{"id":38991,"date":"2012-04-20T01:15:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T01:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=38991"},"modified":"2012-04-20T01:15:28","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T01:15:28","slug":"no-one-can-develop-africa-but-us-tony-o-elumelu-advises-western-development-partners-on-africapitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=38991","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No One Can Develop Africa But Us\u2019: Tony O. Elumelu Advises Western Development Partners on Africapitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lagos, Nigeria<\/strong> \u2013 Thursday, April 19, 2012<\/strong>\u2013 Tony O. Elumelu, MFR, Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation<\/a>, in Washington, DC this week, told groups of philanthropy, business, and development leaders that Africa\u2019s private sector must be the leading player in contributing to the continent\u2019s economic transformation.\u00a0 (L-R) Carol Civita, Philanthropist, Grupo Abril (Brazil), Tony O. Elumelu, MFR, Chairman of Heirs Holdings & Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation (Nigeria); Laurence Lien, Chairman, Lien Foundation (Singapore); and moderator Matt Kramer, Co-Founder & Managing Director, FSG (USA) at the Global Philanthropy Forum in Washington, DC on April 17, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now the world\u2019s fastest growing region,\u201d said Mr. Elumelu, who is also the Chairman of Heirs Holdings<\/a>, an African proprietary investment company with a long-term investment horizon. \u201cThere is a social and economic impact to be derived, but it needs to be done with the right approach \u2013 with African leadership and with the private sector, rather than from a charitable orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Group CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA), a pan-African financial institution with a presence in 19 countries and 3 continents, was in the United States capital to deliver a lecture to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as to deliver a keynote speech, and participate in a plenary panel at the Global Philanthropy Forum. Mr. Elumelu was also in Washington, DC to honour the invitation of World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick to participate in a meeting of his Advisory Council of Global Foundation Leaders.<\/p>\n

The business leader introduced the audience to Africapitalism<\/a>, an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector\u2019s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through long-term investments that create both economic prosperity and social wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestment in Africa needs a different perspective,\u201d Mr. Elumelu told senior management and invited guests of the IFC on Monday. \u201cFor Africa\u2019s economic growth, the private sector needs to take the lead, invest long term, and focus on making both economic and social gains. In my experience, we have made great profits, but we have also touched lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delivering a keynote at the Global Philanthropy Forum\u2019s annual conference on Tuesday, Mr. Elumelu argued that old assumptions about how Africa would develop were changing quickly, with headlines about the continent becoming more positive. He described for the audience consisting mostly of global philanthropic leaders how The Tony Elumelu Foundation saw the need to partner with the private and public sectors to achieve the catalytic economic transformation it was seeking.<\/p>\n

Using his past experience as a banker as an example, Mr. Elumelu said, “We wanted to democratise banking \u2013 at the time, it was an economic, not a social act. But we learned quickly that as we enhanced access to banking, the communities prospered.\u00a0 And as the communities prospered, we also did. The lesson for us is that, indeed, corporations can do well and do good simultaneously.\u00a0 If you integrate both, it can create even more wealth.”<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s moderator, Mark Kramer \u2013 who along with renowned Harvard University Professor of Strategy and TEF Founding Patron Michael Porter, co-founded FSG \u2013 commended the Foundation\u2019s efforts in the areas of impact investing and business leadership development.
\n\u201cTony has made a compelling case for using the private sector for impact that is traditionally seen as only happening through philanthropy.”<\/p>\n

Jane Wales, president and CEO of the Global Philanthropy Forum, added: \u201cTony Elumelu represents what we are seeing emerge as the future of global philanthropy.\u00a0 He is a successful business leader from Africa who has proven that you can do well while doing good, and is now developing innovations in African philanthropy that Western philanthropy can also learn and benefit from.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Mr. Elumelu met with other global philanthropy leaders as part of the World Bank Group Advisory Council of Global Foundation Leaders, hosted by the Group\u2019s president, Robert Zoellick.\u00a0 The invited participants included founders and foundation presidents from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and other leading philanthropies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.\u00a0 The Advisory Council discussed a number of key issues for global philanthropy, including a discussion led by Mr. Elumelu focused on how foundations in fast growing emerging economies can partner with the World Bank and other developing world foundations to build their domestic philanthropic sectors through introducing legislation and setting high standards.\u00a0 He stated, \u201cWe have an emerging affluent class in Africa.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the institution of giving has not been professionalised.\u00a0 We need the legal structures in place to really leverage Africa\u2019s own wealth to set the continent\u2019s development agenda from within.\u00a0 Reacting to Mr. Elumelu\u2019s comments on the importance of institutional philanthropy for African-led development, Mr. Zoellick added a discussion on African philanthropy to the agenda for a meeting later in the day with African finance ministers and bank governors.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lagos, Nigeria \u2013 Thursday, April 19, 2012\u2013 Tony O. Elumelu, MFR, Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, in Washington, DC this week, told groups of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[751,1],"tags":[11939,11468],"class_list":["post-38991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news","category-uncategorized","tag-africapitalism","tag-tony-o-elumelu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}