[size=14pt]Tony Elumelu: This is My Story[/size]
SUNDAY, 07 NOVEMBER 2010 00:00 BY MARCEL MBAMALU LIFE MAGAZINE - SPOTLIGHT

I want to tell you a story about Tony Elumelu. I was brought up by struggling, middle-class parents. I read Economics in First Degree. I read Economics in Masters Degree, not by design. I wanted to do Estate Management. But then Ambrose Ali, a leader, founded the Bendel State University, I was adventurous and I then applied I got admission to study Economics. So, it was by chance I studied Economics; not by any form of common mentorship or mentoring. This is the outcome.
When I left school after the first and second degree, I decided to go into banking by chance; again, not by design. Some of my friends came. Okumagba and I were classmates at the University of Lagos. We and other colleagues were perplexed by the successes recorded by some bankers. So, we decided together to go into banking, and that’s how the banking career started, which again, underscores the significance of role models, especially those who are upcoming. We all need mentors and we need role models. If you are lucky as Tony was, that is good. But we should stop living by luck, so that we can plan deliberately. Life is beyond luck.

When we left school, I recall that one day I called some of my friends (Albert Okumagba was there; Chuka Onwuchekwa was there). One of the names we considered when we started BGL was Tony Simons& co. I am Tony Elumelu. Chuka is Simon Chuka Onwuchekwa. I think I was 27 years old then. I called them because I was in Port Harcourt at the time. So I said they should come to Port Harcourt. When they came, I shared my vision with them, about the economy I saw ahead of us and we agreed that Okumagba should go to the capital market and train as a stock dealer. Chuka was in Namibia then, working for the Namibia Commercial Bank. I was with the All States Trust Bank working as a regional manager at the time. So, we agreed to do our best in two or three years to get ready for the business. But as the convener of the meeting, it was my responsibility to drive everything. I was to drive the entire process.

At 30, the business had crystallized but we changed the name from Tony Simons to BGL and that’s the name as at today. I became the founding CEO of BGL. At 31, we made the first bank acquisition, the Merchant Bank of Commerce. We turned around Merchant Bank of Commerce at the time to be recognised by the new king of the bloc in Africa. We did not stop there. We made the second acquisition bid, which was the crystal Bank of Africa. Crystal Bank was a distressed bank, but we saw an opportunity in Crystal Bank. So, we went in there through a scheme that was at the time alien to this environment — debt equity swap. That’s how we got into Crystal Bank of Africa. Today, it has dovetailed into many other institutions.

When we founded BGL, I invested 1,200, 000 Dollars. A dollar was going for N12 per Dollar then. So, that was N12 million. When we did the Crystal Bank acquisition, those who invested 10Million Naira (N10, 000,000) at the time (1997) by April this year would have made 626Million Naira. We have continued to grow value for shareholders.\


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hi

Great!

Good one. God please give me good insight into wells of riches and favours.

Wow