TIME has named Tony Elumelu in the 2020 TIME100, the annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The list recognises the activism, achievements and innovations of the most influential personalities in the world. Mr Elumelu, who is one of the four Africans on the 2020 list, is recognised based on his track record of business turnaround, value creation and economic empowerment of many young Africans.
Mr Elumelu is the most outstanding champion of entrepreneurship in Africa. He created The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) in 2010. TEF is a pan-African philanthropy which empowers a new generation of African entrepreneurs, facilitates economic growth, drives poverty eradication and ensures job creation across every African country.
Since the inception of the Foundation, it has funded over 9,000 entrepreneurs and established a digital hub of support for more than a million Africans as part of its ten year US$100m commitment via its flagship Entrepreneurship Programme.
The Foundation is self-funded and it is increasingly sharing its peculiar ability to discover, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs all over Africa with partnership with international institutions like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and top European development agencies.
The full list of the 2020 TIME100 can be found on time.com/time100.
