The founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation and chairman of Heirs Holdings and United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu has urged the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) to scale up on projects that would scale up the growth of the continent.
Speaking at the AFC Day in London, Elumelu stressed the need for Africa to develop and grow itself in a fast changing world. Many countries on the continent are being impacted by the United States of America tariffs.
Encouraging the AFC to continue to identify projects and catalyze projects that have scale, impact and relevance of Africa, he said “this is very important, more so at a time like this that the world is changing. It changes very fast, and no one but us will develop Africa.”
Noting that the AFC had been supportive of the private sector in Africa over the years, he stressed the need for more support to further grow the continent. Elumelu who noted that he has been a beneficiary of AFC’s “catalytic role on the continent” pointed out that Transcorp Groups investment in the power sector had gotten support from the corporation.
“As the chairman of Transcorp Group, one of our investment was in the power sector. We know that access to electricity is very important for development transformation of Africa. We invested in that space, but we needed support, and AFC supported with about $120 million.
“We need more of such support for the private sector in Africa, especially at a time like this. And when we decided to go to energy space, we did a $1 billion transaction. AFC supported us also with $150 million which is very well serviced today.”
Elumelu, while calling for more support said “these are signature transactions that without AFC, or for us in particular, may have been difficult to conclude.”
