Billionaire businessman and UBA Chairman Tony Elumelu has said that hard work and talent alone are not sufficient guarantees of success, crediting luck as a significant factor in his own rise.
Elumelu made the comments during an appearance on the Korty EO podcast, where he spoke about his mission to empower young African entrepreneurs.
Elumelu graduated from Bendel State University, now Ambrose Alli University, with a 2:2 in Economics, falling short of the 2:1 that Allstates Trust Bank required of applicants at the time.
Rather than accept the rejection, he wrote directly to the bank’s owner, arguing that despite his grades, he would outperform any 2:1 graduate given the chance. Part of his cover letter read, “I know I may not have met the qualifying criteria for the advertised roles, but I am intelligent, driven, ambitious and I will make the bank proud. My 2:2 degree does not demonstrate the full extent of my intelligence and ability, and I know I can do so much more.”
By luck, the CEO came across the letter and invited him for an interview, and he got the job as an entry-level analyst.
At 26, he was made a branch manager, becoming the youngest bank branch manager in Nigeria at the time. He later led a group of investors to take over a struggling Crystal Bank, rebranded it as Standard Trust Bank, and in 2005 engineered one of the largest banking mergers in Sub-Saharan Africa by acquiring the United Bank for Africa.
