Undoubtedly, if there is any human being who experienced the proverbial Seventh Heaven, typical of a woman who has just got delivered of a baby, it is no other than Tony Elumelu, the quintessential banker, businessman and philanthropist and style icon.
For TOE, as he is fondly called by friends and family, birthdays to him are moments to review activities of his life for the past one year, make amends on some possible mistakes and climbing the mountain top to shout Halleluiah giving thanks to the creator of the universe.
As this financial wizard celebrated his 58th birthday on Monday the 22nd of March, not a few are willing to share in his joy. The reason is the “birthday boy” means so many things to so many people in and outside the country. He received greetings from all sundry across the world.
As he also released his 2020 annual letters where he reviewed last year amidst the deadly global pandemic. Elumelu, according to information, showed traces of a man destined for greatness very early 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.
Today, he is regarded as one of the biggest financial and economic export out of Nigeria. He has given several ideas that have help strengthen the economy and power of Africa which he said lies in the investment of the younger generation, most especially, in the area of entrepreneurship and human capital investment so they can compete with their peers from other continents.
For his passion for raising a giant in Africa, after quitting UBA in 2010 he set up the Tony Elumelu Foundation. 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. As a premier pan-African-focused not-for-profit institution, the Tony Elumelu Foundation is dedicated to the promotion, celebration of entrepreneurship and excellence in business leadership across the continent.
He is reputed to have breath life into the African economy through what he termed ‘Africapitalism’, 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.
At 34, the Heirs Holding boss 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. Again, he became a reference point around the globe in 2005 when he led one of the greatest mergers in the history of the African banking sector- 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 rings so loud. Within five years, he transformed the bank to be one of the best financial institutions in the world. Little wonder, he was rated one of the most influential in Africa as well as one of the 2014 Forbes richest men in Africa with a net worth of $1 billion.
