Tony Elumelu built Heirs Holdings and United Bank for Africa (UBA) into a pan-African financial network, guided by his Africapitalism philosophy — the conviction that private enterprise, rather than aid, should drive the continent’s development. Now his ambitions stretch into Europe.
Elumelu is on the verge of securing a full banking licence in France, which would upgrade UBA’s Paris office into a full-service operation anchoring the bank’s entire European Union presence.
The plan is brilliant. Paris connects UBA to 11 Francophone African countries it already serves, strengthens trade finance between Europe and Africa, and opens a channel for mobilising diaspora wealth, building on the wholesale banking base UBA already runs successfully in London.
Elumelu’s move has all of its pillars sitting on a sharp commercial strategy. According to experts, by securing a footprint inside the European Union, UBA can clear euro-denominated trade directly, cutting settlement costs for African businesses. It bypasses post-Brexit constraints in London, turning Paris into a direct bridge for capital flows between European investors and high-growth Francophone markets.
He has already made real headway. Elumelu signed a cooperation agreement alongside President Emmanuel Macron and Finance Minister Antoine Armand, and awaits final approval from France’s banking regulator, the ACPR, to complete the transition.
Macron has also appointed him to lead the Africa France Impact Coalition, a platform pairing African entrepreneurs directly with French political and business leaders.
Beyond banking, his foundation has partnered with the European Union on a €20 million initiative supporting over 2,500 women-led African startups, work that earned him Belgium’s Order of Leopold.
By all accounts, it is not simply banking expansion that Elumelu is doing. He is positioning Nigerian finance at the centre of Africa-Europe trade, one regulatory approval at a time.