Tony Elumelu honoured at inaugural TIME100 Impact Award

Tony Elumelu

Philanthropist Tony Elumelu on Monday night at the TIME100 Impact Awards and Gala called on the influential to pull resources together, saying, “the world is in need of people like us—more than ever before.”

Mr Elumelu’s plea is part of the reason he was on the stage at the Museum of the Future in Dubai in the first place. The TIME100 Impact Award recipient has spent his career advocating for economic empowerment in the less fortunate places in the world.

He told the crowd, which included celebrities, politicians and prominent business leaders, “We should pull resources together, we should commit now to help in anyway possible in economically empowering others.”

The chairman of UBA Group shared his story of rising from a modest beginning to launching the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2010, which is aimed at creating “significant opportunities and economic hope for others” while “helping redefine how all of us need to work together to uplift through the message of entrepreneurship.”

The foundation has given $5,000 each to 15,000 young entrepreneurs from 54 African countries as part of his effort to grow the entrepreneurial spirit in Africa and encourage economic development.

Elumelu stressed that Africa, and the world, need investment and opportunities more than ever.