By Chesa Chesa
Chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr. Tony Elumelu, on Friday visited President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa to discuss government’s economic initiatives aimed to bolster small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), overhaul tax structures, and revive Nigeria’s power sector.
Elumelu, who spoke to State House correspondents after the meeting with the President, said discussions centred on sustaining economic stability, expanding entrepreneurial opportunities and addressing structural bottlenecks limiting business growth.
The banking mogul and philanthropist said:
“I love to sit with my president and discuss economic issues, give feedback from what we think is happening the economy, and then constructively agree, you know I’m a member of Presidential Economic Council, to just rub minds”.
He identified support for SMEs as the core focus of the talks, describing small businesses as the backbone of job creation, innovation and inclusive economic growth.
According to him, “we talked about small and medium scale enterprises, about how to further support Nigerian medium, small scale enterprise. Mr. President is very passionate … and from my discussion about capacitizing the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria and I’m very happy to hear that, to feel that, to experience that because they are the engine of economic growth.”
Elumelu said that President Tinubu expressed strong commitment to leveraging tax reforms and targeted financial interventions to ease operational pressures on entrepreneurs and encourage business expansion.
“He talked about tax reform and how he want to use that to support small and medium scale enterprises. He spoke about Bank of Industry and I was super impressed. He even called the name of the CEO that, he likes what is going on, and he wants them to do more to support small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the country. To me, it was gratifying.
“As you know, the Tony Elumelu Foundation always supports young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and across the world and so for me to be in audience with Mr. President, and to be discussing this is super-elating, super-exciting, it showed there’s congruence and alignment, and I believe that this is what Nigerian youth need. So I thank Mr. President for that commitment and looking forward to greater things happening, ” Elumelu said.
He also observed that foreign-exchange related pressures, which previously dominated banking concerns, have significantly reduced, enabling businesses to plan with greater certainty.
He equally stressed that access to reliable power remains fundamental to industrial productivity and national development, adding that the President acknowledged the urgency of settling outstanding debts owed to generation companies to unlock additional capacity and stabilise supply across the country.
Elumele noted that despite sizeable unpaid obligations within the electricity value chain, operators have continued generation, underscoring the importance of timely financial settlements to boost output and attract further investment into the sector.
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