Tony Elumelu's entrepreneurship drive earns him IMF appointment

The founder and group chair of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurship drive has earned him the International Monetary Fund (IMF) appointment as an advisory council.

This was announced during an entrepreneurship and growth event convened by Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director as disclosed in a statement on Friday.

The IMF advisory council comprises global business leaders, policymakers, and academics, dedicated to identifying and addressing regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship.

The council is said to be mandated to recommend policies that enhance resource allocation, stimulate innovation, and catalyse sustainable private sector-led economic growth.

“Elumelu, Africa’s leading advocate of entrepreneurship and whose Foundation has funded, mentored and trained over 25,000 African entrepreneurs since 2015, champions entrepreneurship as the engine for the economic transformation of Africa,” the statement reads.

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“A self-made entrepreneur, Elumelu’s embracing of entrepreneurship is fundamental to his concept of Africapitalism, his belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development, making long-term investments that deliver social and economic value.

“Elumelu will be instrumental in ensuring that Africa’s entrepreneurial potential is central to global economic policymaking.”

Other members of the council include Ufuk Akcigit, Harberger professor of economics at the University of Chicago; Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi ambassador to the United States; Marc Benioff, chair, CEO, and co-founder of Salesforce; and Ana Botín, executive chair at Banco Santander.

Others are Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Group; Margherita Della Valle, chief executive of Vodafone Group; Robert Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, and Federico Sturzenegger, Argentine minister of deregulation and state transformation.

Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the advisory council on March 26, Georgieva said the council brings together a group of leading thinkers and practitioners in business, finance, academia, and policymaking to share their views and experiences on how macroeconomic and financial policies “can provide a supportive environment for innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity, key ingredients for a thriving private sector and strong economic growth”.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.