…Deepens collaboration with offshore firms
From Uche Usim, Abuja
In line with his philanthropic goals, the Founder/Chairman, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mr Tony Elumelu, has said that about 18,000 young African youths have been mentored, empowered and transformed into influential entrepreneurs since the establishment of his developmental platform.
Elumelu, who doubles as the Heirs Holdings Chairman, also emphasized that youth empowerment must not be misconstrued to mean doling out handouts to them, but designing a sustainable strategy that would identify talents and creative ideas, which would be carefully harnessed, groomed and fortified with financial aid that would transform into wealth and job creation.
He stated these in Abuja at the weekend at a dinner to host the visiting European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Jutta Urpilainen.
According to him, his foundation pooled $100 million and from it, a non-refundable seed capital of $5,000 has been given to youths with bankable business ideas.
He added that strategic trainings have been provided for 1.5 million young Africans and new mentors appointed for them.
Elumelu leveraged the occasion to seek the support of offshore development partners, including the EU, to expand the African youths empowerment initiatives captured under the vision of TEF.
He explained that such a robust support would greatly address the frightening youth migration scourge currently plaguing the country.
He said that the time was ripe for deepened partnerships to galvanise and equip African youths with 21st Century solutions to conquer current socio-economic challenges retarding the growth of the continent.
He said: “We believe that at a time like this, our young ones should not be crossing the Mediterranean in very harsh conditions because they want to seek better living outside of the country.
“We want to see our young men and women live well in Africa in our lifetime and is this possible? Yes, it is. But how do we make it possible? When all of us – successful rich Africans, friends of Africa like the EU – when we all team up to bring resources together, collaborate to prioritise young Africans, we will achieve that.”
Elumelu also explained that the most potent and enduring solution to banditry and terror in Nigeria lies in towing millions of youths out of poverty through sustainable economic empowerment initiatives.
“We believe the ultimate solution to insecurity is economic empowerment and we believe that in the 21st Century, it is not about handouts, but about economically empowering people so they can look after themselves.”
Elumelu said these beneficiaries have in turn created thousands of jobs, adding that over 400,000 jobs had been created since the commencement of TEF.
“The motivation of what we do at the foundation is the realisation that poverty anywhere is a threat to all of us everywhere.
“Two, that what counts at some point in life is not the dollars you have in your account, but the impact, the legacies that you leave behind.
“And we know that there is no greater sense of fulfillment in life than helping another person to succeed. That is why we believe that we must work together to democratise luck – give our young ones the opportunity to succeed in life.
“What is important is for all of us to demonstrate confidence and continue to push and advocate for better governance and the right enabling environment.
“There are so many global private capitals looking for the right investment destination. If we turn our country to the right investment destination, capital will come and when capital comes, we are able to develop the country to create employment, jobs and fix insecurity and in that process, we create prosperity for posterity,” he said.
In her remarks, Urpilainen, disclosed her objective to change the paradigm in terms of the EU’s partnership with Africa for more mutual cooperation.
She expressed the block’s commitment to further partner with TEF, realising the foundation’s laudable interventions towards empowerment of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and the continent in general.
She said: “I wanted to get rid of this kind of donor-recipient relationship where we as donors tell and impose what we expect from Africans under our partnerships.
“So, we really wanted to change the paradigm and create mutually beneficial partnerships.
“And in order to be able to succeed, we also created this Global Gateway Investment Strategy and it was adopted two years ago.
“The main objective of that strategy is to accelerate green and digital transitions in Africa and implement the strategy in other continents, but Africa is the main geographic scope.
“We also set a strategy that we want to boost investment to 300 billion euros globally by 2027 and 150 billion euros goes to Africa.”