The hall was full of women who had shown up ready to work, and Tony Elumelu did not disappoint. Speaking at the WIMBIZ event, the business leader and philanthropist made the case that three things sit at the heart of Africa's growth story: power, value, and capital.
Elumelu pointed to the Tony Elumelu Foundation's track record as proof that the model works. The foundation has supported 24,633 young entrepreneurs across the continent, and that cohort has gone on to create 1.5 million jobs and generate $4.2 billion in revenue. Those are not aspirational numbers. They are results already on the board.
The message landed in a room built for exactly this kind of conversation. WIMBIZ has long been a gathering space for women in business and the professions, and Elumelu's focus on capital access and value creation gave attendees a clear framework to carry back into their own work.
The question the room will be sitting with now: who gets into the next cohort, and how do more women claim their share of that $4.2 billion story?
Originally published by BusinessDay.