By Parminder Vir
Our founder and serial entrepreneur-investor, Tony O. Elumelu CON, Richard Branson founder of Virgin Group, and Mark Zuckerberg, the ultimate social media guru, have more in common than their pioneering business acumen and philanthropic focus – they all attribute their success in varying degrees to the support they received from a mentor.
Research and surveys prove that having a mentor is critical to the success of emerging businesses, in Africa and globally. Personally, I would not have attained the accomplishments, learnings, and exposure that I had in my career as a filmmaker and now as CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, without mentors at key stages in my development. The same can be said for 80% of CEOs in a 2013 executive coaching survey by Stanford Business.
At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we are searching for passionate individuals with expertise in a myriad of industries and fields around the world, to participate in rewriting the narrative of Africa, by volunteering as Mentors in the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Programme.
Why become a TEF Mentor?
TEF Mentors are in a prime position to empower Africa’s next generation of entrepreneurs and play a vital part in a large and growing Pan-African entrepreneurial network and ecosystem. The strategic guidance and support that you provide to these upcoming businesses will undoubtedly play a major part in Africa’s economic transformation.
The mentor-mentee relationship goes even further, as the mentors themselves derive key insights into African start-ups, refreshed business education, live case study of their entrepreneur’s business, and network building within our bourgeoning African entrepreneurial ecosystem.
You all have a wealth of knowledge and transferable skills, but most importantly, the passion for Africa’s transformation; and as such it is imperative that we take up the challenge of mentoring the next generation of African leaders through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme. All that is required is dedication of 4 hours per month to one or two mentees through our online Mentor Learning Platform.
For background information about the programme, I recommend you watch the 30-minute documentary produced by the Foundation on the launch of the ground-breaking flagship TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE2Tt-TfhJI. You can also download the TEF Impact Report (Version – English): http://bit.ly/2bBLWHM .
If this interest you, please send mentor-related enquiries and referrals of potential mentors from your network to Onajite Emerhor, the Entrepreneurship Programme Manager via onajite.emerhor@tonyelumelufoundation.org with the subject MENTOR 2017.
The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is the Foundation’s $100m commitment to support and grow 10,000 African entrepreneurs across the continent over 10 years, and we are now in the third year. The programme goes beyond provision of financial support, and is built on seven key pillars which encapsulate the core needs of an entrepreneur – training and education, online mentorship, network building and ultimately finance. Please read more about the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme here.
Please do share this post with your network, and I look forward to your support.
