We Tend To Over-Dramatize Negative Things About Africa – Tony Elumelu Declares

One of Africa’s leading investors and philanthropists, Tony Elumelu has corrected the unflattering characterization of the continent declaring that ” we tend to overdramatize about the negative things,”

Elumelu who admitted that ‘just like other parts of the world, we have our challenges as well’ pointed out that “we should realize that Africa is a continent of 54 countries, 1.4 billion people, a lot of young people and it is not just one country’.

The Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, his family-owned investment company, committed to improving lives and transforming Africa made the assertions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, at this year’s Future Investment Initiative: The Compass.

The extraordinary entrepreneur who was at the event on the invitation of Yasir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Richard Attias, Chairman of the FII Institute further pointed out that ” there are a few bad things and it happens everywhere in the world. but it is totally statistically insignificant, totally insignificant,”

Insisting that there are “lots of good things” in Africa, the Chairman of pan- African financial services group operating in 20 countries across Africa, the United Kingdom, France, the UAE, and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking presence in the United States, United Bank for Africa (UBA) identified the most potent resource as the population of young people.

In providing insight into the huge potential of this resource, Elumelu explained “We have a population that is huge in terms of number. More importantly, the demographic is very very favorable, young people, that is huge market for the world, that is huge labor for the world, but we need to catalyze this and shape it in a way that is progressive, in a way that is positive and not in a way that people become disenchanted with life and now begin to embrace migration, extremism and that is a call I always make to young, to African leaders, friends of Africa and I am happy in the middle East. I am in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is an opportunity to take the message to the world, Africa is ready for investment. Africa has a lot of opportunities, we do have challenges, but in spite of the challenges, the opportunities are huge and people should take advantage of the opportunities,”

And added “We need a marshal plan for Africa , we need to mobilize long term capital into the continent to enable us to leapfrog and enable us to fix the infrastructure that we need to develop. Japan, Germany, Korea, and even China have benefited from massive global capital infusion, Africa needs this and I use this opportunity to draw the attention of the world to the opportunities on the continent, the need to come invest in Africa, the need to collaborate with African business leaders and more importantly, those like the Tony Elumelu foundation who like to support young African Entrepreneurs, let see how we can work together to create better future for everyone.”

Founded in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), is a leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalyzing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and driving job creation across all 54 African countries. Since its inception, the Foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalyzed nearly 16,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans, as part of a ten-year US$100m commitment to fund, mentor, and train young Africans.

The champion of a prosperous Africa for all described the population of young people as “populous, young, energetic, intelligent, ambitious. ” during his fireside chat with Richard Attias, Chairman of the FII Institute, on ‘How Africapitalism drives Inclusive Growth’

The proponent of Africapitalism, the economic philosophy that positions which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for Africa’s social and economic development, included that “Another thing we have on the continent is huge natural resource endowment. Unfortunately because of gaps, and inefficiency and at times poor leadership we export these as raw materials and these raw materials are processed and value addition does not occur on the continent where the raw materials exist and they come back by way of finished products, it is an opportunity for investors to come.

“Africa can feed the world in terms of food security, arable land on the continent, there are quite a lot of good things”.