…because when we relate stories, there is no better form of inspiration than that,” he opined.
He continued that “I believe very strongly that the future of every society rests in the young people… And so, if society invests time and resources in these upcoming ones they will surely succeed.”
He said he had not gone to the Business School of the University of Ghana to pontificate or theorize. “I am standing on this stage to share with you, as much as possible, my practical, real life experiences about entrepreneurship and the values that have brought me this far, believing that they also could see you go on and grow beyond that level…The difference I see between some of us and others lies in the transformative power of entrepreneurship.”
On the other hand, he had a piece of counsel for his audience. “Becoming an entrepreneur is important, it can change lives, can change communities, can change nations… but the journey to entrepreneurship is tough. I must say this. There is no quick fix about it. There are values and attributes you must possess to succeed as an entrepreneur.”
He named the values and attributes as: dedication, vision, focus, ambition, and ability to do things when we want to do them. “We must always remain laser focused and aim to execute to perfection,” Elumelu said.
Described as a serial entrepreneur, Elumelu, while only aged 34, became the Managing Director of one of Nigeria’s top banks (Standard Trust Bank), later leading one of the biggest mergers in Nigeria’s history to date.
He stressed that entrepreneurship, and not philanthropy, is key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering Africans to solve the continent’s challenges without dependence on aid from western countries.
“No one, but us, is going to develop Africa,” he stated.
In this regard, he urged young Ghanaian entrepreneurs to have faith because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, whom he had met on his tour in Ghana, appeared to have brilliant ideas for creating a conducive environment for business.
“I met with your great President; and, his commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and the larger private sector in your country is nothing short of admirable. I was impressed by his plans to expand small businesses… Young people of Ghana, you have indeed every reason to be optimistic. The future is bright.”
