TEF seeks EU, others’ support to stem ‘Japa’ syndrome

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has sought the partnership of the European Union (EU), other development partners, and private sector players towards addressing the issue of youth migration in the country.

The founder and chairman of TEF, Mr Tony Elumelu, who canvassed for assistance, said in the 21st century, the solutions to current socio-economic challenges were “not about handouts but economically empowering people so they can look after themselves”.

He also disclosed that since the inception of the foundation, it has empowered over 18,000 young African entrepreneurs, noting that as Nigeria tackles economic challenges, the foundation has over the years ensured the creation of wealth through careful entrepreneurship empowerment.

Mr Elumelu stated this in Abuja during an interactive session with the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Juta Urpilainen, who was visiting Nigeria for the first time.

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 partnership with the EU is to deepen our collaboration. Beyond the TEF, I try to attract investments into Africa and Nigeria; the visiting delegation is even more focused on business than entrepreneurship, and we believe that the ultimate to peace and security is empowerment. It is not about handouts but about practical economic empowerment.

“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”.

Elumelu said that Nigerians leaving the country to seek greener pastures abroad can be encouraged to stay back if the necessary environment and empowerment are provided for them in the country.

“We believe that at a time like this, our young ones should not be crossing the Mediterranean in very harsh conditions because they want to seek better living outside of the country.

“We want to see our young men and women live well in Africa in our lifetimes; is this possible? Yes. But how do we make it possible? When all of us—successful rich Africans, friends of Africa like the EU—team up to bring resources together and collaborate to prioritise young Africans, we will achieve that,” he posited.

Mr Elumelu noted that the long-lasting solution to the intractable issue of insecurity in the country was in the economic empowerment of the young population, stressing 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.”

According to him, “The motivation of what we do at the foundation is the realisation that poverty anywhere is a threat to all of us everywhere.

Two, what counts at some point in life is not the dollars you have in your account but the impact, the legacies that you leave behind.

And we know that there is no greater sense of fulfilment in life than helping another person to succeed. That is why we believe that we must work together to democratise luck and allow our young ones to succeed in life.”

He pointed out that there are so many global private investors looking for the right investment destination, noting that “if we turn our country into the right investment destination, capital will come, and when capital comes, we can develop the country to create employment, jobs, and fix insecurity, and in that process, we create prosperity for posterity.”

In her remarks, Urpilainen said the EU aims at changing the paradigm in terms of its partnership with Africa for more cooperation and expressed the block’s commitment to further partner with TEF in realising the foundation’s laudable interventions towards empowering young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and others on the continent.

Urpilainen said, “I wanted to get rid of this kind of donor-recipient 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 to be able to succeed, we also created this Global Gateway Investment Strategy, which was adopted two years ago. The main objective of that strategy is to accelerate green and digital transitions in Africa and implement the strategy on other continents, but Africa is the main geographic scope.

“We also set a strategy that we want to boost investment to 300 billion euros globally by 2027 and 150 billion euros to Africa.”

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