Tony Elumelu foundation expands grants for business start-ups At an event organized by the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the Co-Creation Hub, African business man and philanthropist Tony Elumelu announced his intention to increase to 50, the number of annual grants his foundation will make to start-up businesses that solve African challenges while providing sustainable returns. The announcement was made in front of Omobola Johnson, Minister of Communication Technology and a gathering of young technology entrepreneurs who were there to hear the inspiring stories of just three of the tech entrepreneurs who had already received their grants. One of them, Olusegun Onigbinde, Head Partner at BudgIT, a data processing company, said the grant helped him improve the company’s data strategy and mobile presence. Adebayo Adebayo of Efiko – which provides students with easy-to-use, self-assessment tools through mobile technology, said his grant assisted with the launch of a national pilot scheme in secondary schools which impacted over 12,500 students in under a year. For Traclist, which provides SME merchants with access to an e-commerce platform, the foundation’s grant meant they could complete their software prototype and launch a pilot programme back in July 2012. According to its founder, Emotu Balogun, “Because of the grant, we were able to invest and grow our revenues from N80,000 to an average of N1,600,000 monthly, and we see more room for growth.” The three joined Naijateenz, JobsinNigeria, VarsoftMediaLibrary and Tiketmobile who had already received grants. After the presentations, Tony Elumelu C.O.N, Chairman of the pan African proprietary investment company Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation applauded the entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm and commitment and outlined why the foundation was involved. He said; “The early stage of a business is perhaps the most challenging period in the life cycle of an entrepreneur; yet it is...
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 20:10:19 +0000
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