KEY POINTS
- Tony Elumelu says trust and empathy now outweigh hierarchy in effective leadership.
- His views come amid major capital and energy deals involving UBA and Heirs Energies.
- He links execution and performance to people-centered leadership cultures.
Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu has spent decades in Africa’s corporate boardrooms, but his latest message to fellow executives is not about margins or market share. It is about people.
In a recent LinkedIn post that read more like a personal reflection than a leadership lecture, Elumelu urged business leaders to rethink authority itself, arguing that trust, empathy and disciplined execution matter more than hierarchy in a world defined by constant change.
“The world around us is constantly shifting, creating opportunities and threats,” Elumelu wrote. Leadership, he said, “cannot be passive, cannot be complacent. Neither arrogant nor distant.” For the chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc, Transcorp Group and founder of Heirs Holdings, leadership begins with clarity of purpose and consistency in execution, but it is sustained by relationships that are intentionally built.
Leadership, Elumelu says, begins with trust
Elumelu traced his philosophy to an early career experience under a boss whose influence still shapes how he leads. The lesson was not command or fear, but respect. “He trusted me, I wanted to repay that trust,” Elumelu wrote, describing a relationship built through challenge, exposure and personal investment that extended beyond formal work settings.
While he recalled seemingly small moments, such as being taken to unfamiliar restaurants, including a Japanese restaurant in London where using chopsticks became an unexpected test. He admitted to struggling quietly and sometimes finding food elsewhere afterward. Yet the experience stayed with him because it was never about the meal. It was about connection, learning and perspective.
Those lessons now inform how he engages his own teams. Elumelu argues that leaders must look both up and down within their organizations, removing obstacles rather than issuing orders. “An enabling environment matters more than just authority,” he wrote. Commitment, in his view, is not only to tasks but to people. Accessibility, openness to new approaches and the willingness to clear roadblocks are practical tools for results achieved “not by chance, but by design.”
Philosophy meets execution across banking and energy
The timing of Elumelu’s reflections is notable, coming as his business interests complete some of their most significant transactions in recent years.
At United Bank for Africa (UBA), where he owns more than 16 percent, the lender has met the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new capital requirement for banks with international operations. UBA recently crossed the N500 billion share capital threshold after completing a N157.83 billion rights issue. Nigerian Exchange Regulation confirmed the listing of an additional 3.16 billion ordinary shares, formalizing the bank’s compliance with the rule.
In energy, Heirs Energies closed a $750 million financing with the African Export–Import Bank in December, one of the largest deals secured by a locally owned energy producer on the continent. The company manages a growing oil and gas portfolio, including OML 17 in the Niger Delta, and produces more than 50,000 barrels of oil and 120 million cubic feet of gas daily. The transaction underscored Afreximbank’s confidence in the company’s governance and operating discipline.
That momentum continued weeks later when Heirs Energies agreed to acquire a 20.07 percent stake in Seplat Energy Plc for nearly $500 million. The stake, equivalent to 120.4 million shares previously held by France’s Maurel & Prom, values the deal at about $496 million. Seplat, listed on both the Nigerian Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, sits at the core of Nigeria’s energy supply, with over one billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2P reserves.
Authority as engagement, not position
According to Billionaires Africa, for Elumelu, these figures are outcomes, not the starting point. His argument is that disciplined execution flows from cultures where people feel trusted and supported. Authority, he suggests, is less about position and more about engagement.
As business leaders enter a new year marked by uncertainty, his message is direct: be accessible, build real relationships, remain open to change and remove obstacles so others can deliver. It is a leadership view shaped by boardrooms and balance sheets, but also by quiet lessons learned through shared experiences and mutual respect proof, in Elumelu’s telling, that leadership works best when it remains human.
