Tony Elumelu Calls for Greater Representation of Women in African Corporate Leadership

• Showcases Ten Women Leaders Across Heirs Holdings Group

Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, called on business leaders across Africa to accelerate female representation in corporate leadership, highlighting the eight women serving as Chairs and Chief Executives across the Heirs Holdings Group as evidence of the transformative impact of creating opportunities for women to lead.

48 per cent of beneficiaries. Collectively, these entrepreneurs have created more than 1.5 million jobs and generated over US$4.2 billion in revenue – a validation of his proposition.

The Foundation’s entrepreneurship programme reflects Elumelu’s broader philosophy of Africapitalism, which advocates for private-sector-led economic development that creates both economic prosperity and social wealth.

Through Africapitalism, he argues that African businesses and investors have a responsibility to expand access to opportunity, strengthen institutions, and unlock the continent’s entrepreneurial potential. “Opportunity in Africa is still distributed by accident of birth, of geography, of gender. My life’s work is to make it distributed by merit instead,” he said.

Drawing on his experience building businesses across multiple sectors and markets, Elumelu challenged other corporate leaders to examine their own leadership structures and question the barriers preventing qualified women from advancing. “If I can do it in power, in hospitality, in banking, in insurance, in healthcare, and in oil and gas, so can others?” he asked, challenging business leaders to make women’s advancement a deliberate leadership and institutional priority.

Addressing the next generation of African women, Elumelu urged them not to wait for permission to pursue leadership, build businesses, or take ownership of economic opportunities. He called on WIMBIZ and the wider business community to sustain the momentum of women’s advancement.