NAIROBI (AP), Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu has urged Africa to abandon what he calls a \u201cvictim mentality,\u201d insisting the continent must embrace investment and innovation to meet the needs of its fast\u2011growing youth population. His remarks came at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, co\u2011hosted by France and Kenya, where leaders debated the future of Africa\u2019s economic partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elumelu is an International figure, one of Africa\u2019s most influential business figures, Elumelu is one of Africa\u2019s most influential business figures, Through his company Heirs Holdings, he invests in energy, healthcare, and hospitality, His Tony Elumelu Foundation has funded thousands of young African entrepreneurs with seed money, training, and mentorship, Through his company Heirs Holdings, he invests in energy, healthcare, and hospitality, His Tony Elumelu Foundation has funded thousands of young African entrepreneurs with seed money, training, and mentorship, He coined the term Africapitalism<\/em> the idea that African businesses should lead in solving Africa\u2019s problems and is frequently invited to speak at international summits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Africa\u2019s median age under 20, Elumelu warned that the continent\u2019s greatest challenge is job creation. \u201cThey need jobs, they need electricity, they need to join the internet, the AI bandwagon,\u201d he said, stressing that Africa cannot afford to dwell on colonial grievances while millions of young people demand opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His comments cut to the heart of Africa\u2019s development debate: whether to continue framing global partnerships through the lens of colonial history or to embrace new alliances that can deliver capital, infrastructure, and technology. For Elumelu, the stakes are clear without massive investment, Africa risks leaving its youth behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfrica\u2019s infrastructure gap is the single biggest barrier to growth,\u201d said Nairobi based economist James Mwangi. \u201cElumelu is right to push for private capital, but governments must also create the conditions, security, rule of law, ease of doing business, to make those investments viable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everyone agrees. Protesters in Nairobi accused France of \u201cneo\u2011colonialism\u201d and warned that welcoming foreign investors without caution risks repeating old patterns of exploitation. \u201cWe cannot simply forget history,\u201d said activist Amina Odhiambo. \u201cPartnerships must be on Africa\u2019s terms, not dictated by outside powers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elumelu\u2019s remarks come as Africa has become a battleground for global economic influence, with the United States, China, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and Gulf monarchies all competing for access to markets and resources. French President Emmanuel Macron recently tapped Elumelu to join the Africa to France Impact Coalition, a move aimed at deepening trade ties despite lingering skepticism about France\u2019s colonial past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For readers unfamiliar with him, Elumelu is one of Africa\u2019s most influential business figures: Elumelu is one of Africa\u2019s most influential business figures, Through his company Heirs Holdings, he invests in energy, healthcare, and hospitality, His Tony Elumelu Foundation has funded thousands of young African entrepreneurs with seed money, training, and mentorship, He coined the term Africapitalism<\/em>, the idea that African businesses should lead in solving Africa\u2019s problems, and is frequently invited to speak at international summits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elumelu\u2019s call to \u201clet the past be\u201d is provocative, but it captures a generational urgency: Africa\u2019s future will be decided not by history alone, but by whether it can harness investment, infrastructure, and innovation to meet the needs of its young citizens. His words leave a memorable challenge, to stop seeing Africa as a victim, and start seeing it as a player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NAIROBI (AP), Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu has urged Africa to abandon what he calls a \u201cvictim mentality,\u201d insisting the continent must embrace investment and innovation to meet the needs of its fast\u2011growing youth population. His remarks came at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, co\u2011hosted by France and Kenya, where leaders debated the future of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":31016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3699,2,2096,776,4,5,8,458,18],"tags":[15903,15891,15894,15896,15889,15902,15899,15897,15892,15887,15886,15885,15901],"class_list":{"0":"post-31007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-africa","8":"category-business","9":"category-economics","10":"category-educational","11":"category-featured","12":"category-international","13":"category-jobs","14":"category-legal","15":"category-lifestyle","16":"tag-africa-dropping-colonial-mindset","18":"tag-africa-entrepreneurship-support","19":"tag-africa-foreign-investment-opportunities","20":"tag-africa-forward-summit-nairobi","21":"tag-africa-future-of-business","22":"tag-africa-global-partnerships","23":"tag-africa-technology-and-ai-adoption","24":"tag-africa-youth-job-creation","25":"tag-africapitalism-vision","26":"tag-nigerian-billionaire-tony-elumelu","27":"tag-tony-elumelu-africa-speech","28":"tag-tony-elumelu-quotes"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tony.jpg?fit=1800%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31007"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31014,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31007\/revisions\/31014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}