In 2018, I joined the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) as its Partnerships Manager.
As the Foundation grew, and the impact of the entrepreneurship programme spread far and wide, it became clear that to bring more entrepreneurs into the fold, TEF would have to partner with like-minded organisations to make this happen.
One of the first steps was to expand the Partnership team. The Partnerships Manager role was new, I worked directly with Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, the CEO of the Foundation who was, at the time, the Director of Partnerships. Working with Ifeyinwa I learnt new skills and adopted superpowers that helped me grow in the role.
Among other skills, she taught me a time management tip that has impacted my life: setting alarms as a reminder for *everything*, so my phone is constantly going off with alarms. More importantly, the CEO helped me to improve my collaboration skills. This is the cornerstone of successfully working towards a common goal, not only with my teammates in TEF but across the HH group. I have always been a people person, but these skills, including communicating more clearly, the art of active listening, accountability and taking responsibility for mistakes, being solutions-focused, and respecting the diversity of my colleagues and their work styles, are a few of the many things I have learnt. These have now become my superpowers! My favourite saying of hers is: “we win together”.
I got exposed to a new path within the department. I discovered the joy of ‘multi-sector partnerships’. I know it sounds like Greek to you, but please allow me to geek out for a few seconds: Multi-sector partnerships are critical as they bring us closer to attaining our shared goals. This collaborative model is something I am deeply passionate about and has changed the way we work at TEF.
Based on this model, we were able to hit the nail on many heads. In March 2020, Ifeyinwa (who eventually became the CEO of the Foundation) and I visited the European Commission in Brussels and secured a commitment of EUR 20million to support the work of the Foundation. The funds opened the doors for more entrepreneurs to join TEF’s Entrepreneurship Programme. The funds were allocated thus: EUR 12million for seed capital disbursement and EUR 8million for second stage funding for TEF alumni working with other development and entrepreneurial support organisations.
The announcement of such a huge commitment was ground-breaking because it covered so many areas and was a ‘win-win’ for everyone involved including young businesswomen in Africa who benefitted from this.
This is to celebrate the growth of TEF Partnerships under the leadership of my very own SuperHHero, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, now supported by Somachi Chris-Asoluka who came onboard as the Director of Partnerships earlier this year after heading the partnership’s unit last year. We have come a long way and continue to do amazing work in our bid to transform Africa. In addition to the non-financial and value-added partnerships, over the past two years, we have secured over $25 million to scale the work of the Foundation. At today’s parallel rate, that is NGN12,525,000,000 – over 12 billion Naira!
I am proud to have been a part of the (small but mighty) pioneer team that brought in the single largest partnership in support of the Foundation and look forward to many more big wins from the Partnerships and Communications team for the transformation of Africa.
Fun fact: In March 2020, Ifeyinwa and I had to leave Europe on the last flight back to Nigeria as the world began with the initial Covid 19 global lockdown in March 2020.
