Elumelu Urges Africa To Unlock Pension Funds To Fix Power Deficit

Chairman of Heirs Holdings and United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, has called connected African governments to urgently unlock the continent’s immense pension funds and hole its energy situation if they genuinely desired to powerfulness inclusive growth, innovation, and prosperity.

Speaking astatine the motorboat of the UBA White Paper titled ‘Banking connected Africa’s Future: Unlocking Capital and Partnerships for Sustainable Growth’ connected the sidelines of the 2025 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings successful Washington DC, Elumelu charged governments crossed the continent to hole the situation of energy and hole it fast.

Commenting connected the achromatic insubstantial connected mobilising implicit $4 trillion successful untapped home superior crossed Africa, Elumelu said the continent tin nary longer beryllium connected overseas superior for improvement portion sitting connected idle resources that could beryllium enactment to productive use.

According to him, much than fractional of Africa’s colonisation inactive lacks entree to electricity, a concern helium described arsenic “unacceptable and incompatible with the ambition of gathering a integer and AI-driven economy.

“Electricity is truthful captious to powerfulness information and AI revolution. Over 50 per cent of our radical don’t person entree to electricity. It’s unacceptable. We person been saying ‘Africa rise’ for 25 years. Enough talk. Let’s get to enactment and hole things, starting with improving entree to electricity. Our younker are not asking for sympathy. They are asking for systems that work.”

Stressing that sustainable improvement indispensable beryllium financed from within, opening with the continent’s pension and sovereign funds, Elumelu lamented that trillions of naira and dollars successful pension assets are presently locked up successful low-yield instruments specified arsenic treasury bills and sovereign securities alternatively of being channelled into infrastructure, manufacturing, and renewable energy.

“Getting pension funds and investing them successful treasury bills is not what volition assistance Nigeria oregon Africa develop. You request to spell and put successful captious sectors. There mightiness beryllium 5 per cent loss, 10 per cent loss, nary problem. We’ll larn implicit time. But we request it to enactment for the African people.”

Elumelu cited the United States and different precocious economies arsenic examples wherever pension funds played a pivotal relation successful financing concern and technological growth. He commended Nigeria’s constitution of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) nether erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo arsenic a visionary reform, but stressed that the clip has travel for those funds to “go to work” for nationalist development.

“The pension money is 1 of the champion initiatives Nigeria has undertaken, but present it indispensable beryllium deployed strategically. We person the imaginable to mobilize astir $4 trillion successful Africa, let’s get to enactment and mobilize this. And past we tin present telephone connected our friends and different investors to travel also. And arsenic acold arsenic we are mobilizing $4 trillion, much volition travel in, due to the fact that radical volition spot that we are serious. And erstwhile we amusement that seriousness, they volition travel successful to put successful us,” helium stated.

On electricity, Elumelu reiterated that the powerfulness assemblage remains the azygous astir captious obstruction to Africa’s transformation, informing that without reliable energy, the continent’s integer ambitions would stay a mirage.

The UBA achromatic paper, which was unveiled astatine the planetary meeting, called for collaboration among African governments, improvement concern institutions, and backstage investors to mobilise home resources for semipermanent growth.

Elumelu further urged policymakers to show enactment by creating the close situation for investment, saying section superior mobilisation would awesome seriousness to planetary investors and pull adjacent much funds into Africa’s maturation sectors.