Finally, the wait is over. With a little bit of good news. The 4th cycle of applications for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurs went on with lots of applications sent in.
More than 150,000 Africans from 114 countries worldwide applied to join the 4th cycle of The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s 10-year, $100 million TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
With the recent announcement of entrepreneurs who made the list, our focus was more on Lesotho ventures that succeeded to join the 2018 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurs. Of course we can’t tell the number of those who applied from Lesotho but it’s promising to see more entrepreneurs vying for incubation programmes outside Lesotho.
Through this business development programme, the entrepreneurs will be provided with training, mentoring, funding, and access to a network of investors and potential business partners.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme is the largest African philanthropic initiative devoted to entrepreneurship and represents a 10-year, $100 million commitment, to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create a million jobs, and add $10 billion in revenues to Africa’s economy.
Lesotho was only represented with 2 businesses this past year. There are signs of growth with 5 entrepreneurs qualifying in this round. However, looking at the numbers of entrepreneurs from other countries, Lesotho remains one of the most underrepresented countries. There’s therefore a need for more focused efforts towards building a fruitful start up ecosystem.
Amazingly, agri-businesses continue to get most of the attention. As we expected on our Job Market Predictions for 2018, agriculture will remain the best sector suited for employment and income generation for the wide demographics of youth. Lesotho youth can support increased agro-processing and production in priority agricultural value chains.
Here are the 2018 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurs from Lesotho:
- Lisemelo Lydia Letsie, Agriculture (Agri-business, Farming)
- Mpitseng Andrias Ntsoele, Education and Training
- Nthota Matlosa, Agriculture (Agri-business, Farming)
- Tholang Mosisili, Media and Entertainment
- Yoleke Pathy, Agriculture (Agri-business, Farming)
Congratulations! Always a pleasure to see Lesotho ventures making good!