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The Founder/Chairman, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mr. Tony Elumelu, on Thursday, sought the assistance of development partners including the European Union (EU) and private sector players towards addressing the issue of youth migration in the country.
He also insisted that in the 21st century, the solutions to current socio-economic challenges were “not about handouts but economically empowering people so they can look after themselves”.
Elumelu, a well-respected businessman spoke at a dinner held for the visiting EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Jutta Urpilainen in Abuja.
He said given that Nigerians leave the country to seek greener pastures overseas, they could be encouraged to stay back if the necessary environment and empowerment were provided for them in Nigeria.
Elumelu added, “We believe that at a time like this, our young ones should not be crossing the Mediterranean in very harsh conditions because they want to seek better living outside of the country.
“We want to see our young men and women live well in Africa in our lifetime and is this possible? Yes. But how do we make it possible? When all of us – successful rich Africans, friends of Africa like the EU – when we all team up to bring resources together, collaborate to prioritise young Africans, we will achieve that.”
He stressed that the long-lasting panacea to insecurity in the country was in the economic empowerment of the young population.
He said, “We believe the ultimate solution to insecurity is economic empowerment and we believe that in the 21st century, it is not about handouts but about economically empowering people so they can look after themselves.”
He pointed out that the foundation had through $100 million commitment and partnerships brokered, impacted over 18,000 young African entrepreneurs by giving each of them a non-refundable seed capital of $5,000 as well as training 1.5 million young Africans and also appointed new mentors for them.
Elumelu said these beneficiaries have in turn created thousands of jobs, adding that over 400,000 jobs had been created since the commencement of TEF.
He said, “The motivation of what we do at the foundation is the realisation that one, poverty anywhere is a threat to all of us everywhere.
“Two, that what counts at some point in life is not the dollars you have in your account but the impact, the legacies that you leave behind.
“And we know that there is no greater sense of fulfilment in life than helping another person to succeed. That is why we believe that we must work together to democratise luck – give our young ones the opportunity to succeed in life.”
He told THISDAY, “What is important is for all of us to demonstrate confidence and continue to push and advocate for better governance and the right enabling environment
“There are so many global private capitals looking for the right investment destination. If we turn our country to the right investment destination, capital will come and when capital comes, we are able to develop the country to create employment, jobs and fix insecurity and in that process, we create prosperity for posterity.”
In her remarks, Urpilainen, disclosed her objective to change the paradigm in terms of the EU’s partnership with Africa for more mutual cooperation.
She expressed the block’s commitment to further partner with TEF, realising the foundation’s laudable interventions towards empowerment of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and the continent in general.
She said, “I wanted to get rid of this kind of donor-recipient relationship where we as donors tell and impose what we expect from Africans under our partnerships;
“So, we really wanted to change the paradigm and create mutually beneficial partnerships.
“And in order to be able to succeed, we also created this Global Gateway Investment Strategy and it was adopted two years ago.
“The main objective of that strategy is to accelerate green and digital transitions in Africa and implement the strategy in other continents but Africa is the main geographic scope.
“We also set a strategy that we want to boost investment to 300 billion euros globally by 2027 and 150 billion euros goes to Africa.”
James Emejo
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