Awele, Somachi drive TEF into empowering more entrepreneurs

Co-founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Dr. Awele Elumelu and Chief Executive Officer, TEF,  Somachi Chris-Asoluka are the two amazons driving TEF to success.

The success stories at TEF are championed by these two amazons who have brought passion and commitment to the programme.

In March, the Tony Elumelu Foundation announced the successful entrepreneurs in its 10th selection for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

This new cohort brings to 20,000, the number of young African entrepreneurs who have received funding, mentoring, and capacity-building support from the Foundation, double the initial commitment.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has disbursed $100,000,000 directly to young African entrepreneurs, who have created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa’s economic growth and development. Also, 45 per cent of these beneficiaries are women, reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to gender inclusion and equity.

Awele told the packed crowd at the programme that TEF was working in tandem with its vision, which was to “democratise luck and eliminate poverty” in the continent.

Chris-Asoluka is also providing the needed leadership that has contributed imensely to TEF successes.

In one of Awele’s speeches, she spoke about the transformative power of the private sector in changing the lives of individuals and the face of communities across Africa.

She is the chairperson of Avon Healthcare Limited, Nigeria’s leading health insurance provider, and the Founder/CEO of Avon Medical Practice, a growing network of full-service clinics and onsite facilities with corporate institutions.

Having identified poor health infrastructure, absence of medical equipment and poor healthcare coverage as some of the challenges facing healthcare delivery in Nigeria, she established the two organisations to provide affordable medical insurance and services to Nigerians from all walks of life. This is helping to improve access to adequate and effective healthcare services in Nigeria.

In January 2018, she was appointed as Private Sector Champion for Immunisation in Africa by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. In this role, she leverages her knowledge, corporate networks, and expertise from the healthcare and business sectors to champion vaccination and immunisation in Africa, where almost 10 million children are yet to be fully immunised.

She is particularly passionate about and advocates extensively for the rights of Africans, women and children. In line with her commitment to the economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which calls on the African private sector to lead the charge in developing the continent, she continues to work to bring together public and private players to deliver economic opportunity, social good, and greater health and opportunity to all Africans.

Awele serves as a Director on the Board of Heirs Holdings, a family-owned investment company committed to improving lives and transforming Africa and is a Trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.

She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Benin. Her experience as a medical doctor includes medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology and emergency medicine. She has worked with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, in Nigeria, and with Grantham and District Hospital, Grantham in the United Kingdom

Chris-Asoluka showed the rquired zeal when she was appointed into the TEF CEO position.

Accepting the offer, she had said: “I am honoured to be appointed to lead the Foundation, particularly at a time when we will be launching a new Coalition for African Entrepreneurship. This Coalition will bring together global and African partners to significantly increase the impact created by TEF’s unique platform for identifying, mentoring, training and funding young African entrepreneurs. I look forward to working with the team, our partners, and all stakeholders to achieve our common goal of a strong, confident, self-reliant Africa. I am honoured to build on Ifeyinwa’s (her predecessor) legacy and launch the Tony Elumelu Foundation into its next phase of impact.”

Prior to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Somachi served as Director of Partnerships and Communications for the Foundation. Under her leadership, the Foundation is increasingly sharing its unique ability to identify, train, mentor, and fund young entrepreneurs across

Africa, through partnerships with institutions such as the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), US Government via the US African Development Foundation (USADF), The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), DEG, GIZ, African Development Bank (AfDB), and Google.

The TEF has trained over 1.5 million young African entrepreneurs who have created over 400,000 jobs across the continent, Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Tony O. Elumelu, has said.

Also, 1,104 selected TEF entrepreneurs were announced for the 2024 entrepreneurship programme held at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) headquarters, in Lagos.

Each of the selected 1,104 entrepreneurs for 2024 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme will get $5,000 non-refundable seed capital to support their businesses.

The beneficiaries have also received world-class business training, mentorship, coaching, and funding, in addition to lifelong access to the prestigious TEF Alumni Network.

For Awele, the massive impact of the TEF Entrepreneurship programme is being felt across Africa.

She said: “We knew what we wanted from the onset, and so far, it has been a decade of fulfilled promises. The 10th TEF Entrepreneurship programme beneficiaries will be supported to ensure they succeed. For those who were not selected, your journey is not over, you just have to work harder and success will be yours”.

• The Nation