By Oluwatosin Maliki
Anthony Onyemaechi Elumelu popularly known as Tony Elumelu is an economist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He was born in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria on 22th March 1963. Tony hails from Onicha-Ukwu in Aniocha North Local government area of Delta State.
Tony Elumelu is the founder of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship program under The Tony Elumelu Foundation; the Tony Elumelu Foundation application is open to entrepreneurs across Africa every year.
Tony is a billionaire and his source of wealth majorly comes from investment. He is a strategic investor who owns a controlling interest in Transcorp; a publicly traded Nigerian conglomerates. The company has interest in agriculture, power generation, oil production and hospitality.
Education
The serial entrepreneur holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ambrose Alli University and a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Lagos. Also, Tony is an alumnus of Advanced Management programme of Harvard Business School.
Parents
Business-owning parents raised Tony after being born in Jos, Plateau State. His father’s name is Dominic Elumelu, and his mother, Suzanne Elumelu, owned restaurants and served as a key distributor for the customer chain. His parents hail from Onicha-Ukwu in the Delta State area of Aniocha North Local Government Area.
He was brought up with his four siblings, one of whom is a politician. Honorable Ndudi Elumelu, Tony’s brother, served in the Nigerian Federal House of Representatives.
Family
Tony is married to Awele Vivien Elumelu, they first crossed paths as ambitious young professionals in 1990s. She is a medical doctor and they are blessed with children. Awele and her husband have seven children. The wealthy couple has five children, including three triplets named Onyinye, Nneka, and Ugo. They have two pairs of twin boys as well.
Career
His career started in 1997 after he successfully led a group of small investors in taking over a floundering commercial bank in Lagos. Within a few years, Tony Elumelu turned the bank profitable and merged it with United bank for Africa in 2005. UBA has grown tremendously, it has subsidiaries in 20 African countries, including the U.S and U.K. Tony worked in making Standard Trust Bank into a top player in Nigeria and when they merged with UBA, he was the chairman until his retirement. Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Tony Elumelu founded Heirs Holding.
Heirs Holding is a family owned investment company committed to improving lives. Heirs Holding’s portfolio cuts across the power, financial services, oil and gas, hospitality, real estate, and health care sectors. The company operates in twenty three countries worldwide.
Also, Tony Elumelu founded The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) which is a leading philanthropic initiative in Africa championing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs across the continent.
Elumelu has championed many projects, he serves as an advisor to the USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa (PCGA) Partners Forum. He was the key driver in the formation of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN) and serves as the vice chairman. Tony also sits on the Nigerian President’s Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC). He is a Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Dialogue Series on Global Food Security.
He was one of the co-chairs of the 26th World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, from 11th to 13th May 2016. Tony seats on several boards and has chaired many initiatives for African development.
According to Forbes, Tony Elumelu owns extensive real estate across Nigeria and a minority stake in MTN Nigeria among other assets.
Recognition and Awards
Tony Elumelu has recieved several awards both in Africa and Diaspora.
1. Member of the Order of the Federal Republic in 2003.
2. National Honour in 2006.
3. African banker of the year by African Banker magazine in 2008.
4. African Business leader of the year by Africa Investor magazine in 2008.
5. National Honour of Commander of the order of Niger (CON) in 2012.
6. Africa’s 20 most powerful people by Forbes magazine in 2012.
7. 100 Most Influential Africans in Business by New African Magazine in 2012.
8. Honorary Doctorate of Science Degree From Benue State University in 2012.
9. Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from UNN in 2012.
10. Leadership Award in Business and Philanthropy from the AAI in 2013.
11. ESI Most influential Figures in African Power in 2015.
12. CGECI Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016
13. 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time in 2020.
Net Worth
Tony Elumelu is extremely rich, he ranked 31st with a net worth of $700m in 2015 on Forbes Africa’s richest.
Although, we cannot verify his exact net worth in 2023.
