UBA courts entrepreneurs to apply for $5,000 seed capital

Clouds Media Group chief exeacutive director Joseph Kusaga speaks during a Tony Elumelu Foundation seminar in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. With him is TEF alumnus for the Year-2017, Mr Allen Kimambo (left), and the UBA Tanzania chief executive officer, Usman Isiaka (right). PHOTO|THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT

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The bank brought over 100 entrepreneurs to a special coaching session on Tuesday with a view to ensuring that Tanzania produces enough winners in the programme

Dar es Salaam. The 2020 episode of an entrepreneurship development programme by Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) opened last month, with UBA Tanzania courting Tanzanian entrepreneurs to take the project seriously.

The bank brought over 100 entrepreneurs to a special coaching session on Tuesday with a view to ensuring that Tanzania produces enough winners in the programme.

Successful applicants will join the over 9,000 current beneficiaries, from 54 African countries, and receive business training, mentoring and a non-refundable $5,000 of seed capital.

They will also get access to global business networking opportunities through the TEF Connect, a fully integrated online real-time application that connects several entrepreneurs, their products and services across the continent.

The entrepreneurs were greeted to inspirational talks by chief executive officer of Clouds Media Group Joseph Kusaga and one of the TEF alumni for the year 2017, Mr Allen Kimambo.

TEF is the private sector-led philanthropy focused on empowering African entrepreneurs. The programme targets small business owners.

The foundation was established by Tony Elumelu, who is also the Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc) operating in 20 African countries and three global financial service centres, namely London, New York and Paris.

With a goal of creating millions of jobs and the revenue required for the sustainable development of the continent, the 10-year programme has $100 million commitment to be spent on identifying, training, mentor and funding 10,000 young African entrepreneurs.

TEF has a philosophy of Africapitalism which positions the private sector as the growth engine for Africa and emphasises the importance of creating social and economic wealth.

Speaking during the seminar in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the UBA Tanzania managing director, Mr Usman Isiaka, said TEF’s Entrepreneurship Programme was open to entrepreneurs from across Africa, either with new startup business ideas or existing businesses of less than three years from any sector.

“Being the leading philanthropic institution in Africa that specifically focuses on entrepreneurship development, TEF has trained, mentored and granted seed capitals to over 9,000 entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries with cumulative seed capital funding of over $45 million,” he said.

Since commencement of the TEF’s entrepreneurship programme in 2015, 189 Tanzanian entrepreneurs have benefited from it and have received a total funding support of $1.89 million (about Sh4.3 billion) in the form of training, mentoring and seed capital of $5,000 each to support the implementation of their start-up business ideas or grow their existing businesses.

In his remarks, Mr Kusaga commended Mr Elumelu for dedicating a huge amount of $100 million for the development of young entrepreneurs in Africa. Mr Kusaga advised the youth to “grab such opportunities, which are rare to find in our country.”

He emphasized that entrepreneurs must only get into a business which they have a passion for. “You must focus, focus and focus but also, you need financial discipline,” he said.

One of the TEF alumni for the year 2017, Mr Kimambo shared his experience with TEF and said that the programme is transparent and everyone who apply and win, gets the $5,000 seed capital and enjoys free online training sessions via the TEFConnect.