Today Thursday, March 22, Nigerian business tycoon, economist and banker, Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu, turns 55. When you think of the catchy pay-off line of a popular electronic brand: Life’s Good, you think of this ebullient and suave chairman of Heirs Holding and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
He means different thing to different people in and outside the country. If the Delta State-born businessman and financial guru was a book, he would be an interesting work of art to study. Elumelu, according to information, had shown traces of his sterling leadership qualities early in life. Though he might not be said to be clairvoyant, his childhood betrayed him as a potentially great person in life. As a child, his lofty dream was to become one of the greatest economists and bankers in the world. Luckily, Providence granted him his heart’s desires as he is today regarded as one of the best economists to have come out of Africa.
At age 34, the light-skinned entrepreneur set forth on the path to greatness when he led a small group of investors to acquire the defunct Standard Trust Bank, a small struggling commercial bank in Lagos, and restored it to profitability within a few years of acquisition. In 2005, he became a top reference point across the globe, when he led one of the greatest mergers in the history of African banking; the merger of Standard Trust Bank (STB) and United Bank of Africa (UBA).
Consequently, at the world’s major stock markets such as NASDAQ OMX in New York, London Stock Exchange, Abuja Securities and Commodities Exchange, JSE Limited Nigerian Stock Exchange and many others, his name spread like wildfire across the continent. Within the space of five years, under his watch, the Bank rose astronomically to becoming one of the best financial institutions in the world.
Evidently, the super dandy financial guru is a blessing to Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Little wonder, he was rated one of the most influential personality in Africa as well as one of the 2014 Forbes richest men in Africa with net worth of over $1 billion. He is reputed to have injected lifeblood into the African economy; preaching the gospel of his economic ideology termed ‘Africapitalism’, an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through long-term investments, thus, creating economic prosperity and social wealth.
A philanthropist per excellence, Elumelu, is also the brains behind the Tony Elumelu Foundation after quitting UBA in 2010. The vision, according to him, was “to prove that the African private sector can itself be the primary generator of economic development.” The Foundation is charged with the mission of driving Africa’s economic development by enhancing the competitiveness of the African private sector. Through his foundation, he has been able to converge thousands of young African entrepreneur under one roof. He mentors and teaches them on the rudiment of recording success in business as well as promoting and celebrating the entrepreneurial excellence in business leadership across the globe.
