‘At times you need luck’ — Tony Elumelu says being the best in class is not enough to succeed

• Tony Elumelu says luck played a major role in his success despite his hard work and talent.

• It has been revealed that a letter the billionaire wrote after graduating with a 2:2 changed his career.

• He said the experience inspired the Tony Elumelu Foundation's mission to create opportunities for young entrepreneurs.

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 to the top of African business.

Elumelu made the comments during an appearance on the Korty EO podcast, where he spoke about his mission to empower young African entrepreneurs.

"At times you don't get successful because you're the best in class or because you're the fittest or because you're the most energetic. At times you need luck. I'm a product of luck," he said.

His executive, who also appeared on the podcast, explained that the belief in democratising luck is precisely what drove Elumelu to establish the Tony Elumelu Foundation, describing it as born directly from his boss's own experience.

"Luck met preparedness," the executive said, adding that Elumelu's story began when he applied for a job he was not technically qualified for, and a letter changed everything.

Elumelu graduated from 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.

By luck, the CEO came across the letter and invited him for an interview, and he got the job.

At 26, he was made a branch manager. By 1997, he led a group of investors to take over a struggling Crystal Bank, rebranded it as Standard Trust Bank, turned it profitable, and in 2005 engineered one of the largest banking mergers in Sub-Saharan African history by acquiring the United Bank for Africa.

For Elumelu, the fact that a single letter reaching the right desk changed his life is not just a personal story, but the entire philosophy behind his philanthropy.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has since trained over 2.5 million young African entrepreneurs across 54 countries and provided $5,000 in non-refundable seed capital to over 24,000 businesses.

His comments have sparked conversation online, with many praising his honesty while others argue that luck alone does not explain a career built on bold decisions and relentless execution.

Elumelu is currently preparing to step down as UBA Chairman on August 21, 2026, after a 12-year tenure that transformed the bank into a pan-African institution operating across 20 African countries with a presence in the US, UK, and France.

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