TEF Partners MIT, Chicago, Columbia Universities on Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) is set to embark on a research collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Chicago and Columbia University that would evaluate the impact of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in Africa on those who participated in the scheme.
The impact evaluation, whose result is expected to be released by the end of 2024, would compare successful applicants that were shortlisted to embark on the TEF entrepreneurship programme and those who could not participate in the programme because they were rejected for various reasons including low qualification scores, plagiarism, and unverified identity.  

But the successful applicants were able to scale through all the selection processes and participation stages that included completing online business management training, receiving personalised mentorship, undergoing a pitching assessment, and producing a business plan.
The best among the successful applicants were provided with $5000 non-returnable seed capital to help them to start and grow their businesses.
The research would also consider applicants with lower scores who are around the cutoff for acceptance for the program that were either assigned to continue with the programme or dropped but invited to apply again next year.

These were disclosed in TEF’s publication titled: ‘Empowering African Entrepreneurs: Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Building Resilience in African Entrepreneurs through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme’.
It said: “We are in the process of tracking entrepreneur outcomes such as success in opening a business, income, number of employees, and business sales.
“Comparing those randomly selected to continue allows us to estimate the impacts of participating in the TEF programme.
“In addition, some locations within each country had more successful applicants and some fewer, allowing assessment of community-level impacts. We expect final results in late 2024.”

However, a random survey on ‘Understanding What Unsuccessful Applicants Do Next’ explored how the different messaging affected the intentions of those who could not participate in the program to reapply in subsequent years.
Some of these unsuccessful applicants are randomly selected candidates that received a message of encouragement to continue on their entrepreneurship journey, others received information about their application score relative to their rejected peers in their state, country, and the whole applicant pool or not while some received information about how popular the industry of their business idea was compared to peers in their state, country, and the whole applicant pool or not.

Insights from this survey showed that receiving scores and reinforcement messages could motivate applicants to continue pursuing entrepreneurship.
It said: “Seeing scores and receiving positive messages can increase applicants’ self-estimated future wages, an indicator of their belief in their ability.
“Lower-scoring applicants may be more resilient and motivated as they are just as likely to continue pursuing entrepreneurship despite seeing their low scores.
“Access to scores, which is a form of transparency in the selection process, may provide a sense of accountability, motivating applicants to stay invested in their entrepreneurial journey.
“Reinforcement messages may provide a sense of validation and support, boosting applicants’ confidence and motivation.
“The programme’s context, such as the selection process and feedback mechanisms, can impact applicants’ decisions and perceptions.”

It, therefore, recommended that incorporating encouraging messages in rejection emails could boost applicants’ estimated future wages and likelihood to continue in entrepreneurship, potentially by boosting their confidence and outlook.  

It further recommended developing resources or workshops for rejected applicants to help them improve their skills, business concepts and keep them committed to the pursuit of their entrepreneurial journey.

It also recommended creating a community or platform for all applicants and not just those who were selected to build and encourage continued learning and networking.

It said: “TEFConnect, the foundation’s proprietary digital platform, offers free business resources and training, to building a community of millions of African entrepreneurs from across all 54 African countries and the diaspora. The platform is set to do even more.”