The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy limiting tenure for banks Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to 10 years inspired the formation and take-off Heirs Holdings Group, its Chairman, Tony Elumelu has announced.
The CBN 2010 guidelines for banking sector operations had set a maximum tenure limit of 10 years for bank CEOs making Elumelu, then CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA) to exit his position and appoint a new CEO for the bank.
Elumelu said that today, the Heirs Holdings conglomerates investment portfolio spans the power, energy, financial services, hospitality, real estate, healthcare and technology sectors, operating in 24 countries worldwide.
He said: “14 years ago, we woke up to regulatory policy that CEOs of banks who had done 10 years and above should go. What I teach young entrepreneurs, my children and those I am opportune to mentor is that when things seem bad, they should not give up, but persevere, be resolute and turn their fears to courage.”
“For us, if we were looking at the other side of the glass that contained fear, anger, we won’t be here today. This is my gift for you in our 14th anniversary. Do not give up.”
- Read also:
- CBN to issue N2.2 billion T-Bills in fourth quarter
- CBN reviews interbank lending, deposit rates
- Passport applicants count losses as payment glitches persist
Elumelu attributed the success of the group to a great team, who has shown support for the company’s vision and God’s grace which has kept him alive and going.
He said that the African private sector can change the course of African development, adding that by doing good and doing well, the company has made significant impact across the African continent.
“And this impact is what I call digit impact. We are indeed leading to last, redefining success in every sector we operate in, and demonstrating our determination to improve lives and transform Africa. To date, the Heirs Holdings Group, employs over 40,000 young Africans spread across 20 African countries, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, France and the United States of America,” he said.
“Our philanthropy, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, has impacted 1.5 million young Africans and disbursed $100 million in seed capital, non-refundable seed capital to 20,000 young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries and their businesses have created over 400,000 jobs across Africa,” he added.
Elumelu also talked about the possibility of listing some of the group’s businesses in offshore in the stock exchanges, when the time is right. He said the group would like to democratize prosperity by listing those companies, but the group will need to make sure that the micro investment climate is right for that.
He said that in markets where the companies within the group had listed, people have benefited immensely and that practice will continue whenever the investment climate is right for it.
Wife of the Heirs Holdings Group founder, Dr. Awele Elumelu, lauded the commitment of the group leaders who recognize the challenges and opportunities inherent in the business.
“We are all very proud of the achievements we have been able to make as a group, working together in the different sectors. We have grown from one or two sectors to we all know how many sectors we have now,” she said.
Present at the event are the President and Group CEO of Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp), Owen Omogiafo; CEO United Capital, Peter Ashade; CEO, Heirs Energies, Osa Igiehon, Managing Director/CEO of Avon Healthcare Limited, Adesimbo Ukiri, among others.
Omogiafo described Transcorp Group as Nigeria’s largest listed diversified conglomerate, with investment in strategic sectors of power, hospitality and energy.
The company’s investment in power, accounts for about 15 per cent of Nigeria’s power generation with our investment in distribution. “We actually cover distribution landscape of over 130,000 square kilometers. We recognize that power is critical to the economic transformation of not just Nigeria, but the entire world,” she said.
Igiehon said Heirs Energies is the operator of OMS 17, which is a material oil and gas asset sited northern part of Rivers State. We operate about five per cent of Nigeria’s oil production and about five per cent of Nigeria’s gas, domestic gas production and supply.
“Our vision is to build an integrated energy business that uniquely addresses Africa’s energy needs. And the execution of this vision has started well over 10 years ago with several forests, but it landed in a milestone in 2021 with the acquisition of OML 17,” he said.
“We have regarded significant growth in after we took over, we doubled our oil production from 27 to over 52,000 barrels of oil per day in the space of 100 days”.
Also speaking, Ukiri said the company paid N38 billion hospital claims through its HMO operations.
She said: “I am quite proud of what we have been able to achieve over the past 11 years of our existence. So, for instance, we have impacted about 500,000 Nigerians through the services we provide at the hospitals and also through the health plans that we provide. We have health plans at the HMO that caters to all classes of people. We have health plans for companies, for individuals and their families”.
 policy limiting tenure for banks Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to 10 years inspired the formation and ta){kind=link}