Elumelu Urges Govts, Private Sector Alliance to Transform Rural Economies

Chairman of Heirs holdings, Tony Elumelu, has urged governments across the continent to forge stronger alliances with the private sector to unlock the vast potential of rural economies and reposition agriculture as a viable pathway to prosperity for young people.
Speaking at the 49th Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Rome, the Chairman of Heirs Holdings outlined three critical pillars for rural transformation: improved electricity access, blended finance structures and business education.

Elumelu stressed that Africa’s development ambitions would remain constrained without deliberate public private collaboration. According to him, greater cooperation between governments and businesses is essential to catalyse meaningful change in rural communities and agriculture, with a direct impact on food production and food security.
He noted that food security remains central to societal development and warned that rural communities must be made more attractive if Africa is to address youth unemployment and stem migration pressures. Making agriculture appealing and exciting, he said, requires deliberate policy support and sustained investment.
Drawing from the experience of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Elumelu revealed that 21 per cent of the foundation’s 24,000 empowered entrepreneurs operate within the agribusiness value chain, with women leading 55 per cent of those ventures. Collectively, the enterprises have generated about 480,000 jobs across the continent.

He argued that empowering women has a multiplier effect on communities and national economies, reinforcing inclusive growth and social stability. Beyond access to seed capital, Elumelu identified what he termed energy poverty as a major structural barrier to scaling innovation in agriculture. He maintained that modern food systems require digital tools and data driven solutions, which are impossible to deploy sustainably without reliable electricity.
Access to electricity, he said, is foundational to economic transformation, warning that conversations around artificial intelligence and digital innovation would remain hollow without commensurate improvements in power supply.

Elumeleu called on governments to review policies that stifle enterprise, insisting that what benefits SMEs ultimately benefits the broader economy through job creation and youth engagement. He also called for a transition towards blended finance models that combine philanthropic capital with commercial funding to de risk investments and widen access to finance for entrepreneurs who are often excluded by traditional banking structures.