TheCable

Bayero University, Kano (BUK) says it will confer an honourary doctorate degree of business on Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. 

Announcing this in a letter, Muhammad Bello, the vice-chancellor, said the honour is in recognition of “your innumerable and worthy contribution to the country as an economist, entrepreneur, and a philanthropist”.

According to the statement, the conferment ceremony will hold on June 15 at at the university’s convocation arena.

“Your philanthropic activities through the Tony Elumelu Foundation have reached every nook and corner of our nation, and have impacted positively on many lives. Your efforts in the area of entrepreneurship are making immense contributions to the economy,” the letter read.

In 2003, the federal government granted Elumelu the title of member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) while he was awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) for his service in promoting private enterprise in 2012.

Elumelu is an investor and philanthropist. In 2011, he conceived the term Africapitalism, “which has catalysed the African entrepreneurial landscape, positioning the private sector as the engine for growth and empowerment, and prioritising social and economic wealth creation”.

In 1997, Tony founded Standard Trust Bank, which grew to be the fifth ranked bank in a 90-bank industry, in eight years. In 2005, Tony led the merger between Standard Trust Bank and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which at the time was sub-Saharan Africa ex South Africa’s largest financial services transaction. He became chief executive of the new group.

He serves as the chairman of the UBA Group, now present in twenty African countries, Paris, London and New York, and the only African bank with a deposit taking presence in the United States.

He sits on a number of public and social sector boards, including the international advisory board of the Washington DC based think tank, the Wilson Center, and on the board of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited. Tony also serves on the Global Advisory Council of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Centre for Public Leadership. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Community of Chairmen.