The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is an African non-profit organization founded in 2010 by Tony O. Elumelu and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, engineered to spur African economy through promoting competitiveness and growth in the private sector.^[1] The Foundation is intent on charting a new course for African philanthropy and does not operate merely as a grant-awarding organisation. It is a pioneer member of the Global Impact Investment Rating System (GIIRS). In October 2011, TEF celebrated its first-year anniversary.^[2]

Origin

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) was founded in 2010 by Nigerian businessman, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, and positioned as a 21st-century catalytic philanthropy. As a primary driver of Africapitalism, the Foundation is committed to the economic transformation of Africa by enhancing the competitiveness and growth of the African private sector.

Aims

The Foundation aims to promote excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa .^[3] One of its driving aspirations is the improvement of the competitiveness of African economies.

Program Priorities

TEF’s activities revolve around
(a) Developing the next generation of business leaders for Africa
(b) Building the networks and developing the framework for enhancing the competitiveness of African economies
(c) Identifying impact investing opportunities.

The Foundation does give some grants e.g. in early 2011, TEF gave a grant of $10,000 to the Nigeria Leadership Initiative for its White Papers.^[4] It is also in partnership with USAID and Western Union for the African Diaspora Marketplace, an initiative that supports U.S.-based African Diaspora entrepreneurs with innovative and high-impact ideas for start-up and established businesses in sub-saharan Africa.^[5]

Leadership

The Foundation is led by Professor Reid E. Whitlock, a former business school rector, diplomat, entrepreneur, strategy consultant and advisor. He was preceded by former Rockefeller Foundation Associate Director, Dr. Wiebe Boer. Its advisory board is robust and features several prominent public and private sector figures including Harvard Business School’s Professor Michael E. Porter as its founding patron. Other board members are economist and former Pakistan prime minister, Shaukat Aziz; founder and executive chairman at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, Henrik Skovby; executive vice president of Open Society Foundations and president of the Soros Economic Development Fund, Stewart Paperin; former managing director at Goldman Sachs and chief executive officer of Africa.com, Teresa Clarke; chief executive officer of Development Partners International, Runa Alam; Dr. Luisa Dias Diogo, who served as prime minister of Mozambique from 2004 to 2010 and chief executive officer of Bidco Group, Vimal Shah.

Activities

• The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP): A decade-long $100m initiative designed to give training, mentorship and seed capital to 10,000 entrepreneurs with start-up business ideas they want to execute in Africa.
• The Mtanga Farms Investment: The Foundation’s inaugural impact investment was in Mtanga Farms Limited, a mixed arable farming business operating in the Southern Tanzanian Highlands.^[6]
• The Elumelu Legacy Prize: An award established by Tony O. and Dr. Awele Elumelu to recognize homegrown academic excellence in subject areas representing their career paths and fields of academic study. The awards are given to the overall best graduating students and best performing students in Economics, Business Administration, and Medicine within top tertiary institutions across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. It is also given to recipients who have excelled in training programmes from the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. The annual Prize was designed to promote academic excellence and inspire the next generation of Nigerian leaders.
• The Elumelu Professionals Programme (EPP) recruits experienced professionals graduating from prestigious Masters in Business Administration and Masters in Public Administration (or Public Policy) programmes to work in SME companies and public sector agencies. The recruits work on specific strategic projects over the course of a 10-week placement. Since 2011, the Foundation has placed over 85 professionals in more than 40 companies across seven countries in Africa.
• The Blair Elumelu Fellowship Programme (BEFP) is a partnership between former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Africa Governance Initiative and TEF. It is scheduled to run for three years. Tony Blair's office has hailed it as "bringing together the best of innovative European government delivery models with the best of African private sector acumen and execution.^[7] "
• The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of impact investing. TEF is dedicated to impact investing and is a member of the GIIN Investor Council.^[8]
• The Foundation’s focus on research will see it deliver white papers on different topics in 2012. Their founder, Tony O. Elumelu contributed to the Nigerian Leadership Initiative's white paper in 2011.^[9] The GIIN published a case study in November 2011 on the Foundation's investment in Mtanga Farms^[10]

A leading light in African philanthropy,^[11] TEF has relationships with several other organisations around the world.

References

1. ↑ Kantai, Parselelo (2011-11-22). "Tycoons put professional veneer on business of giving". ft.com. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
2. ↑ "The Tony Elumelu Foundation Celebrates One-Year Anniversary, Hosts Advisory Board". The Nigerian Voice. 2011-10-22. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
3. ↑ "Tony Elumelu Foundation to promote excellence in business leadership". Vanguard. 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
4. ↑ "The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) donates $10,000 towards production of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) White Papers". NLI. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
5. ↑ "Western Union, Usaid, The Tony Elumelu Foundation Partner On African Diaspora Marketplace II". Trade Newswire. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
6. ↑ Balondemu, Claire (2011-04-19). "Uganda: Development Agencies in Investment Deal With Tanzanian Farms". All Africa. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
7. ↑ "Blair Elumelu Fellowship Programme: Supporting African Governments to Advance Economic Development". The Office of Tony Blair. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
8. ↑ "The Tony Elumelu Foundation". Global Impact Investing Network. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
9. ↑ http://nli-global.org/nli-launches-white-papers/
10. ↑ http://www.thegiin.org/cgi-bin/iowa/resources/research/328.html
11. ↑ Kantai, Parselelo (2011-11-22). "Tycoons put professional veneer on business of giving". Financial Times. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 

External links

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