Tony Elumelu and Africapitalism: 24,000 Founders and Counting

Tony Elumelu, the Nigerian banker who chairs United Bank for Africa, calls his philosophy Africapitalism: the belief that Africa's private sector — above all its entrepreneurs — must drive the continent's transformation.

Putting money behind the idea

In 2015 the Tony Elumelu Foundation pledged $100 million to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs over ten years. Each receives $5,000 in non-refundable seed capital — not a loan, not equity — plus training and mentorship.

• More than 24,000 entrepreneurs funded across all 54 African countries — far beyond the original 10,000.
• Over $100 million in seed capital disbursed.
• About 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs created by the businesses it backed.
• The 2025 cohort: 3,000 entrepreneurs from 52 countries, chosen from more than 200,000 applications.
• Around half of the funded entrepreneurs are women.

The lesson for us

Dangote shows what one giant can build. Elumelu shows what thousands of small founders can build when someone believes in them. Both are needed: big things, medium things and small things.

For young founders

Applications for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme open once a year at tonyelumelufoundation.org. Members of our institute can get help preparing their application through the Founder Stories project.

Sources: AllAfrica (March 2025 and March 2026); Citizen Digital (2025); NAN News (2025).