The Founder/Chairman, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mr. Tony Elumelu, has said that a conducive business environment is the panacea to Africa’s youth migration.
Elumelu, who said this at a dinner held for visiting European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Jutta Urpilainen in Abuja, added that youth migration can only stop when the continent’s leaders develop an economy where there is employment and prosperity.
According to him, private sector players, development partners and the government must join hands saying that it was about time citizens were economically empowered rather than the occasional handouts that are doled out.
He said, “What is important is for all of us to demonstrate confidence and continue to push and advocate for better governance and the right enabling environment.
“There are so many global private capitals looking for the right investment destination. If we turn our country to the right investment destination, capital will come and when capital comes, we are able to develop the country to create employment, jobs and fix insecurity and in that process, we create prosperity for posterity.”
Speaking further, the TEF Founder said it was about time the EU and other development partners pool resources together to empower young Africans.
“We want to see our young men and women live well in Africa in our lifetime and is this possible? Yes. But how do we make it possible? When all of us – successful rich Africans, friends of Africa like the EU – when we all team up to bring resources together, collaborate to prioritise young Africans, we will achieve that.
“We believe the ultimate solution to insecurity is economic empowerment and we believe that in the 21st century, it is not about handouts but about economically empowering people so they can look after themselves.”
Elumelu revealed that since its inception, the Foundation has spent over $100 million empowering over 18,000 young African entrepreneurs.
According to him, they were able to create wealth through careful entrepreneurship empowerment.
He said, “The Tony Elumelu Foundation has committed $100 million to impact 18,000 young African entrepreneurs by giving them a seed capital of $5,000 and training them for six weeks as well as providing mentors to coach them. They in turn have gone to create thousands of jobs, which is the impact we want to see.
“The impact report of the foundation shows that it has created over 400,000 jobs and we will continue to invest more in youth entrepreneurship.”
He said the partnership with the EU will further deepen the collaboration as the Foundation seeks to attract investments into the continent.
In her remarks, Urpilainen said the EU is committed to its partnership with TEF, noting that the Foundation was doing a great job through the empowerment of young entrepreneurs across the continent.
She said, “I wanted to get rid of this kind of donor-reciFoundation was doing a great job of pient relationship where we as donors tell and impose what we expect from Africans under our partnerships;
“So, we really wanted to change the paradigm and create mutually beneficial partnerships.
“And in order to be able to succeed, we also created this Global Gateway Investment Strategy and it was adopted two years ago.
