The Group Chair of Heirs Holdings, Transcorp and Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, on Friday, November 6, 2026, charged women leaders at the WIMBIZ Annual Conference to stop waiting for permission and take their place at the head of Africa’s economic transformation.
Speaking at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, on the theme, The Geography of Opportunity: Why The World Needs What Africa Has, Elumelu said Africa holds the single greatest commercial opportunity of this century, and that women are its most under-deployed asset.
“Twenty-five conferences. A quarter of a century. What a track record. What a commitment, what resilience,” Elumelu said in his opening remarks, commending WIMBIZ for refusing to accept that talent should be wasted because of where it was born, or to whom it was born.
He described the conference theme, Rooted, Rising, Ready: Born in Africa, Built for the World, as a perfect description of his own life and of the women he was about to celebrate.
“I look at this room and I do not see an audience. I see capital. Human capital, the most under-deployed asset on this continent,” he said.
FROM A MOTHER’S RESTAURANT TO A CONTINENTAL EMPIRE
Elumelu traced his business journey to lessons learnt from his mother, who ran a small restaurant.
“I did not start with capital. I started with a mother who ran a small restaurant and worked harder than anyone I have ever known. I watched her turn very little into a living, and a living into a future for her children. That was my first business school,” he said.
He recalled how, at 34, he led a small group of young Nigerians to acquire a struggling bank that almost nobody else wanted, a move that became the foundation of UBA and everything that followed.
“I was not a better businessman the day someone believed in me. I simply got the chance to prove it. I call this democratising luck,” he said.
According to him, opportunity in Africa is still distributed by accident of birth, geography and gender. His life’s work, he said, is to make it distributed by merit instead, through Africapitalism — the private sector creating economic prosperity and social wealth at the same time, for everyone, not for a fortunate few.
AFRICA’S POTENTIAL: POWER, VALUE AND CAPITAL
Elumelu told the conference that by 2050, Africa’s working-age population will grow by hundreds of millions, while the continent holds the minerals that will power the energy transition, the land, the sun, the rivers and the youngest population on earth.
“Everyone else is ageing. We are not. That is not a problem to be managed. This is the single greatest commercial opportunity of this century, and it is ours,” he said.
But he warned that potential is not guaranteed. He cited Singapore and South Korea as countries with limited natural resources that transformed themselves into prosperous economies, while Africa, despite its immense wealth, still has too many people trapped in poverty.
He identified three things standing between Africa and its potential: power, value and capital.
On power, he said factories, hospitals, schools and the AI economy cannot run without electricity. “Fix electricity, and Africa will take off,” he said.
On value, he urged Africa to stop exporting raw materials and start refining, processing, branding and selling finished products. “For a hundred years, the question asked of Africa has been: how much can be extracted? I want to change the question. How much value can be created here?” he said.
On capital, he noted that aid budgets collapsed in 2025 and fell again this year. “Aid at its best kept people alive. It rarely made them owners. The future is investment and trade, not aid,” he said.
He argued that Africa must build African capital that invests in Africa — through pension funds, insurers, banks and family offices. He cited the growth of Seplat, whose share price moved from £3 to £9 with a current market cap of $7bn, and the Dangote Refinery IPO, which mobilised retail African investors, as signs of a new dawn.
He also pointed to trade among African countries, noting that less than a fifth of Africa’s trade is with itself. He said the African Continental Free Trade Area will remain a document until businesses use it, supported by roads, railways, ports, payment systems, efficient customs and predictable regulations.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: THE PROOF
On inclusive prosperity, Elumelu gave figures from The Tony Elumelu Foundation. Over fifteen years, he and his wife, Dr. Awele Elumelu, have deployed more than $120 million in seed capital to 24,633 young entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries. Forty-eight per cent of them are women, not because of a quota, but because selection is based on the quality of the business plan alone.
Those entrepreneurs, he said, have created more than 1.5 million jobs and generated more than $4.2 billion in revenue.
He named three beneficiaries as examples. Princess Adeyinka Tekenah, who received $5,000 in 2015 and built Happy Coffee, buying beans from women farmers in Taraba State and creating more than 1,000 jobs. Olamide Ayeni-Babajide, who received $5,000 in 2016 and built a recycling company from tyre waste, with revenue up more than twenty-fold and 15,000 people trained, most of them women and girls. And Nkem Okocha, who received $5,000 in 2015 and built Mama Moni, a fintech social enterprise closing the credit gap for low-income female entrepreneurs.
“Three women. Fifteen thousand dollars between them. Thousands of jobs. Now tell me the world does not need what Africa has,” he said.
He disclosed that this year, 265,529 young Africans applied to the Foundation’s programme, but only 3,200 could be funded. “That is not a shortage of entrepreneurial talent; it is a shortage of capital,” he said.
LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE
Elumelu said women’s economic leadership is not a concession to fairness, but a requirement for competitiveness. “No serious economy can afford to systematically underutilise half its talent,” he said.
He asked to be judged by his actions, starting at home. He described his wife, Dr. Awele Elumelu, as co-founder of Heirs Holdings, Chair of Avon HMO, Avon Medical, Heirs Insurance Brokers and Transcorp Hotels PLC, and Chair of Heirs Energies, now the 6th biggest oil producer in Nigeria with 70,000 barrels per day.
He recalled appointing Owen Omogiafo in 2020 as President and Group Chief Executive of Transcorp Group PLC, the youngest chief executive on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the first woman to run Transcorp. Under her leadership, he said, Transcorp has become a power, hospitality and energy company.
He listed eight female leaders as Chairpersons and CEOs in Heirs Holdings Group, including Agatha Obiekwugo, Owen Omogiafo, Uzo Oshogwe, Somachi Chris-Asoluka, Catherine Nwosu, Dr. Odiri Ogini, Adetola Fasuyi and Esther Adeola Balogun. He also listed eight female CEOs across UBA Group in Africa, including Sarata Kone, Chioma Mang, Rasmata Djibo, Mariam Yago, Eugenia Onyekwelu, Rokia Hacko, Dora Kyungu and Bola Atta.
“If Tony Elumelu can do it in power, in hospitality, in banking, in insurance, in healthcare, and in oil and gas, what exactly is my excuse?” he asked other chairmen and chief executives.
STRONG INSTITUTIONS
On institutions, Elumelu said investors always ask the same questions: will the contract be honoured, will the regulator be predictable, will the courts work, will the power stay on?
“Capital goes where it is safe, and it stays where it is respected,” he said.
He urged policymakers to create the right conditions, saying they do not need to fly around the world asking investors to come. He also charged business leaders to build institutions in their own organisations by paying taxes properly, publishing accounts, promoting on merit and refusing shortcuts.
CLOSING CHARGE: DO NOT WAIT
In his closing, Elumelu said the map of opportunity that placed Africa at the edge is wrong and is being redrawn, not in Davos or New York, but in Africa.
“The geography of opportunity must become the geography of prosperity. No one but us will develop Africa. Not the donors. Not the multilaterals. Not the partners, however welcome they are. Us,” he said.
He urged women not to wait: “My mother did not wait. Princess did not wait. Olamide did not wait. Nkem did not wait. Awele did not wait. Owen did not wait. Uzo did not wait. Build the business. Take the board seat. Deploy the capital. Hire the girl from the village who reminds you of yourself.”
Speaking to the youngest woman in the room, he said in another twenty-five years, the women on the WIMBIZ stage should be reading her name.
“Born in Africa. Built for the world. The world needs what Africa has. And what Africa has, more than oil, more than lithium, more than land, is you,” he concluded.
