Billionaire businessman Tony Elumelu has revealed how his mother’s experience running a small restaurant laid the foundation for his business career, teaching him essential lessons about entrepreneurship, discipline and resilience.
The founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation shared the experience on Friday while speaking at the 25th annual conference of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) in Lagos.
Recounting his childhood, Elumelu said his mother managed limited resources to provide for the family, an experience that exposed him to important business principles long before he ventured into the corporate world.
He identified risk management, cash flow, customer relations, hard work and the ability to overcome setbacks as some of the lessons he learnt from watching her run the restaurant.
Speaking about her influence, he said, “I did not start with capital. I started with a mother, a mother who ran a small restaurant and worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known.
“I watched her turn very little into a living, and a living into a future for our children. That was my first business school.
“My first lesson in risk, in cash flow, in customers, in discipline, in hard work, in resilience, in getting up the next morning when the day before had gone very badly, came all from her, a woman.”
The businessman said his mother’s experience also influenced his belief in women’s capacity to manage and lead successful businesses.
He questioned the continued challenges women face in accessing business capital, leadership positions and recognition despite their contributions to the economy.
“When people ask me whether women can lead African business, I find the question strange because in my own experience, they already do. We have simply not given them the capital, the title, or the credit they deserve,” he said.
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Elumelu also reflected on the role opportunities and mentorship played in his professional development, recalling how he was given the responsibility of leading a group of young Nigerians to acquire the struggling Crystal Bank when he was 34.
He described the experience as a defining moment in his career, noting that someone had trusted his abilities and provided him with an opportunity to demonstrate his leadership capacity.
He said the experience strengthened his determination to create similar opportunities for others, particularly young Africans and women seeking to establish themselves in business.