Ethnicity:
His parents are native of Anioma in Delta State, Nigeria
Tony Elumelu was born in the year 1963 at Jos, Plateau State of Nigeria into the family of Suzanne Elumelu. He is an Igbo man by tribe, and a native of Anioma in Aniocha North LGA of Delta State, Nigeria.
Elumelu has two degrees in economics from Nigerian universities; a bachelor's degree from Ambrose Alli University and a master of science degree from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program. Tony Elumelu married Awele Vivien Elumelu, a medical doctor, in 1993, and they have seven children together. He has four siblings including Ndudi Elumelu, a former member of the Nigerian Federal House of Representatives.
In his early career, Elumelu acquired and turned Standard Trust Bank into a top-five player in Nigeria. In 2005, his corporate reputation as an African business leader was sealed when he led the largest merger in the banking sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to acquire United Bank for Africa (UBA). In five years, he transformed it from a single-country bank to a pan-African institution with over seven million customers in nineteen African countries.
Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropic organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship and to enhancing the competitiveness of the private sector across Africa.
In 2011, Heirs Holdings acquired a controlling interest in the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), a publicly quoted conglomerate that has business interests in the agribusiness, energy, and hospitality sectors. Elumelu was subsequently appointed chairman of the corporation.
Elumelu serves as an advisor to the USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa (PCGA) Partners Forum. He sits on the Nigerian President's Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC). He is also vice-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN) whose formation he was a key driver in, and serves as Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Dialogue Series on Global Food Security. He additionally chairs the Ministerial Committee to establish world-class hospitals and diagnostic centres across Nigeria, at the invitation of the Federal Government and the Presidential Jobs Board, engineered to create 3 million jobs in one year. He also serves as a member of the Global Advisory Board of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4ALL) and USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa Partners Forum.
Just like other Christians in Nigeria, Tony Elumelu is an ardent believer of Christ.
His political views are clearly seen in his works. Elumelu is an entrepreneur who believes so much in youths. Despite not being attached to any political party, he has empowered youths all over Africa, with the aim of them becoming entrepreneur, thus promoting growth and development in the continent.
Elumelu is the originator of the term Africapitalism. According to him, Africapitalism is an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector's commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through long-term investments that create both economic prosperity and social wealth. Elumelu sees Africans taking charge of the value-adding sectors and ensuring that those value-added processes happen in Africa, not through nationalisation or government policies, but because there is a generation of private sector entrepreneurs who have the vision, the tools and the opportunity to shape the destiny of the continent. He insists that Africapitalism is not capitalism with an African twist; it is a rallying cry for empowering the private sector to drive Africa's economic and social growth.
Quotations:
“Nigeria has always been a unique country. We are not only the most populous country on the continent of Africa, we are amongst the best educated and most-traveled people in Africa. We Nigerians are well known for our positive outlook and can-do spirit. Even more importantly, we have a strong culture and spirit of entrepreneurship. The smart investor, knows that this is the time to enter our market because the fundamentals of the Nigerian economy remain strong, and where others perceive risk and challenge, the glass is actually half full rather than half empty.”
“No one can develop Africa but us [Africans].”
“Investment in Africa needs a different perspective,” he told the audience. “For Africa’s economic growth, the private sector needs to take the lead, invest long term, and focus on making both economic and social gains. In my experience, we have made great profits, but we have also touched lives.”
“There is a social and economic impact to be derived, but it needs to be done with the right approach – with African leadership and with the private sector, rather than from a charitable orientation.”
“For so long, we have condemned our government for their inability to meet our developmental goals. We have shied away from playing our own role in making things work,” he said. “But wealthy Africans should realise that in the 21st Century, wealth is no longer measured by the amount in your bank accounts. You should invest in industries and infrastructure.”
“The truth is that the public and private sectors must collaborate strategically to orchestrate the region’s development. We need the combined effort of regional leaders to create Eastern Industrial hubs; the existing state-by-state fragmentation won’t work in today’s economic reality.”
Tony Elumelu is a humble man and a philanthropist who has helped countless number of people all over Africa to achieve their dreams.
Physical Characteristics: He is Black, and has a height of about 1.74m.
He is married, and has seven children.
