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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