Elucidating Elumelu’s Passion for Young Entrepreneurs
Milestone
Chidiebere Nwobodo
Give back! I was born in Africa, raised in Africa, studied in Africa, worked in Africa, and achieved success in Africa. Beyond business success, always look for ways not only to give back, but also to empower the generation coming behind us, so that they can go even further than we have. It can be big or small, as simple as giving advice, becoming a mentor, broadcasting your success – yes broadcast, we need more beacons of African excellence, share your experience, let your voice be heard.” —Tony Elumelu, CFR.
Africa remains an embodiment of poverty, underdevelopment and backwardness when compared to the rest of the world because principles of wealth creation has not been democratised in the continent. Often times, the prism at which Africa is viewed through by foreign media platforms, especially Western media, is that of hunger, deprivation and penury. Why we might not be comfortable with such negative perception of our continent, but we have to acknowledge the fact that perception is stronger than reality. Until Africa lifts herself from the valley of downward spiral of squalor, lack and primitivism, and begin to project her endowment and wealth to the rest of the world, we will continue to be object of pity and symbol of poverty in the eyes of the rest of the world. And the only thing a needy attracts is aid cum denigration.
Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, a solution to a challenge cannot be generated by the same thought process that created it. Tony Elumelu, CFR, is championing a paradigm shift via entrepreneurship, by inculcating our youths into club of wealth creators. Africa can overcome its poverty by harnessing huge human resources in the region, as represented by the youths to create wealth for the continent. As an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, Elumelu has shown enormous interest not only in producing more wealth for himself but in training, mentoring and funding young entrepreneurs to enable them find their life’s trajectory and ensure shared prosperity. Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), in the last decade has done tremendously well to empower over 16,000 young entrepreneurs across 54 countries in Africa by training, mentoring and funding them with start-up capital of $5,000 each. It has literally given hope to the hopeless.
In 2015, the Foundation launched the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, a $100 million by Tony Elumelu to empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs over next 10 years. The unparalleled success of the Foundation in the last decade has attracted partnership of reputable foreign organisations like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Red Cross, etc. Governments of some African countries have copied the model of Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and are using it to pull their people out of poverty. I have heard one of the leading presidential candidates in Nigeria’s 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, in his campaign speeches recommended entrepreneurial model of the Foundation as a tested and trusted system to groom entrepreneurs, create jobs and pull people out of poverty.
The million-dollar question is: what is the driving force propelling Tony Elumelu, CFR? The honest answer is: unequivocal passion for young entrepreneurs! extending the ladder of success for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to climb. It cannot be for personal gain because the former chief executive officer (CEO) of United Bank of Africa (UBA) has succeeded in every ramification of life. He is the chairman of Heirs Holdings—an African proprietary investment company, with interests in power, oil, gas, financial services, hospitality, real estate and health care, culminating into impactful presence in 20 Africa countries with over 400,000 jobs created. At the age 34, he became the CEO of Standard Trust Bank and one of the youngest bank CEOs in Nigeria. Today, Tony Elumelu is one of the Forbes-recognized richest people in Africa. He has created wealth to the extent of becoming an exemplar of success, but he does not want to stop there—he is mentoring young entrepreneurs on how to replicate similar success, or even bigger ones—not only in Africa but at global levels.
According to Elumelu, a continent of 1.2 billion people needs to have at least 10 million successful entrepreneurs to change the futune of Africa. He exemplifies the philosophy that development partners should concentrate more in investing in the African young entrepreneurs than just handing out aids to the continent. It is akin to teaching a man how to fish instead of giving him fish when he is hungry. Tony Elumelu believes that Africa can redefine standard and recreate herself by turning full attention on developing the region’s potential in entrepreneurship via its youthful population. While we cannot wait on government alone to do it, government should create enabling environment for business ideas and entrepreneurial exploits to thrive, but the enduring wealth for Africa can only be produced and sustained by her future generation entrepreneurs.
Young Africans in their productive age are losing faith in the continent. Acute joblessness, lack of opportunities and palpable sense of despondency are factors strangulating our youths. It has resulted to mass exodus of the youths to Europe, United States of America (USA), Canada, United Arab Emirates (UAE), etc., In 2022, Nigerian Immigration Services reported that 1.8 million Nigerians processed new passports. The Japa wave is growing stronger. Africa is losing her best brains to other continents in an unprecedented level of brain drain. Tony Elumelu is that sliver lining in the dark cloud. He is encouraging African young entrepreneurs not to give up on the continent—that all hope is not lost. Apart from thousands of young entrepreneurs Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has helped to establish themselves, Elumelu is using social media effectively to share his stories on how he rose from pedestrian level to olympian height of success, just to encourage young entrepreneurs to believe in themselves.
To Tony Elumelu, CFR, having become one of the influencial entrepreneurs and shrewd investors in Africa, it is not enough to give back via philanthropy but to help raise new generation of successful entrepreneurs in Africa that will in turn empower others. It cascades to chain reaction which democratises wealth across the region. While speaking to students at Columbia Business School in 2022, he espoused his philosophy further: “our success should not be calibrated or measured by the profit we make or the money we have in our bank accounts. More importantly, our success should be measured by the lives we are able to touch.” Elumelu has demonstrated organic passion for the youths, his burning desire to see young entrepreneurs replicate similar successes is contagious and unequalled.
He has never hidden the divine role played by destiny helpers in his on career voyage to greatness. While being interviewed by The CNN’s Richard Quest, he stated it explicitly: “All of us are where we are today because at some point in our business development, entrepreneurship journey, we got opportunity; we got a helping hand; we got a platform to support us.” Elumelu’s humility and generosity stems from the belief that luck played a vital role in his rise to stardom. Despite his hard work and sacrifices, he has never played down the place of grace in his life. In one of his media outings, he asked a rhetorical question: am I blessed or am I lucky? Tony Elumelu is not only lucky, he is blessed. Only a truly blessed man will be this passionate about young entrepreneurs. A certified blessed man will not only show others the way but will take the pain to lead them through the path of greatness.
One of the sterling characteristics that sets Tony Elumelu world apart from other successful entrepreneurs when it comes to mentoring young people, is that he is always eager to share what some people might perceived as weaknesses cum limitations he overcame while climbing the mountain of success. He does it with such candour and humility. While encouraging ex-corp members who passed out recently, Tony Elumelu shared a very inspiring story on social media on how he applied for a banking job despite not having stipulated qualification.
“A few years later, after my Masters, I saw the application for graduates with a minimum of 2:1 in All States Trust Bank, this aligned with what I wanted for my life, but my 2:2 grade did not make me qualified, still, I applied, because I identified what I wanted in life and I was going to work towards it. I put in my application and said “Even though I do not meet these requirements if you give me that chance, I will prove myself”. I got this job and spent every day proving myself and earning my luck in the bank.”
Chidiebere writes from Abuja via chidieberenwobodo@yahoo.com
