Nairobi — The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering African entrepreneurs, have announced 37 Kenyans among the 1,104 African entrepreneurs across 54 African countries as beneficiaries of its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme in 2024.

The 2024 beneficiaries will be the 10th cohort of the 10-year-long TEF Entrepreneurship Programme each receiving a USD 5000 seed capital from the foundation.

Mary Mulili, Designate MD/CEO UBA Kenya, speaking at the announcement event in Nairobi Kenya noted 782 Kenyan entrepreneurs have been beneficiaries over a period of ten years with a seed capital of US Dollar 5000.

"The entrepreneurs represent sectors from Agriculture, waste management, ICT and Manufacturing. This reflects our commitment to nurturing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kenya and Africa as a whole."

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has disbursed US$100,000,000 directly entrepreneurship into the hands of young African entrepreneurs, who have, in turn, created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa's economic growth and development 46% of the total beneficiaries are women, reiterating our commitment to gender inclusion and equity

Speaking at the announcement, Founder Tony Elumelu, United Bank for Africa Group Chairman underscored his commitment to the Foundation's vision to transform lives across Africa.

"We believe in spreading luck, we believe in democratising luck, we believe in spreading prosperity and we think the easiest way to spread prosperity in Africa is to identify the best talent and invest in them."

Launched in 2015, the programme, which is funded by United Bank for Africa Group Chairman Tony Elumelu, seeks to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create a million jobs and add $10 billion (Sh1 trillion) in revenue to Africa'.