Tycoon Tony Elumelu & Wife, Awele Make 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy List
FUNSHO AROGUNDADE
Nigeria’s business tycoon, Tony O. Elumelu and his beloved wife, Awele Vivien Elumelu have been announced as honourees in the 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy list by TIME Magazine for the transformative work of their Tony Elumelu Foundation across Africa.
The TIME100 Philanthropy full list released Thursday was about the influential people shaping giving globally in 2026.
Tony, together with his physician wife, Awele, is one of the world’s most energetic philanthropists, leading efforts on the continent of Africa especially on youths and entrepreneurship.
While introducing this year’s TIME100 Philanthropy, Sam Jacobs, Editor in Chief of TIME said the list was overseen by Ayesha Javed, working alongside editors and correspondents around the world.
“We winnowed an initial pool down to 100 individuals representing the most compelling stories in philanthropy today, in a field that moves more than $1 trillion globally each year,” Jacobs said.
“By telling stories about the world’s most influential givers, leaders, advocates, and thinkers, we hope to inspire others to give, and to consider the profound impact that this field has on our future,” he added.
The Elumelu –who in 2015 pledged $100 million to young African entrepreneurs and have provided mentorship and a seed grant of $5,000 each to more than 27,000 entrepreneurs– is sharing the spotlight with British actor, Idris Elba and his wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba.
The actor and philanthropist, on December 29, 2025, was named in King Charles’ New Year Honours list, joining 1,156 others recognized that day.
Also on the honourees’ list are tycoon Michael and Susan Dell, who recently undertook one of the largest charitable commitments ever made by Americans to their fellow citizens.
The couple is entrusting $6.25 billion to 25 million American children.
These couples joined other 97 most influential people shaping the future of giving at a pivotal moment.
For the Elumelu, their profile, titled “Seeding African entrepreneurship” was written by Harry Booth, a reporter at TIME and has been reproduced below:
Pledging $100 million to African entrepreneurs that would benefit a cohort of 1,000 recipients each year for a decade, struck Tony Elumelu and Awele Vivien Elumelu as a bold commitment in 2015. By the third year, hundreds of thousands of people were applying. “We set out to democratize luck,” says Tony Elumelu, the Nigerian economist and banker. The overwhelming demand, he adds, meant they were now in the business of “dashing hopes.”
Going well beyond its initial promise, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has provided mentorship and a seed grant of $5,000 each to more than 27,000 entrepreneurs. The foundation’s 12th cohort is more than triple the size of its initial group of 1,000. More than half are women, up from roughly a fifth in the early years.
Applications still far exceed the number of openings, so the foundation has turned training materials into free online programs that have reached over 2.5 million people. Alumni have started ventures in everything from agriculture to video games, cumulatively generating $4.2 billion in revenue, according to the foundation’s count.
The program has grown with the help of partnerships with the U.N. Development Programme, the European Commission, as well as French and German development agencies, and corporate philanthropies like Google.org and the Ikea Foundation.
Tony, who has long criticized Africa’s dependence on foreign aid, sees such partnerships as a more sustainable approach to growth. “We should not intervene in Africa in a manner that makes us perpetually dependent on it,” he says, but instead “in a manner that prepares us to take care and look after ourselves with dignity.”
Meanwhile, philanthropy isn’t a fad for 63 year-old Elumelu.
The founder and chairman of Heirs Holdings, an investment conglomerate with interests in power, oil and gas, real estate, agribusiness, and financial services sectors, has been one of Nigeria’s top philanthropist for more than a decades, giving away over $100 million.
Elumelu, who was once listed as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2020, has been a game changer and builder of the grassroots.
He is a leading proponent of ‘Africapitalism’, a belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development through long-term investments, as well as entrepreneurship and regional connectivity.
This latest TIME prestigious recognition reflects his transformative impact of entrepreneurship-led development across Africa and the growing global relevance of Africapitalism —the belief that Africa’s private sector, especially its young entrepreneurs, must lead the continent’s economic and social transformation.
Since 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has:
✔ Empowered over 2.5 million young Africans though access to training on @TefConnect
✔ Disbursed over US$100 million in seed capital to 27,000+ entrepreneurs
✔ Helped create 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs
✔ Lifted 2.1 million Africans above the poverty line
✔ Positively impacted over 4 million households across the continent.
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