Agriculture is Africa’s biggest employer of labour – Elumelu

Tony Elumelu

The Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu has identified agriculture as the biggest employer of labor on the Africa continent, saying that about forty percent of Africa’s GDP is accounted for by agriculture.


The Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation added that the only way to transform Africa is to fix agriculture, which is the reason for the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs Program (TEEP) which seeks to identify 10,000 Africans over a period of ten years and give them ten thousand dollars each.

“We give them five thousand dollars as first installment and train them for twelve weeks and as they graduate, we appoint coordinators for them. And as they improve their business concepts, we decide when to give them the remaining installment of five thousand dollars.”

“Fixing the African continent is my major desire that is why I decided to give a lot of attention to young Africans in that sector. And it is quite exciting for me to discover that young Africans are interested in choosing agriculture as a profession.”

The first and second batches of the TEEP comprise of over thirty percent involved in agriculture which indicates that young people are interested in agriculture.