Our investment portfolio spans the power, energy, financial services, hospitality, real estate, healthcare and technology sectors, operating in twenty-four countries worldwide.
We are inspired by Africapitalism, the belief of our Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, CFR that the private sector is the key enabler of economic and social wealth creation in Africa.
Driven by this philosophy, we invest for the long-term, bringing strategic capital, sector expertise, a track record of business turnaround success and operational excellence to companies we invest in.
Our philanthropic Foundation catalyses entrepreneurship across Africa, through the USD $100million Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, advocacy and research.
We are long-term investors in Africa’s most strategic sectors
Deeply rooted in our employees are our values, which drive us towards a common sense of purpose to create long lasting value for our stakeholders.
Tony O. Elumelu is an African leading investor and philanthropist.
He is the Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, his family owned investment company committed to improving lives and transforming Africa, through longterm investments in strategic sectors of the African economy, including financial services, hospitality, power, energy, technology and healthcare.
Tony is the Chairman of pan-African financial services group, the United Bank
for Africa (UBA), which operates in 20 countries across Africa, the United
Kingdom, France, the UAE and is the only African bank with a commercial
deposit taking presence in the United States. UBA provides corporate,
commercial, SME and consumer banking services to more than 35 million
customers globally. He also chairs Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate,
Transcorp whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, one of the leading
producers of electricity in Nigeria and Transcorp Hotels Plc, Nigeria’s foremost
hospitality brand.
Tony is the most prominent champion of entrepreneurship in Africa. In 2010,
he created The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy
empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic
growth, driving poverty eradication and driving job creation across all 54 African countries. Since inception, the Foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalysed over 18,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans, as part of a ten year US$100m commitment to fund, mentor and train young Africans.
Tony’s businesses and the Foundation are inspired by his economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.
In 2020, in recognition of his business leadership and economic empowerment of young African entrepreneurs, Tony was named in the TIME100 Most Influential People in the World, and recognised with Belgium’s oldest and highest royal order.
Emmanuel N. Nnorom is CEO of Heirs Holdings. Prior to joining the Heirs Holdings Group, served as CEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, overseeing the Transcorp businesses, including Transcorp Power, Transcorp Hilton, Transcorp Hotel, Calabar and Transcorp Energy.
Prior to Transcorp, Emmanuel had held senior positions at Heirs Holdings and had served as an Executive Director at UBA and Managing Director of UBA Africa, overseeing the Group’s African subsidiaries and executing corporate strategy in 18 African countries. Other senior roles within UBA included Group COO UBA, followed by his appointment as UBA's Group CFO, with responsibility for Finance and Risk.
Emmanuel is qualified as a chartered accountant, and brings over three decades of professional experience in the corporate and financial sectors, working with publicly listed companies. He is an alumnus of Oxford University's Templeton College, and a prize winner and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.
Dr Awele V. Elumelu oversees the healthcare investments in the Heirs Holdings' portfolio. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Benin.
Her experience as a medical doctor includes general medical practice and emergency medicine. In Nigeria, Dr Elumelu has worked with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and in the UK, with Grantham and District Hospital, Grantham. In November 2020, she was appointed to the Yale Institute for Global Health Advisory Board.
In January 2018, Dr Elumelu was appointed as the Champion for immunisation in Africa by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).
Alexander Trotter is an investor in public and private companies, with a particular focus on Africa.
He began his career at Linklaters, as a corporate lawyer, and has held senior roles with UBS, Global Asset Management (GAM), the United Bank for Africa (UBA), and currently serves as a partner at Newmarket Asset Management. He is also a Trustee of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
He co-founded Quality Foods Africa, a Nigerian quick service restaurant business, with an investor base including the International Finance Corporation and the development agencies of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Alex has a background in investment management, strategy, and corporate finance, particularly within the financial services sector and holds degrees from Oxford University and Imperial College. He is a third-generation trustee of one of London's leading youth charities.
Victor Osadolor is a banking and finance expert with over 30 years of experience in capital markets, credit, and financial risk. Victor started his career at Price Waterhouse Coopers in 1989 and thereafter joined the banking industry in 1991, working at different capacities within the banking sector.
In 2022, he rose to the level of an Executive Director at UBA Plc, and became the Deputy Group MD/CEO, with complete oversight over the bank’s subsidiaries in 19 African countries outside of Nigeria. Victor recently chaired the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and served as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the African Finance Corporation (AFC), Lagos, Nigeria and CenPower Holdings Limited in Accra, Ghana.
He holds degrees from the University of Benin, the University of London and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme, the Wharton Business School CEO Programme, and IMD Lausanne’s Executive Management Programme.
Chiugo Ndubisi is responsible for providing strategic oversight of investment and integration across Heirs Holdings’ investment portfolio.
Chiugo is an accomplished financial services professional, with over 25 years of experience in banking and finance. Prior to joining Heirs Holdings, he served as an executive director at the United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA), overseeing Treasury and International Banking. He was also responsible for the Group’s international subsidiaries: UBA America; UBA UK; UBA France; and UBA Dubai. At UBA, his previous roles included Group Chief Operating Officer and Group Executive, Transformation & Resources.
Chiugo has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees, Central Bank of Nigeria Banking Industry Resolution Trust Fund, as well as member of the Audit Committee of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS). He is an alumnus of the Wharton Business School, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Chidi Okpala is the Executive Director for Payments, Group Integration, and Strategy (PGIS) at Heirs Holdings, overseeing the technology and healthcare business sectors.
With over 20 years of leadership experience in financial services, FinTech, telecommunications, and strategy consulting, Chidi has worked with renowned organizations like Accenture, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Bharti Airtel International.
As the Founder & CEO of Airtel Mobile Commerce Holdings, he launched Airtel Money, now one of Africa's largest digital wallets, serving over 40 million customers in 14 countries. Before joining Heirs Holdings, Chidi co-founded and led Asante Financial Services Group, a FinTech firm providing digital financial solutions to over 520,000 MSMEs across Africa.
Chidi holds a B.Sc. in Finance from Enugu State University, an MBA in Banking and Finance from the University of Nigeria, and an MSc from London Business School, where he is also a Sloan Fellow. Additionally, he completed the Bharti Airtel Leadership Academy at Harvard Business School.
Clari provides overall strategic marketing direction for Heirs Holdings’ portfolio of investments within the financial services, real estate, hospitality, healthcare and energy sectors.
Prior to joining Heirs Holdings, Clari worked in the advertising industry, managing clients' portfolios across diverse sectors, including telecoms, finance, entertainment, and sports, amongst others.
She was also a member of the team that launched the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, the largest African philanthropic initiative committed to empowering African entrepreneurs.
Clari holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Miami and a Master's degree from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwestern Switzerland. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.
Chinedu Eze serves as the Group Company Secretary and Legal Counsel at Heirs Holdings, where he leads the legal function, overseeing transaction advisory, legal risk management, and corporate governance.
With over 20 years of experience in corporate law, regulatory compliance, and strategic legal advisory across multiple industries, Chinedu is a distinguished legal expert.
Prior to joining Heirs Holdings, he was Group Head, Legal Counsel, and Company Secretary at Nestoil Limited. He has also held key roles at Transcorp, Fidelity Bank, and Ecobank Nigeria.
Chinedu holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Nigeria and two advanced law degrees: an LL.M. in Offshore Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Law from the University of British Columbia, and an LL.M. in Secured Financial Transactions from the University of Lagos. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in the Law of Secured Financing at the University of Nigeria.
A member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Chinedu is also a recognised thought leader, with scholarly publications on offshore resource development and secured transactions.