Billionaire businessman, Mr Tony Elumelu has taken a reflection over his successful sojourn in business, crediting his mother’s entrepreneurial ingenuity for it.Elumelu stated this today at the 25th annual conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), held in Lagos.
“I did not start with capital. I started with a mother, a mother who ran a small restaurant and worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known.
“I watched her turn very little into a living, and a living into a future for our children.
That was my first business school“My first lesson in risk, in cash flow, in customers, in discipline, in hard work, in resilience, in getting up the next morning when the day before had gone very badly, came all from her, a woman.”
Elumelu also verged into the area of women involvement in entrepreneurship stating:“When people ask me whether women can lead African business, I find the question strange because in my own experience, they already do. We have simply not given them the capital, the title, or the credit they deserve”
Elumelu who is the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, submitted that Africa needs investment and trade, not aid, to drive its development and unlock the continent’s economic potential.
There is no shortage of entrepreneurial talent in Africa, but inadequate capital to support businesses and unlock the continent’s economic potential.
He said the foundation received 265,529 applications from young Africans with business ideas in 2026 but could only fund 3,200, leaving more than 262,000 applicants without support.
“This, therefore, is not a shortage of entrepreneurial talent in Africa. It is a shortage of capital,” he said.Speaking under the topic “The Geography of Opportunity: Why the World Needs What Africa Has,” he declared that “The future is investment and trade, not aid”.
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