The Tony Elumelu Foundation has announced that entries for TEEP 2016, the second annual round of the $100m Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) for emerging African entrepreneurs, will open on January 1, 2016.

A statement issued in Lagos by the foundation said: “TEEP opens for entries at 00:00am WAT on 1st January 2016 and will accept applications until midnight WAT on March 1st, 2016. To be eligible, entrepreneurs must complete the online application form with questions on their background, experience and business idea, plans for growth and proposed pan-African impact. Further guidance and application procedures can be found on the online portal: http://TonyElumelufoundation.org/TEEP. Applications are reviewed by an Advisory Board of distinguished African entrepreneurs.”

Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, Stella Nakatudde, founder of ICT company, Ella Solutions Ltd, based in Uganda, said of her experience: “Since being selected for TEEP 2015, I have learned invaluable life and business lessons, expanded and enriched my business network, opened our first office, hired two staff and closed two web development deals. TEEP is not just a means to start or propel your business, it is the torch that will light your entrepreneurship journey for life and the pen that will script your story in the new African Narrative.”

US Secretary of Commerce, Honorable Penny Pritzker commented: “I am pleased to see Tony Elumelu investing in entrepreneurs through The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme across Africa to work towards fostering communities of innovation.”

“I set out to institutionalise luck with the foundation and give back to the continent that made me,” said Tony O. Elumelu, the serial entrepreneur investor and philanthropist, who established the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2010. “Entrepreneurship can chart a new course of development for Africa, with Africans taking responsibility for wealth creation, creating value adding businesses here in Africa and this is why I encourage applications from across the Continent, regardless of age, gender, religion or colour.”

TEEP is driven by Elumelu’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which calls for the African private sector to focus on long term investments that create social and economic prosperity in Africa, and take the lead role in Africa’s transformation.

The maiden TEEP this year empowered 1,000 African entrepreneurs, selected from over 20,000 applicants, with start-up investment, active mentoring, business training, an entrepreneurship boot camp and regional networking across the continent.

Entrepreneurs, with an average age of 21-40, from 51 African countries completed the programme and received $5,000 in seed capital for their start-up businesses. The Tony Elumelu Foundation invested a total of $4,860,000, including $1,405,000 in agriculture; $410,000 in education and training; and $365,000 in manufacturing. The sector-agnostic programme funded start-ups across a further 20 industries, all based in Africa.

Tony Elumelu Foundation CEO Parminder Vir OBE stated: “Africa does not need aid alone, it needs investment and it needs entrepreneurs. TEEP brings both and our ability to bring capital and the necessary support, for those who will help Africa harness its enormous potential is creating extraordinary opportunities across the Continent.”

In addition to directly supporting African entrepreneurs with “Empowerment Capital”, the Tony Elumelu Foundation uses data gathered to conduct research and advocate for policy improvements to the enabling environment. Earlier this year, the Foundation released a report titled “Unleashing Africa’s Entrepreneurs: Improving the Enabling Environment for Start-ups”, which includes insights based on the most comprehensive and diverse data set on African entrepreneurs ever compiled.

The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme is open to citizens and legal residents of all 54 African countries and can be made by any for-profit business based in Africa in existence for less than three years, including new business ideas.

•Photo shows Tony Elumelu Foundation CEO Parminder Vir, OBE.

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