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Foundation receives 3,000 applications from business owners

By on January 13, 2015

The Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony Elumelu, has said that the organisation has so far received over 3,000 applications from entrepreneurs for its recently inaugurated $100m fund.

The fund was set up last year to help develop 1,000 entrepreneurs in Africa in the 2015 fiscal period.

Elumelu said this during the foundation’s Africapitalism Institute inaugural Advisory Board meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the institute was formed in 2014 to research, analyse and advocate public policies and business practices that would unlock opportunities for Africans.

Elumelu, who is also the Chairman, United Bank for Africa Plc, said the fund would enable the organisation to give out $10,000 each to 1,000 entrepreneurs in Africa.

The meeting was attended by renowned global thought leaders who make up the institute’s Global Advisory Board.

Elumelu said, “There is the realisation that the private sector is the key for the development of the continent.

“In furtherance of that, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has put in place $100m fund to help catalyse the crop of entrepreneurs who will fire up the private sector in Africa,”

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman, Cities Growth Commission in the United Kingdom, Dr. Jim O’Neill, said there was the need for African countries to focus on policies that would ensure sustainable growth.

O’Neill said the continent could help its people by creating more entrepreneurs, developing more ideas and innovation, and creating access to finance.

The Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said there was a need for consistency in policy formulation and implementation to encourage investors to invest and operate in the continent

Olaoluwa said the Federal Government was engaging key players in the manufacturing sector to drive its industrial revolution plan by creating the enabling environment for them to thrive.

He said the bank was working with research centres to develop technological research outcomes that could help the country process its agro products into raw materials.

 

[Punch]