The Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurship programme says it has disbursed $2.5m out of the $5m partnership commitment from African Development Bank to beneficiaries.
TEF said the remainder of the bank-sponsored support was expected to be disbursed to the entrepreneurs in the first quarter of 2020.
A statement issued by the foundation said the Founder of TEF, Tony Elumelu, congratulated the AfDB and its President, Akinwumi Adesina, on their commitment to African entrepreneurship.
It said the AfDB commitment followed the recent $8.5m disbursement from the United Nations Development Programme to 2,648 entrepreneurs in the Sahel region and Africa broadly.
It added that it further accelerated the economic empowerment generated by TEF.
In 2019, it added, the foundation significantly increased the scale and reach of its impact, with the number of beneficiariess of its flagship entrepreneurship programme rising from its annual commitment of 1,000, to 5,150, in collaboration with global and African partners.
With its commitment to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises and develop young entrepreneurs, AfDB joined the growing list of global development institutions benefiting from the TEF’s unique model of identifying, training, mentoring and funding entrepreneurs and start-ups across Africa, it added.
The statement said the partnership demonstrated the implementation of the AfDB’s 10-year “jobs for youth in Africa” strategy, launched in 2016, to support the creation of 25 million meaningful jobs across the continent