Eradicating unemployment in the country won’t be solved by ordinary intervention but, by a working intervention that will grow jobs and end up creating opportunities for others.

Africa Businessman and UBA Chairman Mr Tony Elumelu over the years through his Africapitalism campaign has brought a new working idea to job creation in Africa which Nigeria should learn from.

The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme stands out as one of the most important individual intervention when it comes to job creation in Africa. The foundation which seeks to give training, mentorship and seed capital to 10,000 entrepreneurs with start-up business ideas they want to execute in Africa has impacted a lot of entrepreneurs since the year 2010.

The TEEP programme over the years has received thousands of applications from entrepreneurs and startups which is always pruned down to a figure the foundation can cater for due to its limited resources. However, one of the takeaway is the number of entrepreneurs that do apply for the foundation’s grant from Nigeria which shows Nigerians have a lot of untapped talents.

These large number of startups have received little or nothing as intervention from the federal government while the lucky ones among them received grants from foreign foundations committed to the development of startups especially tech based startups.

The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme has shown a faster and sustainable method of eradicating unemployment through the support given to entrepreneurs which will hereinafter grow their businesses to employ more individuals unlike the non-sustainable N-Power program of the current government which affects only the life of an individual which has a limited effect.

That the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme is domiciled in Nigeria is an opportunity for the country to learn from its working formula in its bid to reduce the menace of unemployment currently ravaging the country.

Editor