March 20, 2017 By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
In his first step of his UBA tour of Africa to propagate the ideal of Afri-capitalism and in continuation of his strategic vision of engineering a robust economic and business relationship across the continent through Africapitalism as a necessary tool for the socio economic development of Africa, the Group Chairman UBA Plc, and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony O. Elumelu, last week addressed hundreds of Ghanaian youths, academics and entrepreneurs in Accra Ghana.
Speaking at the prestigious University of Ghana, Legon, he said the serial entrepreneur who at the young age of 34, became the Managing Director of one of Nigeria’s top banks (Standard Trust Bank), reiterated the usefulness of preparedness.
He expunged on the qualities that make a successful entrepreneur and that the first is dedication, then vision, focus, ambition, and our ability to do things when we want to do them. And that they must always remain laser focused and aim to execute to perfection.
“I saw us grow a bank from five branches to 1000 branches 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 said.
He went on further to stress that entrepreneurship and not philanthropy, is key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering Africans to solve our challenges without dependence on aid from western countries.
“Knowledge has no currency or value. It is priceless, and there is no greater gift than the gift of knowledge. Africans must come up with innovative, home grown solutions for challenges we continue to face,” he said.
He added that UBA embraces this innovation and that UBA was the first bank to encourage customers to come and bank with zero account balance.”
Earlier during the working visit, on Monday, Tony Elumelu met with the President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo where they held fruitful discussions on matters of mutual benefit as well as deliberated on issues geared towards the growth and development of Finance and entrepreneurship in Ghana.
At the meeting with the president, Mr. Elumelu stated he was indeed delighted to be on the historic visit to Ghana which has been a shining light of UBA’s business across Africa.
He said it was a great opportunity for to meet with and congratulate the newly elected president of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo and to extend our readiness to partner with his administration in the rapid development of Ghana and Africa at large.