FATE Foundation is excited to announce its 20th anniversary and unveil the commemoration logo. Incorporated in 2000, Nigeria’s foremost enterprise development organisation was founded by Mr. Fola Adeola (Founder & Pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, GTBank) to harness the strong entrepreneurial culture of Nigerians by providing business incubation, growth enablement and accelerator support required to fully explore their innovative potential. Speaking on the Foundation’s work, Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director of FATE Foundation noted that “the mission of our organization is to foster wealth creation by promoting business and entrepreneurial development among Nigerians”.

In 2000, FATE Foundation started the Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme (AEP) for young entrepreneurs/startups. This was immediately followed by the launch of the Emerging Entrepreneurs Programme (EEP) for growing businesses and establishment of the FATE Consulting unit (now Growth support unit) to provide business support and advisory services for our entrepreneurs. Two years later, the organisation won the World Bank Business Plan Competition and opened the Port Harcourt Branch to focus on enterprise creation in the Niger Delta. In 2010 an Impact Assessment Study of FATE Alumni indicated that 65% of entrepreneurs supported were still in business and they had created an average of 4 jobs.

Over the last decade, FATE Foundation has pioneered initiatives that continue to focus on enabling Nigerian entrepreneurs and the ecosystem. This include the Institute for Venture Design (IVD) Fellowship in Partnership with the Stanford Center for Design Research; the Annual Policy Dialogue Series on Entrepreneurship; the one-stop virtual resource center for Nigerian entrepreneurs, msmehub.org; the ScaleUp Lab Accelerator programme and the Orange Corners Incubation programme amongst others.  The organisation has also published seven (7) research reports on the Nigerian ecosystem and MSMEs. From inception to date, FATE Foundation has reached over 180,000 aspiring and emerging Nigerian entrepreneurs who are spread across Nigeria creating jobs and adding value to the local and national economies. A significant number of these entrepreneurs are very active in the organisation’s vibrant Alumni community.

Following the impact of COVID-19, the Foundation has successfully pivoted to digital programming and developed resilience-building programmes to support entrepreneurs, set up a FATE Philanthropy Coalition for COVID-19 Support Fund and also launched an 8-Part video and podcast series called Journeys in Entrepreneurship.

These achievements would not have been possible without a committed Board of Directors, the active support of local and international partners and over 1,500 industry leaders, experienced entrepreneurs who  have volunteered their time as facilitators, mentors and advisors to the organisation’s entrepreneurs. In the words of FATE Foundation’s Founder & Chairman, Fola Adeola, “Entrepreneurship is a journey that starts with self but ends with impacting the world. After 20 years, we are happy to have helped thousands of Nigerians embark successfully on this Journey.”

The anniversary will culminate with a series of high-level virtual programming in December including a high-level ecosystem design policy dialogue series, launch of entrepreneurship books and the signature Annual Celebration programme to graduate entrepreneurs enrolled in the year and award prizes to deserving volunteers and entrepreneurs.

20 years in, FATE Foundation has built an institutional legacy of enterprise development that has and continues to have a significant socio-economic impact for Nigerian entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurship ecosystem at large.

For any enquiries on FATE Foundation and this press release, please visit www.fatefoundation.org or contact Eloho Iyamu via email [email protected].