By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – Tony Elumelu, Chairman of the Board of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), has revealed that he launched the foundation a decade ago in order to “democratise luck” in Africa and change the way Africa was being perceived.
According to him, “Entrepreneurship, not charity, gives us control and allows us to grow our talents, harness our drive and our resilience, as Africans.”
He said through the foundation, he wanted many young people in Africa to benefit from the same process that had helped him grow and succeed as an entrepreneur.
Making this disclosure on his social media handles on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, he said, “In my own entrepreneurial journey, I knew luck had played an important role, and I was determined that others, many others, would get those same chances.
“So, we created an institution with a single focus: African entrepreneurs. We knew that if we equipped young people with the tools and the opportunities to succeed, this was the only sustainable, dignified way to create a path to prosperity, substituting hand-outs for self-reliance and pioneering a 21st century philanthropy.
“We wanted to change how Africa is perceived and how Africa grows – creating something transformative, scalable, inclusive, youth-focused, and African-led. Aid has a role, it has saved many lives, but it does not challenge the status quo,” he opined.