TIME magazine has named one of Africa’s leading investors and philanthropists, Mr. Tony Elumelu, in the 2020 TIME 100, the annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognises the activism, innovation, and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals.
Elumelu, Chair of United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, is one of three Nigerians on the list, alongside Tomi Adeyemi and Tunji Funso.
He made the TIME 100 List for his track record of business turnaround and value creation, and economic empowerment of young Africans.
Heirs Holdings, his family owned investment company, is committed to improving lives and transforming Africa, through long-term investments in strategic sectors of the African economy, including financial services, hospitality, power, energy and healthcare.
UBA, the financial services group he chairs, operates in 20 countries in Africa, the United Kingdom, France, and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking licence in the United States.
Elumelu also chairs Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp, whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, one of the leading generators of electricity in Nigeria and Transcorp Hotels Plc, Nigeria’s foremost hospitality brand.
Elumelu, the most prominent champion of entrepreneurship in Africa, in 2010, created The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation across all 54 African countries.
Since inception, the Foundation has funded just under 10,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million as part of its ten year, US$100m commitment through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
Self-funded, the Foundation is increasingly sharing its unique ability to identify, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs across Africa, with institutions such as the UNDP, the ICRC and leading European development agencies.
Heirs Holdings, which serves as a corporate role model for African businesses, and the Tony Elumelu Foundation will both celebrate 10 years of impact in November.
Their mission continues to be inspired by Mr Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent.
