TEF Says It Has Backed More Than 27,000 African Entrepreneurs Since 2015

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) says it has now supported more than 27,000 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries since launching its flagship entrepreneurship programme in 2015, positioning itself as the largest private-sector driver of entrepreneurship on the continent.In a 15-year impact report released on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, the foundation said businesses backed through its programme have collectively generated more than $4.2 billion in revenue and created over 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs. It also reported that its interventions have helped more than 2.1 million people move out of poverty and positively affected more than four million African households.

For the 2026 cycle, TEF selected 3,200 entrepreneurs from more than 265,000 applications received from young Africans. The 2026 cohort includes 51 per cent women, a figure the foundation says signals the rise of female-led enterprises across the continent.

The foundation plans to deploy $16 million in non-returnable seed capital to the 2026 cohort, with each selected entrepreneur receiving up to $5,000 in funding alongside training, mentorship and access to TEFConnect, its digital platform for business management and peer learning.

TEF founder Tony O. Elumelu has framed the programme around his “Africapitalism” philosophy, which argues that African entrepreneurs are the key drivers of the continent’s socio-economic transformation. He has said the foundation’s work is intended to shift Africa’s development narrative from aid dependency to partnership, with private capital, local innovation and regional integration at the centre.

Since 2015, TEF says it has disbursed more than $100 million in seed capital to selected entrepreneurs, while over 2.5 million Africans have accessed business-management training through TEFConnect. The foundation’s partners include Heirs Holdings, the European Commission, OACPS, Germany’s BMZ and GIZ, as well as corporate and development partners that co-fund cohorts in specific regions or sectors.

The scale of interest in the programme underscores both the demand for early-stage funding and the competitiveness of selection. With 265,000 applications for 3,200 places in 2026, fewer than 1.2 per cent of applicants were selected. TEF says its multi-stage screening process evaluates business viability, growth potential, job-creation prospects and the entrepreneur’s capacity to execute.

The reported impact metrics—$4.2 billion in revenue, 1.5 million jobs and 2.1 million people lifted out of poverty—are based on self-reported data from alumni businesses and periodic follow-up surveys. While such figures are difficult to independently verify at scale, they highlight the foundation’s ambition to track not just disbursements but longer-term economic and social outcomes.

For African policymakers and ecosystem builders, TEF’s model offers one blueprint for combining seed funding, digital training and pan-African networking at scale. The emphasis on women entrepreneurs, cross-border cohorts and digital infrastructure aligns with broader continental priorities under the African Union’s entrepreneurship and digital transformation strategies.

At the same time, the foundation’s experience underscores the limits of grant-based seed capital in isolation. Sustained growth for African startups will also depend on access to follow-on finance, regulatory reforms, regional markets and deeper links between early-stage programmes and later-stage venture capital, private equity and public markets.

As TEF marks more than a decade of operations, its claim to have backed over 27,000 entrepreneurs positions it as a significant reference point for debates about what works in African entrepreneurship support—and what still needs to be built.

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