Founders Tony and Awele Elumelu named as 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy honourees. The couple was featured in the Titans section of the list, which highlights their decade-long commitment to African entrepreneurship and the $100m TEF seed capital initiative. Photo Credit: Tony Elumelu/Instagram
TIME Magazine has named Tony O. Elumelu, and Awele Vivien Elumelu among its 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy honourees, recognising them as two of the most influential leaders in global giving. The list, now in its second year, celebrates the world’s most influential leaders in philanthropy, and the Elumelus join a group that includes Rihanna, Lionel Messi, MacKenzie Scott, Elton John, and Shakira, among others.
The recognition centres on the work of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), which the couple co-founded in 2010. What began in 2015 as a pledge of $100 million to benefit 1,000 entrepreneurs a year for a decade has grown far beyond its original promise — the foundation has now provided mentorship and a $5,000 seed grant each to more than 27,000 entrepreneurs, and its 12th cohort is more than triple the size of the first.
More than half of current beneficiaries are women, up from roughly a fifth in the early years. To meet demand that continues to outstrip available slots, TEF has also turned its training materials into free online programmes that have reached over 2.5 million people. Collectively, TEF entrepreneurs have generated $4.2 billion in revenue, created more than 1.5 million jobs, and lifted 2.1 million Africans above the poverty line.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation founders are recognised as global titans of philanthropy by TIME Magazine in 2026. To date, the foundation has empowered over 2.5 million young Africans across all 54 countries on the continent. Photo Credit: Tony Elumelu Foundation/Instagram
For Tony Elumelu, this is his third significant recognition from TIME. He was named to the TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people in 2020, and received the inaugural TIME100 Impact Award in 2022. The 2026 Philanthropy honour is the first to formally recognise both him and Awele Elumelu together, reflecting her role as co-founder and the part she has played in building TEF into what it is today.
Speaking to TIME about the foundation’s journey, Tony Elumelu said: “We set out to democratise luck” — and when hundreds of thousands of applications began pouring in by the third year, he acknowledged they found themselves in the business of “dashing hopes.”
Underpinning all of it is Africapitalism, Tony Elumelu’s economic philosophy that Africa’s private sector, and its young entrepreneurs in particular, must lead the continent’s development rather than waiting on foreign aid or government borrowing. That belief has since driven a boom in entrepreneurship and regional connectivity across the continent.
