Business
Tony Elumelu Tells What Will Define His Legacy, Make It Stand Test Of Time
“This is what will stand the test of time.”
One of Africa’s leading investors and philanthropists, Tony Elumelu, has revealed what will define his legacy.
The Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA) – the financial services group catering to the needs of 45 million customers across 20 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom (U.K.), United States of America (USA), France, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – expressed firm conviction that his legacy will not be defined by his material successes but by his unwavering commitment to developing and strengthening African entrepreneurship.
“Years from now, I believe that my legacy will not be defined by my material successes… but by this unwavering commitment to developing and strengthening African entrepreneurship,” the proponent of Africapitalism, the economic philosophy that positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent, disclosed. He added, “This is what will stand the test of time.”
The prominent champion of entrepreneurship across the continent has taken – and continues to take – giant steps in this direction with different initiatives, particularly the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF).
Founded in 2010 by the king of commerce, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy estimated to have disbursed over N100 million (USD) in funding while providing mentoring and capacity-building support to more than 20,000 young entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries, and creating more than 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The founder of the foundation, whose high-impact ability to connect with African entrepreneurs across geographic divides facilitated innovative partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the U.S. Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the French Development Agency (AFD), the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and Google, shared this conviction as part of the opening content on his personal blog – TonyElumelu.com.
Aside from TEF, the frontline global campaigner of shared prosperity in Africa is also pushing a transformative agenda across the continent through Heirs Holdings, the family-owned investment company – which he founded and chairs – committed to improving lives and transforming the continent through long-term investments in strategic sectors of the African economy, including financial services, hospitality, power, energy, technology, and healthcare.
The turnaround king and chairman – the driving force – behind the successes of one of Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerates, Transcorp Group, whose subsidiaries include the record-making Transcorp Power and the pace-setting Transcorp Hotels Plc, has become so intertwined with efforts to transform Africa that it has become the focal point of all he does.
