World needs what Africa has, Elumelu tells WIMBIZ

One of Africa’s leading businessmen, Tony Elumelu, has said Africa holds the single greatest commercial opportunity of this century, but warned that potential alone will not guarantee prosperity.

Elumelu spoke on Friday in Lagos as Special Guest and Speaker at the 25th WIMBIZ Annual Conference, themed _Rooted, Rising, Ready: Born in Africa, Built for the World_.

Delivering a keynote on _The Geography of Opportunity: Why The World Needs What Africa Has_, he said by 2050, Africa’s working-age population would grow by hundreds of millions, while the continent holds the minerals needed for the energy transition, the land, the sun, the rivers and the youngest population on earth.

“Everyone else is ageing. We are not. That is not a problem to be managed. This is the single greatest commercial opportunity of this century, and it is ours,” he said.

But Elumelu warned that possession of resources had never guaranteed prosperity, citing Singapore and South Korea as countries that prospered without Africa’s resource endowment.

He identified three things standing between Africa and its potential: power, value and capital.

“We cannot talk about industrialisation without fixing electricity. Factories cannot run without it. Hospitals and schools cannot function without it. And the AI economy everyone is talking about has two basic ingredients: power and connectivity. Africa has the young, creative minds. What they lack is the grid. Fix electricity, and Africa will take off,” he said.

On value, he said Africa must stop asking how much can be extracted and start asking how much value can be created on the continent.

“Why ship raw lithium, raw cocoa, raw crude out of this continent? Refine it. Process it. Brand it. Then sell it to the world. That is how a continent moves from supplier to participant,” he said.

On capital, Elumelu said aid budgets collapsed in 2025 and fell again this year, adding that aid at best kept people alive but rarely made them owners.

“The future is investment and trade, not aid. And that future will be built by people who look like the people in this room,” he said.

He argued that the capital needed must be African, driven by savings, consistent policy and trusted financial institutions.

“With savings growth, at national and continental level, Africa will not just offer solutions, but finance those solutions,” he said.

Elumelu cited his group’s investment in Seplat, whose share price moved from £3 to £9 this year to a market capitalisation of $7 billion, and Aliko Dangote’s mobilisation of retail African investors for the Refinery IPO as signs of a new dawn.

He also listed a fourth priority: trading with each other.

“It is easier today to ship goods from Lagos to Liverpool than from Lagos to Luanda. Less than a fifth of our trade is with each other. The African Continental Free Trade Area is the largest free trade area in the world by number of countries, and it will remain a document until businesses, your businesses, use it,” he said.

He called for roads, railways, ports, payment systems, efficient customs and predictable regulations, warning that a continent that cannot trade efficiently with itself will struggle to negotiate with the rest of the world.

Elumelu also stressed strong institutions, saying investors everywhere ask the same questions: Will the contract be honoured? Will the regulator be predictable? Will the courts work? Will the power stay on?

“Create the right conditions, and they will come. Where institutions are credible, contracts are honoured and leaders are accountable, money follows,” he said.

He added that institutions are not only built by governments, but also by businesses that pay taxes properly, publish accounts, promote on merit and refuse shortcuts.

“The geography of opportunity must become the geography of prosperity. No one but us will develop Africa. Not the donors. Not the multilaterals. Not the partners, however welcome they are. Us,” he said.