Out of over 150,000 applications received from 114 countries, the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program has picked 1,250 entrepreneurs to participate in its fourth-year run.
The entrepreneurs consist mainly of startup founders with promising business ideas and products that need acceleration, mentorship, incubation, and connected to the right network of partners and VCs to scale their operations.
The Tony Elumelu Foundations is running a 10-year acceleration program with up to $100 million total funding opportunities for the startups that successfully go through the program. The 1,250 number of selected entrepreneurs consists of 250 entrepreneurs selected in addition to the usual 1,000 after a $1 million additional funding from a partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The ICRC pumped in the additional cash to support a further 200 entrepreneurs from conflict and fragile regions in Nigeria. There was an additional $200,000 injection from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to support further another 40 pan-African entrepreneurs and another $50,000 from a partnership with Indorama seeking to support an additional 10 Nigerians.
The 1,250 entrepreneurs will for the next nine months undergo training and mentorship from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program. All the efforts of the program are geared towards helping them expand their business, and the most promising ones will stand a chance to walk home with $10,000 seed funding.
To view the full list of entrepreneurs for this go to this link.