Vice president of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, has commended the group chairman of Heirs Holdings (HH), Tony Elumelu, for his contribution towards the growth and development of Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the HH group directors’ Annual Summit, Shettima said “when the history of Nigeria and indeed Africa’s banking history and revolution will be written, one name will stand out – having carved a niche for itself and engraved its name on the walls of banking and Africa’s entrepreneurship.
“Tony Elumelu has become an enigma, a banking colossus, a power industrialist, and a force that cannot be ignored. He is one of our own who believed in Nigeria and threw his heart into it. He is a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur and indeed a philanthropist, who has given life meaning to millions of Nigerians and Africans.”
In his remarks, Elumelu emphasised HH’s mandate to ‘build to last’ and to “build for impact”, saying “over the past decade, we have inculcated in our business the criticality of strong corporate governance practices. We only invest for the long term, strategically and patiently.
“These twin commitments are fundamental to our success; we are indeed building to last, redefining success in every sector we operate in, and demonstrating our purpose to improve lives and transform Africa.”
He noted that the success and impact of Heirs Holdings reflects the philosophy of Africapitalism, the belief that the African private sector can change the course of African development, but that it must be committed to doing good and doing well.
The summit which saw over 100 board members from across all HH investee companies, provided the opportunity to reinforce the Group’s strong governance practices and identify opportunities for innovation and impact, as well as celebrating business achievements.
To date, HH investee companies employ over 40,000 people across 20 African countries, the United Kingdom, UAE, France, and the United States of America.
The HH portfolio includes investments in Heirs Energies Limited; Heirs Insurance Group; United Capital Plc; Transcorp Group Plc, whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power and Transcorp Hotels Plc; Avon HMO and Avon Medical; Afriland Properties; Redtech and Heirs Technologies, and the United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA).
The HH Group also boasts three NSE listed stocks each worth over N1 trillion (SWOOTs) within its portfolio and manages an investment portfolio size worth N10.6 trillion/ $7.1billion.
Heirs Holdings’ philanthropy, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, has impacted 1.5 million young Africans, and disbursed $100 million in seed capital to 20,000 young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries, whose businesses have created over 400,000 jobs.
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