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Elumelu Foundation to host African, global entrepreneurs in Lagos

By Editor
06 October 2017   |   3:26 am
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will host the largest gathering of African entrepreneurs between October 13 and 14, 2017 in Lagos.A statement by the foundation yesterday said the event would bring together over 3,000 entrepreneurs from different parts of the world in this year....

Chief Operating Officer, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mrs. Owen Omogiafo (left); Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Parminder Vir; Company Secretary, TEF, Obong Idiong and Programme Manager, Entrepreneurship Programme, Onajite Emerhor-Ogwu; at a press conference to announce the forthcoming third yearly TEF Entrepreneurship Forum in Lagos…yesterday.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) will host the largest gathering of African entrepreneurs between October 13 and 14, 2017 in Lagos.A statement by the foundation yesterday said the event would bring together over 3,000 entrepreneurs from different parts of the world in this year’s edition of the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum.

“This is the first year the invitation forum will be made open to non-TEF entrepreneurs and will allow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from across Africa to attend, network and connect with investors on a global scale.

The goal of its founder, Tony O. Elumelu is to create over 1 million jobs in the next 10 years in Africa for which the Foundation has committed $100 million to empower 10,000 Africans.

“In just three years, our entrepreneurs have created thousands of jobs and generated substantial wealth in Nigeria and the African continent. “We invite the global entrepreneurship community to Lagos towards the realisation of a New Africa on October 13 and 14,” Elumelu said.

For this year’s programme, 1,000 African entrepreneurs have been selected from over 93,000 applications making it the largest entrepreneurship scheme in Africa.

TEF Chief Executive Officer, Parminder Vir Obe, said: “This is the first year we have opened the forum up to include not only the 1,000 TEF entrepreneurs from the full cycle of our programme, but the full pan-African entrepreneurs ecosystem”.

He revealed that in achieving this feat, the Foundation would be looking more into encouraging SMEs communities to come together and expand the possibilities of intra-African partnerships.

On why the Foundation chose Lagos as the destination for the forum, Obe said: “Nigeria has the largest and the youngest population with highly educated minds. It is more like the entrepreneurship is in the Nigerian DNA”.

The fact that the largest percentage of the applications for the programme came from Nigeria also added to the need for hosting the event in Lagos.The statement added that the two-day event would feature plenary sessions, master classes and sector specific networking opportunities, as well as policy talks that will focus on improving the enabling environment for African businesses.

Chief Operating Officer of TEF, Owen Omogiafo, however, revealed that the forum was one of the seven pillars of the Foundation with mentorship, training, seed-capital and networking, among others as leading strategies.

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