‘As an Africapitalist I’m concerned about economic empowerment of our youths’ – Elumelu

TONY O. ELUMELU is Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation, Chairman, Heirs Holding, Nigeria and United Bank for Africa. He was also co-chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF) for Africa held in Kigali, Rwanda, this month. BusinessDay’s PATRICK ATUANYA, caught up with him at the recently concluded conference and he shared his thoughts on how to increase prosperity in Africa. Excerpts…

What value has Africa benefited from the policy dialogues at WEF Africa meetings since your association with her for over 10 years?

I accepted the role of co-chairman at this World Economic Forum because it aligns with my own principles and belief. I believe that we must as a continent do something about the youth engagement. Secondly, my philosophy as an Africapitalist is that it is not only government; the private sector has a role to play in developing the continent to make long-term investments in key sectors of our continent so as to create economic prosperity and social welfare. So, having a WEF on Africa programme that talks about how to leverage digital transformation in harnessing and mobilising our abundant resources in the continent, I felt that was wonderful. Wonderful because I like to see my friends from outside of Africa to visit the continent so that they can see that what they read in the newspapers or what they watch on the television are far from what is on ground. This is a new Africa. You can only go or invest in business in a place where you are comfortable. So, as they come and see that we are not in the jungle, all things being equal, they would want to bring their money to invest here (Africa). This is because there are so many global private capitals looking for destination.
How do you reduce inequality and attract global capital?

We should position Africa as the destination for this capital because it is a massive capital inflow into Africa or massive capital investments by us Africans to help create the kind of job and economic prosperity that we need. That is where the alignment with Africapitalism comes from. But what I have been preaching is that we move from talking to doing. Let’s go back with a clear agenda, so that by the time we meet next year on in two years’ time, we would look at how the efforts we have made in implementing some of the agreements have reached. We need the media to tell the world that it all about how to create jobs in Africa, advance economic prosperity and advance inclusive growth, so that you don’t say the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is moving and people on the ground are not feeling it. They don’t feel it because we do not engage in industrialisation and processing of our raw materials, everything is imported. I see myself as an Africapitalist in everything that I do and I am concerned about economic empowerment of our youths. I am concerned as many of our participants that we need to be careful in Africa and make sure that our demographic boom does not become demographic doom and the way to do this is to make sure that we economically empower our youths. We have a lot of them, but if we don’t do this, it can become a major trouble for us and I am happy that at WEF on Africa, we are talking about job creation in a manner that is functional in the 21st century and also access to electricity, which would help us to achieve the empowerment of our people.

How are you improving skills and creating jobs on the continent?

The foundation I founded and I are trying to encourage entrepreneurs. We observed that our people have great ideas, but the problem they suffer is lack of mentors, access to capital and proper training. So, we are trying to do this. Two years ago, I endowed $100 million to the Tony Elumelu Foundation to run an entrepreneurship programme across the continent. The programme is open to everyone in 54 African countries. The first batch was very successful. So, the conversation should begin to change. That was why I said I was happy to see people visit Africa, people who manage billions of dollars. If they go back and are impressed, if you present any Africa investment strategy to them at their board meetings, there are chances that they would okay it. But if they have a negative perception and if you ask them to invest in the continent, they would definitely turn it down. This, to me is the significance of what we are doing at the WEF on Africa.

How can technology and finance solve some bottom of the pyramid problems for SMEs?

For me, the way I look at this is ‘what is our vision?’ The purpose is to create an inclusive African society where male, female, old people, young people are able to have a decent standard of living and where poverty is drastically reduced. Interestingly, there are many ways of achieving this. Firstly, it is all about leveraging technology secondly, it is about better education and thirdly, better governance at the sub-national and local government level. So, for me, we all need to work together – the public and private sectors, national partners and development partners, with the objective that we want to alleviate poverty by improving access to finance and we can achieve it. We have seen how Vietnam achieved theirs, so we can achieve it also as a continent, but we need to be serious, talk less and do more.

 

PATRICK ATUANYA