Start before you’re qualified’: Elumelu shares career lesson

Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, has recounted how he began his career in a job he said he was not qualified for, urging African youths to pursue opportunities even before they feel fully prepared.

Elumelu shared the experience in a social media post on Saturday, saying someone had given him a chance early in his career and that the opportunity shaped his subsequent journey.

“I started my career in a job I wasn’t qualified for. Someone took a chance on me. Everything I have built since has been to repay it,” he said.

He added that although he benefited from the opportunity, access to employment and career advancement should not depend on luck alone.

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“But luck should not be the only way an African talent gets a chance,” he said.

The businessman also highlighted Africa’s challenges in the global artificial intelligence race, citing the continent’s limited share of global AI computing capacity and talent.

According to Elumelu, Africa accounts for less than one per cent of the world’s AI computing capacity and about three per cent of its AI talent.

He argued that inadequate electricity supply remains a major obstacle to the continent’s technological ambitions.

“The constraint is not talent. It is electricity. We leapfrogged landlines with mobile. We will not leapfrog electricity,” he said.

Elumelu warned that African countries must address their power challenges to take advantage of opportunities in the digital economy, arguing that the continent’s AI ambitions depend on expanding electricity generation and computing capacity.

Offering advice to young people, he urged them to take initiative rather than wait until they believed they possessed every required qualification.

“My closing advice: To the youth in the room: start before you are qualified. I did,” he said.

He also called on investors and business partners to support the expansion of African-owned enterprises, pointing to the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s seed-capital programme as evidence of the potential of young entrepreneurs.

“Tony Elumelu Foundation seed capital has proved that young African entrepreneurs are investible. Now co-invest with us to take them to scale,” he said.