Meet Izu Freeman, 2019 TEF Alumni who is into processing, distribution of products from cassava.
Seed Funding for MSMEs in Nigeria: Financial experts say about 80 percent of Small and Medium Enterprises, and SMEs, in Nigeria fail within the first five years of their existence due to lack of experience and other wrong business practices.
Izu Freeman decided to help micro, small and medium businesses to digitalize their processes for free to enable them to close the small business funding gaps in Africa in order to have access to resources to grow and contribute to job creation.
“Seeing the devastating impact of poverty all around me, motivated me into becoming an entrepreneur; knowing that I can contribute both in direct and indirect job creation that will contribute to poverty reduction.”
Seed Funding for MSMEs in Nigeria
The company has users in Nigeria and Ghana. They have won two National Prizes from National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) respectively in 2021. They were invited on an all-expense-paid trip to exhibit our solution in GITEXT Dubai in 2021 and LEAP Riyadh Saudi Arabia in February 2022. They are currently in an acceleration program in New York USA; raising $250,000 USD. They also have a demand to set up in Saudi Arabia and Poland with invitation by top two banks in those countries, respectively. They are in a serious conversation with MTN Nigeria in partnering to cocreate enterprise products for small businesses.
They have also created 4 full-time jobs and over 10 part-time jobs.
“The seed funding got me started in this journey and another transformational aspect of TEF is knowing that I can always get more supports from TEF as soon as I achieve certain tractions. We are contributing to the digitalization of micro, small and medium businesses thereby democratizing access to historical and transparent MSMEs data for proper investment, lending and granting decision making. And we are also contributing to Job creation.”
About The Tony Elumelu Foundation
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFconnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.