The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF)—is the private-sector-led philanthropy focused on empowering African entrepreneurs. The Programme targets small business owners, the foundation was established by Tony Elumelu (CON), who is also the Group Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc) operating in twenty African countries and 3 global financial service centres; London, New York and Paris.
The Programme is a 10-year, $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 young African entrepreneurs. The goal is to create millions of jobs and the revenue required for the sustainable development of the continent, in line with the Foundation’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector as the growth engine for Africa and emphasizes the importance of creating social and economic wealth.
The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is open to entrepreneurs from across Africa, either with new startup business ideas or existing businesses of less than 3 years’ existence, operating in any sector. Successful applicants will join the over 9,000 current beneficiaries, from 54 African countries, and receive business training, mentoring, a non-refundable $5,000 of seed capital with access to global business networking opportunities through the TEF Connect; a fully integrated online real-time application that connects several entrepreneurs, their products and services across the continent.
Last year, the Foundation received about 216,000 applications, with 42% coming from women entrepreneurs, from every country on the continent. Since commencement of the TEEP in 2015, 189 Tanzanian entrepreneurs have benefited from the programme with a total funding support of $1.89m (about TZS4.3billion) in the form of training, mentoring and seed capital of $5,000 each to support the implementation of their start-up business ideas or grow their existing businesses.
UBA Tanzania as part of its initiative to ensure that more Tanzanian entrepreneurs emerge as successful applicants for the program this year 2020, decided to organize a free coaching session for the interested members of the public.
A total of 100 potential applicants participated in an intensive business training organized by the bank at the Golden Tulip Hotel City Centre on Tuesday 21st January 2020. The application for TEF opened since 1st January 2020 and will end early in March.
Speaking at the event, the CEO of Clouds Media Group Mr. Joseph Kusaga enjoyed participants at the training session to take advantage of this positive gesture of UBA Tanzania to ensure that they diligently complete their applications to enable them emerge as winners of the seed fund. Mr. Kusaga also used the occasion to commend the Group chairman of UBA, Mr. Tony Elumelu for dedicating a huge amount of $100 million for the development of young entrepreneurs. Encouraging young Tanzanian entrepreneurs to go for the application so as to reduce unemployment challenges, Joseph Kusaga advised the youths to be upfront grabbing such golden opportunities which are very rare to find in our country.
One of the TEF alumni for the year 2017, Mr. Kimambo shared his experience with TEF and said that the programme is transparent and everyone who apply and win get the $5,000.00 seed capital and enjoy free training sessions via the hubs and online. “I encourage my fellow Tanzanians to grab this opportunity, all you have to do is apply online, submit your best business initiative and win free $5000 as a seed capital to implement your start-up business idea or grow your existing business.
The UBA Tanzania’s MD/CEO Usman Isiaka in his welcome address stated that The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropic institution in Africa with focus on entrepreneurship development. The TEF has trained, mentored and granted seed capitals to over 9000 entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries with cumulative seed capital funding of over $45m. He advised the participants in the session and media representatives present to encourage other young Tanzanian entrepreneurs to apply for the programme.
Mwinyimkuu is the new Head Retail Banking for UBAT. His resumption date is 1st June 2022. Mwinyimkuu has over seventeen (17) years working experience in Bank’s, He previously worked with Exim Bank (T) Ltd and prior to that he was working with NMB Bank.
Mwinyimkuu comes in with the vast experience in Retail banking having worked as branch Commercial Manager, Branch Manager and currently as Senior Manager in their strategic branch in Zanzibar.
Mwinyimkuu is the holder of Masters of Business Administration in Finance from University of Wales Institute, Cardiff – UK, Post Graduate Diploma in Tax Management from the Institute of Finance Management and a bachelor degree in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness from Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Mwinyimkuu is fluent in both English and Swahili
<strong>Male-Martin Jonas Mmari</strong>- He is currently serving as a Tanzania partner and CEO of Digitian Global Consulting. He was appointed as a Non – Executive Director of UBA Tanzania in August 2019. Before serving in the Board of UBA Tanzania, he held many strategic positions at various times as the Director of Finance at PPF Pension Fund from 2002 to 2018 in which he represented the Fund and served as a board member for CRDB Bank Ltd from 2001 to 2016 and was later appointed to serve as the Chairman of the Board of directors for CRDB Bank Ltd from 2004 to 2016 and also served as the Head of Financial Reporting & Investments and Acting Director of Finance at PPF Pension Fund in 2001. Prior to that, he served as the Bank Examiner of the Bank of Tanzania between 1991 and 2000.
