- Tony Elumelu has launched a $3.5 million green entrepreneurship program to tackle the climate crisis.
- The program will empower, train, fund, mentor, and coach 120 young African entrepreneurs with businesses in high-impact green sectors.
- All Africans are not yet eligible for the program as the program is accepting only Kenyans for now.
Tony Elumelu, a billionaire industrialist, has just launched a $3.5 million green entrepreneurship program. On Friday evening, he announced this via Twitter.
To mitigate the effects of the climate crisis, he says the Tony Elumelu Foundation is working to strengthen climate resilience, beginning with East Africa and expanding to the rest of Africa.
He stated that the Tony Elumelu Foundation has established the program in collaboration with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Generation Unlimited, and the IKEA Foundation.
Elumelu claims that the initial $3.5 million will be used to empower, train, fund, mentor, and coach 120 young African entrepreneurs with businesses in Kenya’s high-impact green sectors. He also stated that half of the entrepreneurs will be female.
He wrote:
We know the critical role that green entrepreneurship and agri-preneurship play in driving innovative solutions to environmental issues and are keen to empower our young ones across Africa, starting with Kenya, to deploy innovative solutions to the climate crisis.
This initiative will empower young Africans with entrepreneurial skills that are needed to accelerate the shift towards toward green economy. Working with great partners: IKEA Foundation, UNICEF and Generation Unlimited, we will create new jobs, generate employment, improve livelihoods, help eradicate poverty and address climate issues in Africa.
Elumelu went on to say that the program’s partners’ collective goal is to see young entrepreneurs in Africa build sustainable businesses for themselves and generate viable green jobs so that Africa’s young people are not left behind in the world’s inevitable transition to a green economy.
Why Kenya and not Nigeria?
As Elumelu previously stated, the green entrepreneurship program is primarily aimed at Kenyans before any other African country. In a November 2022 article co-authored by the billionaire, he highlighted the fact that East Africa is experiencing its longest drought in 40 years, affecting 36 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.
It is worth noting that, as of November 2022, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reported that wind erosion had swept away houses and farms in Northern Nigeria. Deforestation, drought, overgrazing, and desertification have all been exacerbated as a result.
Climate change-induced flash and seasonal flooding are destroying cities in Southern Nigeria. As a result of rising sea levels, Lagos state experiences seasonal flooding, putting homes and businesses at risk. Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reports that flooding in 2022 has displaced more than 500,000 people.
Increased flooding in Nigeria due to sea level rise, according to the World Bank, will have a negative impact on agriculture, the economy, coastal infrastructure, human health, coastal ecosystems, and human settlements.
It has also been estimated that a one-meter rise in sea level could result in the loss of 75% of the land in the Niger Delta, further reducing oil and gas production capacity.
