The Group Chairman of UBA, Mr Tony Elumelu has stressed that entrepreneurship is key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering the youth in Africa to overcome their economic challenges.
Mr Elumelu was speaking at a lecture on entrepreneurship at the University of Ghana Business School in Accra as part of an African tour to promote a concept he terms ‘Africapitalism’, which he describes as a tool for the socio-economic development of the continent.
The serial entrepreneur emphasised the need for Africans to reduce the aid dependence syndrome.
Africans for Africa
Mr Elumelu explained that Africapitalism could be used to engineer a robust economic and business relationship across the continent as a necessary tool for the socio-economic development of Africa.
The entrepreneur, who doubles as the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), stressed that entrepreneurship and not philanthropy, was key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering Africans to solve our challenges without dependence on aid from western countries.
“No one but us is going to develop Africa; the development of Africa is up to Africans. Donors and partners can help but the work of developing our nations is ours. One of the key benefits of Africapitalism is reflected in the achievements of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme which is an example of how Africans can solve their own problems via entrepreneurship”, he said.
Winning qualities
The business mogul, who at the age of 34 became the Managing Director of one of Nigeria’s top banks, Standard Trust Bank, reiterated the usefulness of preparedness.
He explained the qualities that made a successful entrepreneur. “The first is dedication, then vision, focus, ambition and our ability to do things when we want to do them. We must always remain laser focused and aim to execute to perfection,” Mr Elumelu said.
Elumelu Foundation
According to Mr Elumelu, “I saw us grow a bank from five branches to 1,000 with presence in 19 African countries and in Paris, London and New York. The lesson here is start small, have a purpose, be disciplined, think long-term”.
He announced that 79 Ghanaian entrepreneurs had benefitted from the TEF Programme and it was refreshing that those individuals were doing great in their various endeavours.
The goal of the yearly programme is to invest $100 million over the next 10 years to identify, train, mentor and seed 10,000 African businesses with a view to creating one million new jobs and $10 billion in additional revenue for the continent.
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