Tony Elumelu Highlights Bedrock Of Thriving Businesses
African business leader and foremost philanthropist Tony Elumelu has asserted that empowering people and creating value are the bedrock of building successful enterprises.
The chairman of Heirs Holdings – a Nigerian conglomerate with huge investments in power, oil and gas, hospitality, energy, banking, property and finance sectors of the economy – and United Bank for Africa Group made the assertion in a post via his social media handle today, July 17, 2025.
Elumelu, who disclosed he learnt early in his career what most leaders failed to do while building businesses, said: “In leadership, the hardest decisions are rarely about numbers. They are about people.”
“You don’t build successful companies by focusing on profit first. You build them by focusing on people, and profit follows,” the proponent of Africapitalism added.
Mr Elumelu, who is resolute in his bid to emplace sustainable prosperity across the continent of Africa, revealed that every decision he makes either at Heirs Holdings or UBA Group always leads to uplifting people and creating value that will, in turn, bear success fruits.
His words: “Today, every decision I make at Heirs Holdings or UBA Group still comes back to this:- Empower people.- Create value.- Then measure the success.
“This is the mindset Africa needs for sustainable prosperity,” Mr Elumelu concluded.
