Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu has spent a long time on the heart of Africa’s company boardrooms, however his newest message to fellow executives shouldn’t be about steadiness sheets or market share. It’s about folks. In a current LinkedIn post that reads extra like a private memo than a public lecture, Elumelu urged leaders to rethink authority itself, arguing that belief, empathy and disciplined execution matter greater than hierarchy in a world that now not stands nonetheless.
“The world round us is consistently shifting, creating alternatives and threats,” Elumelu wrote. Management, he stated, “can’t be passive, can’t be complacent. Neither boastful nor distant.” For Elumelu, who chairs United Financial institution for Africa Plc and Transcorp Group and based Heirs Holdings, management begins with readability of objective and consistency in execution, however it’s sustained by one thing much less formal and more durable to measure: relationships.
Elumelu hyperlinks management to belief
His reflections are rooted in expertise. Early in his profession, Elumelu labored below a boss whose affect, he stated, nonetheless shapes how he leads at present. The lesson was not concern or command, however respect. “He trusted me – I wished to repay that belief,” Elumelu wrote. The connection was constructed deliberately, by way of funding, problem and publicity that went past the workplace.
He recalled moments which may appear trivial on the floor, equivalent to being taken out to unfamiliar eating places, together with a Japanese restaurant in London the place chopsticks turned an sudden check. Elumelu admitted to quietly struggling, typically escaping afterward to seek out meals elsewhere. But these experiences stayed with him as a result of they had been by no means concerning the meal. They had been about connection, studying and seeing the world in a different way.
That reminiscence now informs how he works along with his personal groups. Elumelu argues that leaders should look each up and down inside their organizations, eradicating obstacles quite than issuing orders. “An enabling setting issues extra than simply authority,” he wrote. Leaders, in his view, don’t merely decide to duties; they decide to folks. Accessibility, openness to doing issues in a different way and a willingness to clear roadblocks should not delicate concepts, he advised, however sensible instruments for outcomes which might be earned “not by likelihood, however by design.”
Goal-led management powers African development
The timing of Elumelu’s message is notable. It comes as his enterprise pursuits report a few of their most vital strikes in years, underscoring the hyperlink he attracts between management philosophy and execution. At United Financial institution for Africa (UBA), the place he owns a stake of greater than 16 p.c, the lender has met a significant regulatory check set by the Central Financial institution of Nigeria for banks with worldwide operations. UBA recently crossed the N500 billion ($352 million) share capital threshold after finishing a N157.83 billion ($111.1 million) rights subject. Nigerian Trade Regulation confirmed the admission of an extra 3.16 billion peculiar shares to the Every day Official Checklist, formalizing the financial institution’s compliance with the brand new capital requirement. In an announcement dated January 12, 2026, the trade stated the rights subject of three,156,869,665 peculiar shares of fifty kobo every at N50 ($0.035) per share had been totally listed.
Past banking, Elumelu’s power pursuits have expanded at a tempo that has drawn consideration throughout the continent. In December, Heirs Energies, certainly one of Africa’s largest indigenous power corporations, closed a $750 million financing with the African Export–Import Financial institution. The corporate manages a rising oil and fuel portfolio, together with OML 17 within the Niger Delta, and produces greater than 50,000 barrels of oil and 120 million cubic ft of fuel day by day. The funding ranks among the many largest secured by a regionally owned power producer in Africa and alerts Afreximbank’s confidence not solely within the property, however within the firm’s governance and working self-discipline. It additionally deepens a long-standing relationship that positions the financial institution as a core companion as Heirs Energies continues to develop its portfolio.
Heirs’ Seplat stake displays Elumelu’s capital method
Barely two weeks after closing the landmark financing, Elumelu prolonged that attain additional. Heirs Energies agreed to acquire a 20.07 percent stake in Seplat Energy Plc for practically $500 million, one of many largest regionally pushed investments in Africa’s oil and fuel sector lately. The stake, equal to 120.4 million peculiar shares, was beforehand held by French producer Maurel & Promenade. Valued at GBP3.05, or $4.09, per share, the transaction totals about $496 million. Seplat, which is listed on each the Nigerian Trade and the London Inventory Trade, has a market capitalization of N3.2 trillion, or about $2.2 billion. As of December 31, 2024, it reported 2P reserves of 1.043 billion barrels of oil equal and manufacturing of 135,600 barrels per day as of October 31, 2025, thus putting it on the coronary heart of Nigeria’s power provide.
For Elumelu, these figures are outcomes, not beginning factors. His argument is that disciplined execution flows from cultures the place folks really feel trusted and supported. Authority, he suggests, is much less about place and extra about engagement. As leaders enter a brand new yr going through uncertainty, his name is straightforward and private: make your self accessible, construct actual relationships, stay open to vary and take away obstacles so others can ship. It’s a view formed by boardrooms and steadiness sheets, but additionally by quiet classes discovered over shared meals, awkward moments and mutual respect—proof, in Elumelu’s telling, that management works greatest when it stays human.
