Our Founder/Chairman

Tony O. Elumelu, C.O.N, is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and the Chairman of Heirs Holdings Limited, a pan-African proprietary investment company with interests in strategic sectors of Africa’s economy.

In his early career, Elumelu made a name for himself when he acquired and turned Standard Trust Bank into a top-five player in Nigeria. In 2005, his corporate reputation as an African Business Leader was sealed when he led the largest merger in the banking sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to acquire United Bank for Africa (UBA). In five years he transformed it from a single-country bank, to a pan-African institution with over 7 million customers in 19 African countries.

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; all of which help to create economic prosperity and social wealth across the continent. In the same year, he established The Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded, philanthropic organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship, to enhance the competitiveness of the private sector across Africa.

In 2011, Heirs Holdings acquired a controlling interest in the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), a publicly quoted conglomerate that has business interests in the agribusiness, energy, and hospitality sectors. Elumelu was subsequently appointed Chairman of the Corporation.

Elumelu serves as an Advisor to the USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa (PCGA) Partners Forum. He sits on the Nigerian President’s Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC). He is also Vice-Chairman and a key driver in the formation of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), and serves as Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Dialogue Series on Global Food Security. He additionally chairs the Ministerial Committee to establish world-class hospitals and diagnostic centers across Nigeria, at the invitation of the Federal Government.

Elumelu is the author and leading proponent of the concept he calls “Africapitalism,” which is a philosophy that views the African private sector as the key driver of lasting economic transformation in Africa through long-term investments that create both economic prosperity as well as social wealth.

In 2003, The Federal Government of Nigeria conferred on him the National Honour of Member of the Federal Republic (MFR). In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) for his service in promoting private enterprise. He was recognized as one of “Africa’s 20 Most Powerful People in 2012” by Forbes Magazine. In addition, the New African Magazine featured him in their list of the “100 Most Influential Africans in Business.”