Oliver, a seasoned banking professional, comes on board with a broad range of strategic and well-grounded experience in Corporate and Institutional Banking, Consumer Banking, Public Sector, Retail and Commercial Banking, Project Management, Corporate Governance, and overall bank management.
Mr. Oliver Alawuba has acquired 25 years of work experience in the banking industry after his short foray into academia. He joined the former Standard Trust Bank (STB) as a pioneer staff in 1997. Over the years, he has demonstrated strong passion for excellence and result-oriented leadership capability.
Prior to his current appointment as the Group Managing Director/CEO of UBA Banking Group, Oliver was at various times country CEO and Regional CEO in the Rest of Africa, Executive Director, East Bank (Nigeria) and later Group Deputy Managing Director/CEO, covering Nigeria and other 19 subsidiaries in the Rest of Africa. He also worked in another bank and rose to the position of Executive Director. Oliver is an effective and self-motivated professional.
Oliver possesses B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Food Science and Technology and MBA in Banking and Finance. He is an alumnus of the AMP and SEP programmes of the prestigious INSEAD Business School, France and London Business School respectively.
He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
Was born on 18th April 1966. He is married with four children. He is an Associate Certified Public Accountant (ACPA) registered by the National Board of Accountants and Auditors [NBAA] of Tanzania. He holds a Diploma in Accountancy certificate obtained from Zambia Institute of Technology (now Copperbelt University) in Kitwe Zambia.
A Diploma in Risk Management in Finance/Banking obtained in Stockholm, Sweden.
He has 14 years of working experience in the banking Industry in the field of internal auditing, starting as Senior Internal Auditor in 2004 at Tanzania Postal Bank where he rose to Senior Manager Audit before joining United Bank for Africa Tanzania as Country Head Audit in November 2016.
Kelvin Nguma is the Chief Risk Officer at UBA Tanzania. Kelvin has more than ten (10) years working experience out of that, six (6) years being in Risk Management. Prior to join UBAT he was the Manager in Risk and Compliance department at Tanzania Postal Bank (TPB). Kelvin is the graduate from Institute of Finance Management holding a Bachelor degree in Banking and Finance. Currently he is pursuing MBA from Mzumbe University majoring in Corporate Management. Also, he is certified Risk Specialist by International Association of Financial Management and Certified Professional Banker by the Tanzania Institute of Bankers. Kelvin is fluent in English and Swahili.
Is a professional Lawyer born December 1973. She is married with three children.
Professionally, she is an Advocate of the High Court Tanzania and Courts subordinates there to, and Member of the Tanganyika Law Society. She is a Certified Compliance Specialist from the International Financial Management and holds a Master’s Degree in Laws majoring in Corporate and Commercial from the University of Dar es salaam.
Christina holds Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law school of Tanzania and a Bachelor’s Degree in Laws (LLB)(Hons)from the Open University of Tanzania as well as Diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Center for Foreign Relations in Dar es salaam.
She has a ten years work experience in the banking Industry, mainly in management and Compliance, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks. She started her career in banking, way back in 2003 as a Call Center Agent with NMB Bank – Head Office and later in 2010 was promoted to Compliance Officer within the same Institution before joining the United Bank for Africa(UBA) (T) Limited in June, 2017 as Head of Compliance.
Mr Gbenga Makinde is currently the Managing Director/ CEO of UBA Tanzania a subsidiary of the United Bank for Africa (Plc). Mr Gbenga (commonly known as GMak) has had a lengthly carrier in the banking realm, which over the course of two decaded has seen him at the helm of a number of critical departments.
Prior to his appointment as MD/ CEO of UBA Tanzania, he was the MD/ CEO of UBA Benin where he made great number of significant achievements in different time periods. Before Joining UBA Plc, Mr Makinde worked in various managerial roles and positions having worked for Metropolitan Bank Limited, Equatorial Trust Bank Limited and Access Bank Plc.
Makinde is people centered and has consciously developed his communication skills in a manner that relates to various categories of target audience and stakeholders to enhance business growth.
Ms. Flavia has twenty-five (25) years working experience out of that, ten (10) years being with UBAT. Flavia has been employed with UBA Tanzania since 2009 up to date. Within UBA Bank Tanzania Flavia has assumed various responsibilities in operations department as Branch Operation Manager from 2009 to 2014 then she has been promoted as Head of Domestic Operations from 2015 to 2018 and Currently Flavia is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) from November 2018. Prior to that, from 1996 to 2009, she was the Branch Finance Officer of Tanzania Postal Bank. Flavia holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance and Banking from Mzumbe University, also Flavia graduated at Mzumbe University where she earned an Advanced Diploma in Economic Planning.