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Tony Elumelu Foundation Announces 10th Cohort OF Entrepreneurship Programme – 20,000 Entrepreneurs Funded Across Africa

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The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, has announced the successful entrepreneurs in its tenth selection for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

This new cohort brings to 20,000, the number of young African entrepreneurs who have received funding, mentoring, and capacity-building support from the Foundation, double the initial commitment. 

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has disbursed US$100,000,000 directly to young African entrepreneurs, who have created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa’s economic growth and development. 45% of these beneficiaries are women, reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to gender inclusion and equity.

Past entrepreneurs selected across Africa include:

Stella Sigana, founder of Alternative Waste Technologies from Kenya, produces fuel briquettes by converting organic and charcoal waste from slum settlements, and dedicates a portion of the revenues to providing education, skills training, and job placement for adolescent girls and young women aged 18-24.

Since her selection, Stella has created 12 jobs, generated over $79,000 in revenue, and recycled over 500 tons of waste into fuel briquettes for cooking.

Her business model has also empowered hundreds of women entrepreneurs in slum settlements in Kenya, enabling them to build businesses by selling her products directly to their communities, thus significantly increasing household income and wellbeing.

Vital Sounouvou from Benin is the founder of Exportunity, an e-commerce platform that promotes export opportunities for Africans by connecting producers with traders. Through Exportunity, Sounouvou has engaged over 750 clients, and built a database of 85,000 companies trading with Africa. He has employed 32 people.

Nora Chaynane, a Moroccan entrepreneur, and founder of Shine Space, a socio-educational initiative aimed at bridging the knowledge gap and guiding students toward the right career path, helps young Moroccans develop technical and interpersonal skills beyond school curriculum requirements. Through Shine Space, Nora has upskilled and capacitised over 2,500 young Moroccans.

Since inception in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has pioneered an innovative approach to seeding, capacitising and networking young entrepreneurs across Africa.  Drawing directly from Founder Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurial journey, the Foundation democratises luck, spreads opportunity, in a sector agnostic approach, and has developed a bespoke infrastructure that reaches every country in Africa. 

The Foundation is driven by our Founder’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which advocates that the private sector, particularly entrepreneurs, must play the pivotal role in Africa’s development.

The robust ability of the Foundation to reach entrepreneurs across geographies and sectors has enabled it to conduct innovative partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the US Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the French Development Agency (AFD), the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the African Development Bank (AfDB), Sèmè City Development Agency, and Google, with bespoke programmes including targeting female empowerment and growth in fragile states. Building on its existing partnership with Sèmè City Development Agency, the Tony Elumelu Foundation will fund an additional 100 young entrepreneurs from Benin Republic in 2024.

Tony O. Elumelu shared: “As we mark a decade of impact, I am immensely proud of the incredible journey we have embarked on. Our entrepreneurs represent the driving force behind Africa’s economic transformation, and their resilience, determination, and innovation continue to inspire us all. The future of our continent is brighter because of their efforts.”

As part of the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s commitment to support young Africans, the following ongoing opportunities are currently open for applications from young entrepreneurs across Africa on TEFConnect

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Business

Cement: Manufacturers Post N5.8tn Nine Months Revenue

The surge in the revenue is being driven by the increasing prices of cement selling N12,000 to N15,000 between July and September 2026 in Lagos and Ogun States, compared with around N10,000 sold in September 2025.

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The three largest cement manufacturers in Nigeria Dangote Cement Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc, and BUA Cement Plc have reported a combined N5.8 trillion revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2026.

The surge in the revenue is being driven by the increasing prices of cement selling N12,000 to N15,000 between July and September 2026 in Lagos and Ogun States, compared with around N10,000 sold in September 2025.

THISDAY reported that their unaudited result and accounts, the N5.8 trillion revenue is about 21 per cent increase over the N4.8 trillion revenue reported in nine months of 2025.

A breakdown revealed that Dangote Cement reported N3.8 trillion revenue during the period under review, about 19.6 per cent increase when compared to N3.15 trillion in 2025.

Dangote Cement’s production capacity increased by 9 per cent to 22.1million metric tonnes from 20.2 million tonnes in the corresponding period of 2025. It sold 14.1Mt, up by 6.4 per cent in the period under review. Its average selling price also rose by 9.4 per cent to N170,493 per tonne.

Exports of cement and clinker from Nigeria increased by 41.8 per cent to 1.5Mt, including 26 clinker shipments to Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. The company’s operations in other African countries sold 9.1Mt, up by 14 per cent. Senegal grew by 30%, Ethiopia by 19 per cent and Tanzania by nine per cent, and a new grinding plant in Ivory Coast sold 0.53Mt. Sales in Ghana and Cameroon were lower.

The first phase of the company’s 6Mt/yr plant at Itori in Ogun state is on track to be commissioned in 2027, part of a plan to increase capacity to 80Mt/yr from 55Mt/yr across Africa.

On its part, BUA Cement posted N1.09 trillion revenue, a growth of 26.5 per cent from N858.72 billion in 2025, while HBM Nigeria declared N928.25 billion revenue, representing an increase of nearly 19 per cent from N780.5 billion in 2025.

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Business

Dangote Says Refinery’s IPO Misses 10 Million Investors Target

According to him, the company is yet to establish the official number of investors who participated in the offer, as the necessary reports are still being compiled.

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Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the initial public offering (IPO) of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery failed to meet its target of attracting 10 million investors.

Dangote disclosed this during the 25th annual conference of the Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) in Lagos.

Dangote, however, said the public offer recorded significant participation, attracting millions of investors despite not reaching the projected figure.

According to him, the company is yet to establish the official number of investors who participated in the offer, as the necessary reports are still being compiled.

“We cannot tell the figure right away because we have not reported to this, but we’ve gotten an amazing demand from various people,” Dangote said.

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Business

Dangote Rice Mill in Jigawa Begins Processing

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The Jigawa State Government investment tracker has confirmed that the Dangote Rice Mill in Hadin is operational with a processing capacity of 32 tonnes per hour, equivalent to roughly 280,000 tonnes annually.

The commencement of the rice mill is trending on a video shared on X.

The footage comes 12 years after Aliko Dangote committed $1 billion to commercial rice farming and processing across Nigeria

The facility is linked to commercial cultivation schemes around Hadejia and Kafin Hausa.

Dangote Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government in August 2014 to invest $1 billion in integrated rice farming and milling across Jigawa, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara and Edo states. Two years later, the company launched an 8,000-hectare rice outgrower scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa State. Participating farmers received improved seeds, fertilisers and technical support, and the company committed to buying their harvested paddy for processing.By February 2017, the outgrower scheme had expanded to 25,000 hectares across 14 states. Dangote set a target of 225,000 metric tonnes of milled rice by the end of that year, with an ambition of reaching one million tonnes annually. Construction announcements followed over several years without matching production results.

Dangote laid the foundation for a processing plant in Hadin, Kaugama Local Government Area of Jigawa State, in March 2018.

The facility was initially designed to handle 16 tonnes of paddy per hour.In July 2025, Dangote said Niger State had joined Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano and Nasarawa as locations with rice mills under construction.

By November 2025, the group outlined plans for mills across five states with a combined annual processing capacity of 1.5 million tonnes.

To secure raw materials, Dangote Rice Limited signed a N1.8 trillion paddy rice supply agreement with Niger Foods Security Systems and Logistics Company in July 2025.

The 10-year deal requires Niger State to develop 25,000 hectares of commercial rice farms and support 50,000 local farmers.

In May 2026, Dangote confirmed the company had committed to purchasing one million metric tonnes of paddy rice from Niger Foods over the life of that agreement.

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