Let's talk about Tony Elumelu

I am a member of "The Let's Talk About Series" community. I'll be sharing notes from one of the sessions we had this year. The session was on Tony Elumelu.

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(Diligent Amaka speaking) Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu (born 22 March 1963) is a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation. Elumelu holds the Nigerian national honours, the Commander of the Order of Nigeria (CON) and Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). He was recognised as one of "Africa's 20 Most Powerful People in 2012" by Forbes Magazine.

Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropic organisation dedicated to the promotion of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship and to enhancing the competitiveness of the private sector across Africa.

(Tobi Afolabi speaking) Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu is beyong ever doubt an astute leader with great leadership and business insight.

So many things endears me to him. I think first is the fact that he supports a progressive Nigeria. But what endears me most to him is his leadership prowess. It is in view of this that I will be making my contributions to this discussion.

His quick rise up the social - economic rung of the society will leave you wondering how endowed a man he is, leading a group of investors in 1997 to take over a small and nearly bankrupt commercial bank in Lagos and made a highly profitable one by 2003 (six years). He also acquired UBA and merged it with his other already profitable bank and within five years he transformed UBA from a single-country bank into one in at least 19 African countries with over 7 million customers. Ever since he has continued to remain business smart, economically friendly, and an adherent believer in the younger generation.

But like I often say, Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes a lot of hardwork, sacrifice, sleepless nights, failures, but at the end, we come out triumphant and we become the envy of all.

Looking at the life of Tony Elumelu, three key things endears me to him. Of course, around his leadership capability and I will like to encourage us to take a great cue from these. These three things for me I believe are major keys to his Success as an individual and interestingly apply to many highly influential people in society today.

• Passion to Succeed:

From the life of Tony Elumelu, it is evident through his drive and tenacity that he has a strong passion for success and this passion is backed by his strong belief in other people's ability to change society with just a little support.

This, in my opinion has been a key factor in his success with UBA and his other organizations till date. It is the duty of a leader to trust in the ability of his team to deliver the vision of the organisation with his mentorship. When they win, he win and collectively they are better for it.

• He is a true Role Model:

How successful a leader is, depends to a large extent on how much of practice he does on what he preaches. A friend once told me that courage and confidence is contagious and I like to believe hard work, foresight, commitment, focus... are all contagious. Tony over the years has demonstrated hard work, dedication, service, creativity, humility. These are values that endear me to him and I believe endear many of his employees and partners to him and are key to their Success today as a team.

• He is a Man of Vision:

A key characteristic of renowned leaders today is that they are visionary. We have to be able to look into the possibilities that abound for the organization and society at large and lead them there.

Tony Elumelu believes that programs TEEP (Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program) and YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) that invests in Africa's youth are part of the solution to Africa's development challenges.

It is not enough to have a vision, we have to empower people for the actualisaztion of this vision.

You see, family... It is said that the greatest test of leadership is what happens after you step aside. When Tony Elumelu resigned as CEO of UBA in 2010 based on the CBN reforms, the organization has continued to thrive even with his absence. That's true leadership.

In 2014, he was appointed chairman of the board (UBA) only because those who took over from him for the four years he was away had the kind of drive, he had instilled in them to keep the vision thriving.

(Diligent Amaka speaking) What I love most about the man in discuss, is his selfless service towards giving young people a place in the society. He goes as far as giving grants and helping SMEs have their stand. He is not a man of too much words, rather he takes feasible actions towards contributing to giving posterity a place.

(Tobi Afolabi speaking) What is the essence of wealth, if you can not use it to empower people to also become the best they been designed to be? It is indeed a wise move, investing in the younger generation.

(Yetunde Abisoye) The distinctive part of Mr Tony Elumelu that got me is his recent diversity to the power sector. Having observed his commitment to various national and economic building activities particularly the Tony Elumelu Foundation which cut across youths in Africa empowering 1,000 youths yearly, I expected him to rest on his achievement. But when I saw a documentary on him setting up a power plant which is almost done, I realised that Success is like a machine. It constantly needs the oil to reinvent, else it will become obsolete.

If he is still building why should I stop?

(Tobi Afolabi speaking) Something key I have learnt from the contributions of everyone so far is that when we solve problems we make money. When we make money, we don't just leave the money in the bank account. We have to look for more problems to solve using what we already have. This creates more money, more problems solved and more money to be reinvested. But in the midst of all the money making, we mustn't forget to empower people around to be able to fulfil their own dreams.

Well, I am positive those who observe today have learnt a few things just like I have learnt major lessons from the life of Tony Elumelu.

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The Let's Talk About Series is a personal and career development discussion platform that discuss diverse topics to help boost people's productivity and build personal confidence. They are passionate about self discovery, and believe the strife for personal development helps in adding value to one's life; creating opportunities and setting priorities for the areas that make them most effective.

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Tony Elumelu