Tony Elumelu
By Our Reporter
Tony Elumelu, CFR, the Nigerian Billionaire investor, financier and philanthropist, who has spent decades preaching “Africapitalism,” is finding it increasingly difficult to downplay his personal balance sheet.
His net worth has climbed to $3.2 billion, after surging last year, according to an analysis by MoneyCentral, fueled by a breakout performance at Heirs Energies. The integrated energy company has emerged as the “crown jewel” of Elumelu’s sprawling portfolio, following a series of strategic acquisitions that have repositioned him at the center of Africa’s power and oil sectors.
While Elumelu, 62, easy going body language, suggests that his billionaire status is merely incidental to his mission of infrastructure building and job creation, the raw data tells a more aggressive story of net wealth growth. His Tony Elumelu Foundation remains his primary vehicle for soft power, but it is his high-stakes deal-making and execution in the energy space that is currently driving the soaring valuation of his holding company, Heirs Holdings.
For the Nigerian markets, the surge in Elumelu’s net worth serves as a barometer for the country’s industrial recovery.
Despite his focus on the next generation of entrepreneurs (by empowering 10,000 Africa entrepreneurs over 10 years with up to $5,000 seed funding each), the recent billion-dollar scale of his operations has made the “modest” chairman impossible for the African private equity and institutional investment community to ignore.
Source of Wealth
Heirs Energies: Gross Asset Value $3.52 billion. Less Net Corporate Debt (~$770m.). Estimated Equity Value: $2.75 billion. (A breakdown of the Heirs Energies equity valuation is given below)
United Bank for Africa (UBA): Equity Value of Elumelu’s 16.3% Stake in NGX listed UBA: $192 million.
Transcorp Group
Equity Value of Elumelu’s 35.93% Stake in NGX listed Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp Group): $114 million.
Real Estate
Mr. Elumelu owns “extensive” Nigerian property (Forbes, 2024). There are no specifics, so we assign a $75 million conservative estimate for a billionaire’s portfolio.
Cash & Investments: Mr. Elumelu has got liquid assets especially with major dividends coming from all his investments. For Instance if UBA maintains its N5 per share total dividend paid for the 2024 FY, Mr. Elumelu would earn approximately N33.4 billion ($23 million) in dividends from UBA alone for Full Year (FY) 2025. Dividends from Heirs Seplat stake (Seplat paid 16.5 cents a share in 2024) could bring in an additional $20 million in FY 2025.
We estimate cash holdings at a conservative $50 million.
Heirs Insurance Group (Heirs Insurance, Heirs Life Assurance): The fast growing Heirs Insurance Group combined earned Insurance Revenue rose to ₦31.4 billion in 2024, from ₦20.5 billion in the previous year, indicating a 53% increase.
The firm could garner a valuation of 1.94 times sales comparable to AXA Mansard Insurance.
This would value it at N61 billion or $42 million.
Elumelu’s Total Estimated Net Worth: $3.22 billion.
The Rise of Heirs Energies
The most recent driver of Mr. Elumelu’s $3.2 billion net worth valuation is the $500 million acquisition of a 20% stake in Seplat Energy Plc, announced on December 31, 2025. Seplat Energy stock trading in London rose by 10.72% on the news.
This deal makes Heirs Energies the largest shareholder in one of Nigeria’s most prominent independent oil and gas producers.
With this singular deal, Heirs Energies has completed its transition from an ambitious upstart to a dominant “indigenous major.”
Based on the company’s recent Seplat Energy acquisition and the doubling of production at its flagship OML 17 asset, a Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) valuation places the company’s enterprise value at approximately $3.4 billion.
This represents a significant leap from its 2021 entry valuation of about $1.1 billion, driven by operational excellence and aggressive M&A in the final quarter of 2025.
Heirs Energies Growth Drivers in 2025
MoneyCentral estimates that Heirs Energies has seen its value grow by an estimated 35% in 2025 alone. This growth was realized through three primary channels:
The Seplat Acquisition ($500M): This “end-of-year” surprise transformed the company’s balance sheet. By becoming the largest shareholder in Seplat, Heirs Energies now has a claim on Seplat’s massive ANOH Gas processing revenue and its stable dividend stream.
Operational Turnaround (OML 17): Production at OML 17 averaged 50,000 barrels per day in late 2025, up from 25,000 bopd at the time of acquisition. Daily gas production has also increased to 150 million standard cubic feet (scf). This “brownfield excellence” has significantly improved the Net Present Value (NPV) of the asset.
Capital Optimization: The $750 million Afreximbank facility secured in December 2025 provided the liquidity needed to fund the Seplat deal and refinance older, more expensive debt, lowering the company’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
As of December 31, 2025, MoneyCentral’s valuation of OML 17’s 2P (Proven + Probable) reserves has undergone a significant re-rating. While the asset was acquired in 2021 with an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), Heirs Energies’ “Brownfield Excellence” strategy has successfully matured contingent resources into the 2P category.
The current 2025 reserve base now exceeds 1.5 billion barrels of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas, making it one of the largest and most valuable onshore blocks in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The valuation is calculated based on a Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) approach, applying an Enterprise Value per 2P barrel (EV/2P) multiple that reflects the low-cost nature of the asset (Unit Operating Cost at less than $15/bbl).
Fig 1: Heirs Energies 2025 Asset Valuation Breakdown
Elumelu’s Net Worth
Source: MoneyCentral Research
Note on Valuation Logic: The 45% net interest reflects Heirs Energies’ stake alongside the NNPC (55%). The $4.20/bbl multiple for oil is considered “premium” for Nigerian onshore assets due to Heirs Energies’ success in securing flowlines and achieving an industry-leading Unit Operating Cost (UOC) of $14.80/bbl.
Why the Heirs Energies Valuation Grew in 2025
The growth in OML 17’s valuation this year is not just about the volume of oil in the ground, but the velocity at which it is being extracted and the security of the infrastructure.
Reserve Maturation: Through “rigless through-tubing” interventions on over 40 dormant wells in 2025, Heirs Energies moved approximately 200 million boe from “contingent resources” (2C) into “probable reserves” (2P).
The Gas-to-Power Premium: The doubling of gas output to 135 MMscf/d in late 2025 has turned the 2.5 Tcf gas reserve into a high-yield annuity. Heirs now supplies feedstock to five power plants, supporting over 400MW of electricity in Nigeria.
The “Brownfield” Discount Narrowing: In 2021, the market discounted OML 17 due to underinvestment by previous owners “execution risk” has been removed, raising the asset’s valuation multiple.
The “Africapitalism” Premium
By integrating energy (Heirs Energies), power and Hospitality (Transcorp), and finance (UBA), Elumelu has created a self-sustaining ecosystem built on Africapitalism.
Investors now view his portfolio not as a collection of stocks or assets, but as a critical infrastructure play on Nigeria’s economy, leading to a “conglomerate premium” that has led to easier access to finance and pushed his net worth past the $3 billion mark.
It is often said that a Goldfish has nowhere to hide, while in the holy book (Bible) it says: “people do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”
That bright shining light that cannot be hidden in Africa today, is Nigeria’s Billionaire tycoon, Tony Elumelu, CFR.
