SUPER TYCOON, TONY ELUMELU OF TEF DECRIES HIGH RATE OF POVERTY AMONG AFRICAN PEOPLE

"According to Ethiopian custom, parents wait to name a baby because children often die in the first weeks of life"-

Bill Gates

When the Tony Elumelu Foundatin (TEF) Entrepreneur Programm and committed $ 100 million to empowering 10.000 entrepreneurs from 54 African counties in 10 years, they knew they would one day create a meaningful impact, but never imagined it world impact at such high magnitude

Only last week, that is on 13th and 14 of October the TEF again brought world attention to LAGOS as they hosted a most diverse and inclusive gathering of Africa entrepreneur in the world, to allow the full entrepreneurship ecosystem to build relationship from the networks and forge partnership from networks and forge partnership

*HERE IS BRIEF SUMMARY OF ELUMELU WORRIES ON AFRICA'S POOR STATE AS COMPILED BY WORLD LEADERS.COM

“We need to tell our leaders that they need to create, not jobs, but the right environment that would allow businesses to thrive… If you create the right environment, (investment) capital will find its way there.”

Africans are tired of being the subjects of stories of poverty, hunger, disease and the desperate need for aid, he lamented, while anxiously looking “forward to an Africa where poverty is a thing of the past and growth is not just what we see, but feel as a people.

“If African leaders can just focus on providing the right environment, they would be amazed at what their countries would become.

“The world today is development-by-investment and not by aid. What Africa needs today are more investment agents to bring investments.

“The greatest thing we can give to Africa is to empower her people who would (then) help to develop the continent,” he told the newsmen, challenging them to constantly remind their leaders of the need to do the right thing, besides being development oriented for the greatest good of the majority of their citizens.

TEF, he said, is helping to create solutions that can be best felt by the people, stressing that “we need to give hope and collectively drive the new paradigm shift of a prosperous Africa. Our people are tired of being poor and need the best of good lives in Africa.

From traversing the continent with his gospel of Africapitalism, Elumelu said he has since discovered that contrary to the usual assumptions, Africans are not lazy, but imbued with entrepreneurship spirits waiting to explode.

The least African governments can do, he believes, “is to help this entrepreneurship spirit in us to thrive by creating the right environment… Just a little push and an environment that is conducive, there will be true change of the narrative about Africa.

“It is not just about capital, if you create the right environment, capital will find its way there,” Dr Elumelu stressed further.