Grant

TEF Entrepreneurship Programme

Tony Elumelu Foundation

Opens 1 January 2027 No fee to apply Last checked 20 Oct

At a glance

Deadline: Opens 1 January 2027, closes 1 March 2027
Fee: No fee to apply
Who may apply: resident in an African country
18 or over
Where: Anywhere in Africa

$5,000 that you never pay back, plus training and a mentor. Open to any African aged 18 or over with a business idea or a business under five years old, in any sector. No fee, no equity taken.

The facts

What you get: $5,000 you never pay back
Where: Anywhere in Africa
How long: 12 weeks of training

Where you stand

This one is free. There is no fee to apply, and nobody should ask you for money at any point.

What they ask for

18 or over
resident in an African country

Get ready to apply

Built only from what this listing states.

The application takes real work, by our reading.

1. What to get ready

It asks for something outside the usual documents; read it below.

In their words: “An online application form on TEFConnect with personal details, your business idea and experience, a business assessment test and a declaration. You upload a valid government ID showing your date of birth and photo, plus a clear headshot.”

2. Dates

Opens 1 January 2027. You cannot apply before then.
Closes 1 March 2027, in 130 days.
Aim to send it by 26 February 2027. Websites slow down near a deadline, and data runs out. Our advice

Download checklist (.txt) Send to WhatsApp

The download is a small text file. You can read it later without data. It also lists each condition they set, so you can tick yourself against them. WhatsApp sends the same list to you, or to somebody helping you.

No CV yet? Make a plain one from your answers. Nothing you type is kept.

Tips for applying for a grant

General advice from us, the same for every grant. It is not what this organisation says; that is above.

Say what the money is for, exactly, and how much of it goes where. A simple budget in a table is enough.
Describe what you have done so far, with numbers you can prove: customers, people served, sales, months running.
Check whether they need your business registered, and in which country.
Answer their questions in their order. Reviewers score each one.

If there is an interview or a test

Expect questions on your numbers. Know them without reading them.
Be ready to say what happens to the project if you do not get the grant.

All our tips and messages to copy. Practise answering, with nothing kept. Received an offer? Check whether it is real, then read before you say yes.

How to apply

You apply on Tony Elumelu Foundation's own website, not here. We never send an application for anybody and we never ask you for anything to pass on. Check their page for anything not shown here.

Opens 1 January 2027

Read it on Tony Elumelu Foundation's own page

How we checked this

This was opened and verified at Tony Elumelu Foundation's own website on 20 October 2026: it was real, not yet open, and open to people from African countries. If anything here is wrong, tell us.