40 | The Lion King
News Roundup
L-R: Director, Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), Parminder Vir; Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony O. Elumelu; CEO, Tony Elumelu Founda-
tion, ReidWhitlock; and CEO and Founder of Java Foods, Zambia andMember, Selection Committee TEEP, MonicaMusonda during the official announcement of
the selection of the first 1,000 African entrepreneurs for the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) in Lagos.
R-L: Vincent Ngimback,Head Corporate Bank, UBA Cameroon; Emeke E. Iweriebor, ED/DCEOUBA Africa;
IbrahimTalbaMalla, Director General/CEO, SONARA; Isong Udom, MD/CEOUBA Cameroon; Ellis Asu,
DMD, UBA Cameroon; and Dominique Mahend, Regional Treasurer, UBA CEMAC Region during the visit to
SONARA Refinery, Limbe, Cameroon
TEF selects first 1,000 African Entrepreneurs
ED/DCEO, UBA Africa takes a tour of
Sonara Refinery in Cameroon
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), set
up by UBA Board Chairman, Mr. Tony
O. Elumelu, CON, has announced the
selection of the first 1000 African entre-
preneurs for the Tony Elumelu Entrepre-
neurship Programme (TEEP).
TEEP is a $100 million initiative to discov-
er and support 10,000 African entre-
preneurs over the next decade, with a
target of creating one million new jobs
and $10 billion in additional revenues in
the process.
Over 20,000 African entrepreneurs from
A UBA team led by the ED/DCEO, UBA
Africa, Emeke E. Iweriebor recently took
a familiarization tour of various instal-
lations of the ongoing extension and
modernization project of the SONARA
Refinery in Limbe, Cameroon.
52 countries applied to the programme.
“The selection of these 1000 entrepre-
neurs brings us closer to our ultimate
goal – to drive Africa’s economic and
social transformation from within and to
radically intensify job creation in Africa”
said Mr. Elumelu.
The top five countries with the highest
number of selected entrepreneurs are
Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa
and Ghana.
The 1,000 selected entrepreneurs will
The current expansion work being
carried out at the refinery will increase
its capacity to 3.5 million tons at a cost
of about USD$440m while the planned
second phase estimated at USD$800m
continue through the programme cycle
over the next nine months. This cycle
includes an intensive online training cur-
riculum, mentoring, and participation in
a two-day entrepreneurship boot-camp
and the Elumelu Entrepreneurship
Forum.
Parminder Vir OBE, Director of Entrepre-
neurship at the Tony Elumelu Foun-
dation, said: “The high quantity and
quality of applicants we have received
is testament to the brilliant ideas and in-
credible talent that exists in abundance
across Africa.”
will entail the construction of a Hydroc-
racker Unit and give SONARA the capa-
bility of processing all types of crude.
Mr. Iweriebor used the opportunity to
thank Ibrahim Talba Malla, the Direc-
tor General/CEO of SONARA for the
good business relationship the refinery
has with UBA while requesting that the
SONARA expand its business relation-
ship with the bank. He also assured Mr.
Malla of UBA’s commitment to provide
continuous support for the company’s
expansion plans.
The UBA team included the MD/CEO,
UBA Cameroon, Isong Udom; DMD, UBA
Cameroon, Ellis Asu; Regional Treasurer,
CEMAC, Dominique Mahend and Head
of Corporate Bank, Vincent Ngimbock.
SONARA is Cameroon’s largest com-
pany by turnover and according to the
2013 Edition of “The Africa Report/Je-
une Afrique”, the 76th largest company
in Africa.
