Sixty young entrepreneurs, United Bank of Africa CEOs in 20 African countries and other dignitaries gathered on Wednesday at a symposium to celebrate the achievements of the banker, economist, and philanthropist, Tony Elumelu on his 60th birthday.
The symposium was themed ‘60 for 60’.
The 60 entrepreneurs shared their experiences and testimonies from Mr Elumelu’s philanthropy support through Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Elumelu Professionals Program and others which has sustained their businesses and careers.
Temitayo Johnson Olaleye from Nigeria disclosed that her encounter with TEF helped her to be resilient and identify purpose in business after she applied two times but selected at third time for the program.
According to her, she has trained over 2000 young children and women in Nigeria, expanding her business in Nigeria, Ghana, United States and United Kingdom through grant gotten from TEF.
She also confirmed receiving award as youngest entrepreneur due to her contributions to youth empowerment in Nigeria.
Gloria from Congo, shared that the $5000 support grant received from TEF helped her enrolled for some professional trainings and also procure professional sewing machine to support her tailoring business.
Monica Domingo from Zambia, thanked Tony Elumelu and TEF for the opportunity to expand her business and, gained investors confidence to sign new contract and employed 21 men and women which that are now breadwinner of their families.
Linda from Kenya, co-partner of Dialogue Pad disclosed that TEF $5000 grant helped them register their company, hired engineer and installed sanitary towel dispensers to stop absenteeism of schoolgirls due to period poverty and have impacted over 105,000 schoolgirls in Kenya.
Seun Adekunle and Amar Harris also shared there encounters with Tony Elumelu and how the program has impacted their lives.
Seun thanked Tony Elumelu for transforming himself from a Nigerian CEO to a global icon and also thanked Dr Awele Elumelu for loaning her husband to the world.
“They said behind every successful man, there’s a woman and who better to stand beside you than Dr. Awele Elumelu” he ended.
Dr. Awele Elumelu gave vote of thanks on behalf of her husband, Mr Tony Elumelu and entire UBA board members, staff for the 60th birthday symposium organised to celebrate Tony Elumelu’s achievements.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), created in 2010, the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and driving job creation across all 54 African countries.
Since its inception, the foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalysed nearly 16,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans, as part of a 10-year $100m commitment to fund, mentor and train young Africans.
