Out of the 1000 entrepreneurs selected from the 151,000 applications for the TEF Flagship Program from Africans living in 114 countries in the world this year, eight beneficiaries came from Liberia.
The successful candidates had the most innovative and high-potential business ideas that can transform Africa. The Liberians selected include Daniel Johnson (financial services), Berlyn Sanusie (healthcare), Gabriel Zargo (Tourism/Hospitality), James Tarnue (financial services), Gonda Wamah (agriculture), Michaelyn George (commercial/retail), Saah Hendrix Johnson (agriculture) and Moses Davies (education and training)
See list of all selected candidates
The selected candidates will benefit from a 12-week intensive online training with guidance from mentors on how to create and manage a business. They will also benefit from seed capital of $5000 to prove their concept and later will have access to further funding.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) flagship program for entrepreneurs was launched in 2015. It is an initiative to champion entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in the African continent. They have a 10-year $100 million plan to identify, empower, mentor, train and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create jobs as well as add up to $10 billion to the economy of Africa. The award targets citizens and legal residents of Africa who own a for-profit business.
[trend-ad-shortcode id=”4512″ title=”Leaderboard Google Adsense”]
Related Post: Application Open for the African Entrepreneurship Award 2018
Selections for this year had close to a 50-50 split between male and female candidates. This shows that African women are becoming more and more ambitious to follow the entrepreneurial path. The agriculture sector lead the selection with 30.5 percent followed by technology and education with 10.5% and 9% respectively.
According to the organization, more than 55,000 jobs have been created across 54 African countries since it was launched. A release from TEF states that the “total program investment so far to US$15 million in direct funding to entrepreneurs and US$5.8 million in program and technology development and operations.”
Source(s): The Bush Chicken, TEF