The Chairman of United Bank for Africa, and Founder, Tony Elumelu
Foundation, Mr. Tony Elumelu has proposed a new entrepreneur-led
development model for Africa at two high profile events in Washington
DC.
Elumelu spoke at a White House event hosted by United
States President Barack Obama on May 11, to celebrate emerging
entrepreneurs around the globe.
The event was a prelude to Obama’s scheduled trip to Kenya this summer for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
During
remarks to announce the Summit and his plans to participate, President
Obama thanked the global coalition of entrepreneurship organisations
that collaborated with his administration to launch the Spark campaign
for global entrepreneurship, a campaign in which the Tony Elumelu
Foundation is a founding member.
The President went on to say
to the entrepreneurs present, "entrepreneurs like you can change the
world with one idea at a time."
During his comments while
participating in the panel moderated by United States Secretary of
Commerce, Penny Pritzker, Elumelu championed the cause of African
entrepreneurs as the primary drivers of Africa's transformation.
In closing, he provided the following advice to entrepreneurs, stating
that: "Entrepreneurship is a long term journey. Great entrepreneurs are
not made overnight. Dare to dream, implement your dream, and stay
focused."
Elumelu’s foundation recently launched the $100
million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, which aims
to assist in growing 10,000 start-up companies across the African
continent over the next 10 years, demonstrating a commitment to
empowering entrepreneurs to drive Africa’s social and economic
transformation.
Other speakers that joined Obama and Elumelu
to promote entrepreneurship at the White House event included Mark
Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks; Barbara Corcoran; founder of
Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners; Daymond John, CEO and founder of
FUBU, all investors on the hit ABC show, Shark Tank; Antonio Gracias,
Founder of Valor Equity Partners; and Julie Hanna, Founder of Kiva.
Elumelu was accompanied to the White House by Shadi Sabeh, a young
Nigerian entrepreneur from Sokoto who is a mentee of Elumelu and a past
winner of the Tony and Awele Elumelu Prize for Economics.
Following the White House event, Elumelu delivered a lecture at
Georgetown University in Washington DC on the topic ‘Entrepreneur-Led
Development: A New Model for Africa’. The lecture was attended by a
large audience including students, faculty, and alumni of Georgetown, as
well as members of the US and African private sector, diplomatic corps,
and international development sector.
“I was honoured to speak
at these high profile events in the US,” Tony Elumelu said. “As a
successful entrepreneur, I will continue to communicate to the world the
need for supporting and empowering African entrepreneurs as the most
impactful and sustainable approach to Africa’s development. My mission
is to share this message on a global scale, and inspire more African
business leaders and global investors with an interest in Africa to take
action,” he added.
Credit: ThisDay
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