Tony
Elumelu visited Ghana as the first stop of his UBA tour
of Africa, propagating
the ideal of Africapitalism. In continuation of his strategic vision of
engineering a robust economic and business relationship across the continent
through Africapitalism as a necessary tool for the socio economic development
of Africa, the Group Chairman UBA Plc, and Founder of the Tony Elumelu
Foundation, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, spoke at the prestigious
University of Ghana, Legon, before hundreds of Ghanaian youths, academics
and entrepreneurs.
The
serial entrepreneur who at the young age of 34, became the Managing Director of
one of Nigeria’s top banks(Standard Trust Bank), reiterated the usefulness of
preparedness. He expanded on the qualities that make a successful
entrepreneur. ‘The first is dedication, then vison, focus,
ambition, and our ability to do things when we want to do them. We must always
remain laser focused and aim to execute to perfection’ Elumelu said.
These
are some of the qualities that enabled Elumelu lead one of the biggest mergers
in Nigeria’s history to date. Today, UBA is amongst the top 3 banks in the
country and rapidly growing in Africa. According to Elumelu, ‘I saw us
grow a bank from 5 branches to 1000 branches with presence in 19 African
countries and in Paris, London and New York. The lesson here is start small,
have a purpose, be disciplined, think long term’
He went on further to stress that
entrepreneurship and not Aid, is key to achieving poverty reduction and
empowering Africans to solve our challenges without dependence on aid from
western countries.
In his words, “Knowledge has no currency or value. It is
priceless, and there is no greater gift than the gift of knowledge” Speaking further, he said “Africans
must come up with innovative, home grown solutions for challenges we continue
to face.” He added that UBA embraces this innovation: “UBA was the 1st bank to
encourage customers to come and bank with zero account balance.”
Earlier during the working visit, on
Monday, Tony Elumelu met with the President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana
Akufo-Addo where they held fruitful discussions on matters of mutual benefit as
well as deliberated on issues geared towards the growth and development of
Finance and entrepreneurship in Ghana.
Of the meeting, Elumelu stated “I am
delighted to be on this historic visit to Ghana which has been a shining light
of UBA’s business across Africa. It was a great opportunity to meet with and
congratulate the newly elected president of Ghana, His Excellency Nana
Akufo-Addo and to extend our readiness to partner with his administration in
the rapid development of Ghana and Africa at large. It was also an honour to
meet with young and vibrant Students and share my Vision of Africapitalism”.
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