20 000 African Entrepreneurs Honoured At The UBA Marketplace
Africa’s Largest Entrepreneurial Event Enhances TEF Youth Entrepreneurship Programme
UBA Marketplace, Africa’s biggest trade fair will be hosting some 20,000 visitors and over 100 small and medium enterprises, plus top private and public sector players in Abuja on the 26th & 27th July 2019. The event seeks to promote young entrepreneurs and business people across Africa and create the enabling environment for interaction among business owners and the mentorship of youths.
According to Kenneth Uzoka Group Manager of UBA Plc, speaking about the event “I think everyone realises the fact that we need to prioritise the private sector. We need to encourage entrepreneurship and youths. This is the driving factor and the major reason why we are organising an event of this magnitude’.
At the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum, a partnership agreement was signed between the UNDP and the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) to financially support 100,000 young entrepreneurs in Africa over 10 years. The partnership is dubbed TEF-UNDP Sahel Youth Entrepreneurship Programme. The President of Niger, H.E Mahamadou Issoufou joined UNDP and TEF to launch the programme.
The partnership was announced at the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU), where TEF Founder, Tony Elumelu and UNDP Regional Director for Africa, Ahunna Eziakonwa joined African Presidents at that forum.
The TEF Youth Entrepreneurship Programme has benefited 7,520 local entrepreneurs across 54 African countries in five years of existence. Selected applicants will each receive a maximum of $5,000 non-refundable seed capital, access to mentors, a 12-week business training and networking opportunities and will join the previously announced 3,051 beneficiaries of the 2019 cohort of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
The applications will be run on TEFConnect and forms will be available in any of the branches of the United Bank for Africa (UBA). Following the end of the application window, an initial longlist of 5,500 applicants will be selected to undergo the 12-week business training. After the training, the final shortlist of 2,000 applicants will be announced to join the previous 2019 TEF cohort.
More 100 Cameroonian entrepreneurs were selected in this year’s TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
