Introduction

This brief post is on the secret of Anthony Onyemaechi Elumelu’s wealth. Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu (TOE) is a household name in all of Africa and beyond. This blog post is meant to guide, instruct, educate, entertain, and inspire you.

Tony And Philanthropy

Tony’s philanthropy comes under the Tony Elumelu Foundation.  Through the Tony Elumelu Foundation—an African private-sector-led philanthropy empowering African entrepreneurs—his family committed $100million (N61billion) to empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs in 10 years in the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme. Just half-way through the mark, the Foundation has empowered 7,520 African entrepreneurs with a non-refundable seed capital of $5,000 (N3.05m), training, mentoring and networking opportunities. The goal is to empower these entrepreneurs to create 1million jobs and generate wealth for the African continent through entrepreneurship.

Africapitalism

Tony Elumelu is the proponent of Africapitalism.  Africapitalism is the philosophy that Africans should develop Africa. It is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development. Rather than go cap-in-hand begging for donations, grants, loans, foreign direct investments, while stashing their wealth in secret bank vaults in tax havens in Europe and America, Africans should open their wallets and develop Africa. Africapitalism is a firm call to action. Onyiboman will not come and develop Africa. It is our duty to develop Africa. That is the simple message.

TOE: The Quintessential Entrepreneur

TOE is best known as the Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc. However, all his business interests come under HEIRS Holdings, established in 2010. HEIRS Holdings are into Financial Services, Power, Oil & Gas, Real Estate, Hospitality and Healthcare.

The crown jewel of HEIRS Holdings is United Bank For Africa Plc. (UBA). As at the end of 2021, UBA had 21million customers and subsidiaries in 20 African countries, and France, UK and USA, and boast 1,000 branches. Today UBA is the third largest banking franchise in Nigeria, with asset base of over N7.7trn (about $12.62Bn based on the open market exchange rate).

TOE: Awards, Honours and Appointments

TOE started his banking career as a Youth Corps member in 1985, serving with Union Bank Plc. He joined All States Trust Bank in 1988. Within 9 years, he had established his own bank, Standard Trust Bank, after acquiring a moribund Crystal Bank For Africa in 1997. About 17 years after his first banking job, precisely in 2005, in one of the most daring moves in all of Nigeria’s banking history, TOE acquired the “Old UBA”. This record is yet to be broken.

TOE’s awards, honours, and appointments, not in any particular order, include:

• In 2020, Tony was named on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
• African Business Leader of The Year by Africa Investor magazine
• Honourary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by University of Nigeria, Nsukka
• African Banker of the Year by African Banker magazine
• Asked by the Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to serve on the Presidential Committee on the Global Financial Crisis
• Honourary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by Benue State University
• African Business Leader of the Year Award by The Corporate Council on Africa
• Leadership Award in Business and Philanthropy by the Africa-America Institute.
• Honourary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration by University of Benin
• Inaugural Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Entrepreneurship Award, Business Council for International Understanding
• Person of the Year by Vanguard Newspapers Nigeria 
• Man of the Year by Seven Star Awards 
• Conferred Belgium’s Oldest and Highest National Honour.
• Recipient of Honorary Doctorate Degree from Bayero University, Kano
• Appointed Chairman, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc. (Transcorp), 2011
• Appointed Chairman, Seadrill Mobile Units Nigeria Ltd., 2013
• Appointed Chairman of UBA, 2014
• Member, Private Capital Group for Africa Partners Forum (USAID)

Tony’s Networth

Wealthresult.com estimated Tony’s networth at $1.98bn early in 2022, meaning his wealth almost tripled within seven years as Forbes’ estimate in 2015 was $700m.

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The Secret of Tony Elumelu’s Wealth

So what is the secret of Tony Elumelu’s wealth? You may be tempted to say money from Banking, Hotels, Health Care, Oil and Gas, you name. Let me help you. The secret of Tony’s wealth is GENEROSITY. Yes, GENEROSITY, in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Wherever Tony goes, you see heads of state, presidents, prime ministers, army generals, bishops, church general overseers and lay people falling over themselves to shake hands with TOE. You only need to attend Tony Elumelu Foundation’s Award Summit to see this spectacle play out.

TOE is generous to a fault and he gets in return goodwill, loyalty, commitment, engagement, love, and everything that comes when you’re generous. You will never hear an employee or an ex-employee of UBA say anything negative about TOE. Rather you’ll hear them say, Tony made me who I am. Man and woman, sing in unison TOE’s generous spirit. TOE pushes all who work with him to the limit and because of his generosity, they reciprocate with more hard work.

I have my own personal story when it comes to TOE’s GENEROSITY. When I launched my Bridges to the Customer’s Heart, Tony was the only MD/CEO out of over 200 in the banking sector who sent a high-powered delegation. Tony sent me a note that he could not attend in person because that same day he was being conferred with Honorary PhD by Benue State University.

Well, I won’t tell you how much TOE sent me but it was huge. If you remember the late Justice Victor Ovie Whisky, a one-time chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Electoral Commission, you’ll understand what I mean. After aggrieved politicians accused him of taking N1m in bribes, he said he would have collapsed if he saw N1m. That was in 1983 when the Naira was still standing strong.

When I launched Hotels & Tourism Conference in 2015, TOE readily accepted my invitation to him as Chairman. He didn’t ask whether the president would be there as other dignitaries asked. He didn’t squirm that I didn’t use Transcorp as the venue of the conference

The Rules of Money

According to the blogger, Ali Abdaal, money has rules. This is how money really works, according to Ali:

• Money moves to those who are not afraid to talk about it.
• Money moves to those who love it the most.
• Money moves to those who understand it the most.
• Money goes to those who know how to circulate it.
• Money moves to those who know how to multiply it.

 As you can see, TOE meets all the five conditions with enough to spare.  TOE talks about, loves, understands, circulates, multiplies money and money runs after him. The ancients understood this principle with clarity. That is why they decreed that, to those that have, more will be added to them and to those that don’t have, the little they have will be taken away from them. In layman’s terms, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

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Conclusion

I have shared with you the secret of Anthony Onyemaechi Elumelu’s wealth. The secret of TOE’s wealth is generosity. If you want to be wealthy in such a way that money runs after you, circulate money, in short, be generous. I wrote this blog post to guide, instruct, educate, entertain, and inspire you. I hope I have succeeded in doing that. All I need now is your feedback.

In 2010, as the President of Eagle Toastmasters Club, Victoria Island, Lagos, I wrote a valedictory article, entitled, Run, Tony Run, when TOE stepped down as the MD/CEO of UBA.

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