Voted In 2018 As World's 11th Most Charitable Fellow... Tony Elumelu Honoured With Belgium's Order of Leopold

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” Calvin Coolidge

Exclusive by Mike Cerutti Osagie

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History was made again on the  night of Sunday 15th November 2020,  when the Kingdom of Belgium conferred on Africa's global Philanthropist and serial investor   Dr Tony Elumelu with the honorary distinction of Officer in the Order of Leopold, the country’s oldest and most important National Honour.

According to research findings by World industry leaders international online magazine, The Order of Leopold (Dutch: Leopoldsorde, French: Ordre de Léopold, German: Leopoldsorden) is one of the three current Belgian national honorary orders of knighthood.

 It is the oldest and highest order of Belgium and is named in honour of its founder; King Leopold I. It consists of a military, a maritime and a civil division. The maritime division is only awarded to personnel of the merchant navy, and the military division to military personnel. The decoration was established on 11 July 1832 and is awarded by Royal order.

This award is eligible to Belgian and foreign citizens whom are recognized  for

meritorious service to the Belgian state or society in general

And speaking on the new honour bestowed on him ,Dr Elumelu stated 

 

" I  am most humbled by this recognition of the work The Tony Elumelu Foundation in catalysing entrepreneurs across Africa and will continue to drive the economic empowerment of our brilliant young #Africanentrepreneurs to propel development in Africa.

 

" And I want to specially Thank the  Belgische Monarchie Monarchie belge Belgian Monarchy  Embassy of Belgium in Nigeria  and as Belgium reflects on and resets her relationship with Africa, we look forward to further partnership"

• Elumelu : A brief Philanthropic Profile 

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Elumelu  is one of Africa's greatest Philanthropist alive who  has made several donations to charity both at home and abroad, little wonder, in 2018 ,he was named as the  11th Most Charitable Person in the World.

 The list, which included other notable global figures, was collated by Richtopia, a UK digital magazine, covering business, economic and financial news.

Other notable figures who made the list included Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, J. K Rowling Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk.

Aside his investments in the key sectors of the African economy including power, financial services, hospitality, oil & gas and healthcare, Tony Elumelu’s eponymous Foundation has been recognised as the leading philanthropy championing entrepreneurship in Africa. In 2015, Elumelu announced a USD100million commitment to identify, train and mentor 10,000 African entrepreneurs with the goal of creating millions of jobs and contributing millions more in revenue to the African economy.

 Now in its  Sixth year, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has empowered over 6.000 African entrepreneurs with seed capital of $5,000 each, mentorship and world-class training.

 Most recently, the Foundation launched TEFConnect, a digital home to further scale its impact on the African economy and empower additional African entrepreneurs who have not been selected for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.

During the 2014 Ebola crisis, Tony Elumelu led global charitable efforts, donating US$100,000 from the Tony Elumelu Foundation to the three affected West African countries to combat the spread of the deadly Ebola virus disease.

In reaction to the devastating mudslide that killed hundreds of people in Sierra Leone, Tony Elumelu donated $500,000 to victims of the mudslide crisis in August 2017.

In 2018, he donated N500million to empower entrepreneurs in his home state, Delta State for further wealth creation, a move which was commended by the State’s Governor, HE Ifeanyi Okowa.

Elumelu’s philanthropy is in line with his philosophy, Africapitalism, which pushes for the private sector to play a key role in the economic development of Africa. Elumelu believes that the private sector holds the key to Africa’s transformation and has committed his wealth and personal time to change the narrative of the African continent through his business investment principles, philanthropy and active advocacy.

© Osagie,the word smith of this special tribute is a young author, abundance mentality speaker & humanitarian who was awarded Africa's best humanitarian writer in 2019

He can be contacted   via: chiefcerrutti@gmail.com or SMS +234 7042631895

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