Speaking at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris, the Heirs Holdings chairman called on AFD, Proparco and Bpifrance to co-invest in African entrepreneurs, pointing to $120 million in seed capital, 1.5 million jobs created and a generation of young Africans ready to build businesses.
Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), has issued a direct challenge to France’s leading development finance institutions: move beyond traditional aid and become investment partners in Africa’s entrepreneurial future.
Speaking on October 3 at the French–African Foundation Gala Dinner, held at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in Paris, Elumelu called on the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Proparco and Bpifrance to co-invest alongside the foundation in African entrepreneurs.
His message was clear: Africa does not lack ambition, ideas or entrepreneurial talent. What it needs is greater access to capital and partners willing to share the risks of building businesses.
“Aid asks what Africa needs. Partnership asks what Africa is building — and takes a share of the risk alongside it,” Elumelu told an audience of French and African leaders.
“One creates dependency. The other creates companies, and employers, and taxpayers — the kind of prosperity that does not have to be renewed every budget cycle.”
A Different Conversation About Africa’s Future
Elumelu opened his remarks with an acknowledgment of the complicated history of relations between France and Africa, particularly within the walls of the French Foreign Ministry.
“For a century and a half, the policy of France towards Africa was written in this building,” he said. “Much of that history we know. Some of it we are still arguing about. I do not pretend otherwise.”
But he quickly turned his attention from history to the next generation.
Earlier that day, Elumelu had addressed a gathering of 5,000 young people at Sciences Po, including African and French students and members of the African diaspora.
“They had not come for a debate about history,” he recalled. “They had come looking for opportunity, a mentor, an investor. Somebody to take a chance on them.”
The experience brought him back to the beginning of his own career, when an employer gave him an opportunity despite his lack of formal qualifications for the position.
“Everything I have built since — a bank, an energy company, a foundation — began with one decision, by one person, who did not have to make it,” he said.
“I was lucky. But luck should not be the only way an African talent gets a chance.”
That conviction became the foundation of his entrepreneurial philanthropy.
“And so for fifteen years I have been trying to do one thing. To democratise that luck.”
Fifteen Years, $120 Million and 1.5 Million Jobs
Elumelu’s appeal was supported by figures from the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s newly released 15-year impact report.
Since 2015, the foundation has distributed more than US$120 million in nonrefundable seed capital to over 24,000 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries, providing grants of US$5,000 to help aspiring business owners establish and grow their enterprises.
According to the foundation, those entrepreneurs have collectively created approximately 1.5 million jobs.
Perhaps more striking is the starting point of many of those businesses.
“Eighty-four per cent of them came to us with nothing but an idea,” Elumelu said.
The figures reflect the foundation’s approach to entrepreneurship support: identifying promising African founders, providing early-stage financing and creating opportunities for businesses that might otherwise struggle to access capital.
Yet the foundation’s reach also highlights the enormous gap between entrepreneurial ambition and available financial resources.
In 2026, approximately 265,000 young Africans applied for support through the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Only about 2,000 could be funded.
That means fewer than one in 100 applicants could receive financial backing.
Elumelu argued that these numbers should change how international institutions view the continent.
“That is not a continent looking for charity,” he said. “That is a continent showing it is investable, entrepreneurial – that it is our future.”
France Has Already Shown What Partnership Can Look Like
Elumelu’s remarks were not simply a request for new commitments. They also recognized France’s previous engagement with African entrepreneurship.
In 2017, AFD agreed to partner with the Tony Elumelu Foundation through a risk-sharing arrangement designed to support bank lending to entrepreneurs.
“Not to give. To share the risk — standing behind the banks that lend to our entrepreneurs,” Elumelu explained.
He also recalled French President Emmanuel Macron’s first official visit to Nigeria in 2018, when Macron accepted an invitation to meet 2,000 Tony Elumelu entrepreneurs in Lagos.
Elumelu emphasized the significance of that meeting: the French president engaged directly with young African business owners at an event organized by an African foundation.
At the time, the Tony Elumelu Foundation had funded 4,250 entrepreneurs. Today, that number exceeds 24,000.
“That is what a partner looks like,” Elumelu said.
For Elumelu, these examples demonstrate that collaboration between African institutions and international partners can extend beyond conventional development assistance to address the financial barriers facing entrepreneurs.
A Direct Invitation to France’s Financial Institutions
The central request of Elumelu’s speech was directed at three French institutions with significant financing capabilities: AFD, Proparco and Bpifrance.
Each plays a different role in France’s development and investment ecosystem, from international development financing and private-sector investment to business financing and international expansion.
Elumelu argued that the Tony Elumelu Foundation has already established a track record that could support expanded investment partnerships.
“Our seed capital has already proved the case,” he said. “These entrepreneurs are investible, and we now have fifteen years of independently assessed evidence to show it.”
He then delivered his invitation:
“To AFD, to Proparco, to Bpifrance — and to everyone in this room with capital to deploy: come and co-invest with us.”
“Not for Africa. With Africa.”
His proposal is particularly timely as African entrepreneurs continue to face substantial obstacles in accessing early-stage capital, even as governments and development institutions look to private enterprise to generate employment and expand economic opportunity.
The contrast between 265,000 applicants and approximately 2,000 available grants in a single year illustrates the scale of that unmet demand.
It also raises an important question for development finance institutions: whether existing funding models can be expanded to reach significantly more African entrepreneurs.
From Aid Recipients to Investment Partners
Elumelu’s argument reflects his longstanding philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions Africa’s private sector as a central driver of the continent’s economic transformation.
The philosophy emphasizes long-term investment, entrepreneurship and the creation of both economic value and social opportunity.
Rather than asking international institutions to solve Africa’s development challenges on its behalf, Elumelu is proposing that they invest alongside African organizations already supporting businesses and creating jobs.
The distinction is more than rhetorical.
Traditional development programmes often focus on addressing immediate needs through grants and assistance. Investment partnerships can also support business formation, job creation, tax revenues and sustained economic activity.
For Africa’s young entrepreneurs, the question is whether institutions with substantial financial resources will be willing to take greater risks on African-led enterprises.
For France, Elumelu’s invitation offers a practical framework for strengthening economic relations with Africa through shared investment rather than a relationship defined primarily by donor and recipient.
And for the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the next chapter may depend on its ability to attract larger pools of capital to expand an entrepreneurship programme that already operates across the continent.
Elumelu closed his speech by returning to the personal experience that inspired his mission.
“Somebody did it for me,” he said, recalling the opportunity that helped launch his own career.
He ended with a toast to the next generation:
“Ladies and gentlemen — to Africa’s next champion, whoever and wherever she is.”
The message from Paris was unmistakable: Africa’s entrepreneurs are not waiting to be rescued. They are looking for partners prepared to invest in what they are building.
Researched with AI. Edited by humans. All stories verified against primary sources before publication.
