Meet the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs Selected for Mandela Washington Fellowship (YALI) 2017

The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders.  Former President Obama launched YALI in 2010 to support young African leaders as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Sub-Saharan Africa.In line with our vision to create 10,000 startups that generate significant employment and wealth across Africa in 10 years, the YALI programme is very much in line with our vision for African entrepreneurs.

Our selected entrepreneurs, will get to participate in a 6-week program studying one of three topics namely: Business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership and public management training. This is coming in addition to the intense 12-week programme they went through the year they were selected to join the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

Meet the selected here

Nkem OkochaMamamoni is a Fin_Tech Social Enterprise that is addressing community transformation by empowering poor women to carry on small businesses. Mamamoni empowers rural and urban slum women in different communities , by empowering them with vocational and financial skills to help them generate livelihood income to feed and educate their children, making them banked by using mobile technology to reduce financial exclusion and also provides Behaviour Modified Loans to help break barriers in accessing finance.

Idongesit UmohIdong Harrie Limited is the home of “Made in Nigeria” bespoke, traditionally crafted quality leather goods (footwear, handbags, belts, etc). They are passionate about carving a niche for ourselves in the area of bespoke/retail leather goods in Nigeria. Materials are ‘strictly’ genuine leather of highest quality and our finishing is well perfected by skilled and experienced craftsmen. His products are available on his website www.idongharrie.com and smemarkethub.com. She     runs a small factory in Surulere.

Chioma UkonuRecyclePoints is a waste recycling and social benefit venture that is addressing Nigeria’s waste management crisis. Our incentive based scheme is geared to motivate citizens to recycle by creating value from their everyday waste. Subscribers to our initiative deposit their home sorted recyclable waste items in exchange for Points which is recorded on passbooks called GreenCards. These Points are accumulated and used to redeem cash or household items offered through our iRecycle store. The company website is www.recyclepoints.com.

Vitumbiko ZgamboMivi Investments is a vegetable farm which is also a learning/training center, Mivi Farms grows high value vegetables in Green Houses, practice irrigation farming to ensure supply of vegetables throughout the year. Mivi Farms also conducts entrepreneurship training’s to youths in the surrounding communities and link them up with financial institutions which can provide loans for start-up businesses. Mivi Farms also provides extension services to the surrounding communities.  Understanding our social responsibility, they have recently engaged a group women to empower them economically. This is a pilot project which has recently been launched. They want to subcontract them so that they produce vegetables under their supervision and they will link them to market. They also have partnered with Self Help Foundation in youth empowerment through agriculture. They have signed an MoU and activities in mobilizing youths have started this April.