By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Tony Elumelu, chairman of the United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) and the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation will on Tuesday speak on African energy issues at the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Global Advisory board ?meeting in New York.

“The event will be co-chaired by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim,” a statement from Heirs Holdings said. 

According to the statement, Elumelu is on the advisory board of SE4ALL along with global leaders such as John Kerry, US Secretary of State and the directors general of the UNDP and UNIDO. 

This initiative brings together leaders from all sectors of the society to collaborate to help increase energy access and build a more prosperous and safer world.

 “I have a strong interest in ensuring that Africa has reliable access to power for all citizens, I look forward to sharing my thoughts on sustainable energy with global leaders at the SE4ALL meeting,” , he affirmed.

In the same vein, Elumelu will be in Paris, France at the invitation of Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister on May 20 to take part in a global business dialogue focused on influencing the agenda for the 2015 Conference of the Parties (COP 21), the leading annual negotiating summit on climate issues.

With this invitation, he becomes the only business leader invited from West Africa, along with an exclusive group of 40 Global Business leaders, including Jack Ma, the executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla.

Elumelu affirmed that it’s important for Africa’s private sector to be represented at high level discussions on energy and climate change. “There’s still a lot to be done to increase Africans’ access to energy ?while simultaneously mitigating the risks of climate change.  It is a delicate balance but one we are working hard to address on the global stage,” he added.

To round up the week, on May 22, Elumelu will deliver the closing keynote address on the topic “Africapitaliam as a Catalyst for the Development of Africa” at Oxford University courtesy of the Oxford Africa Society.  The opening keynote of this year’s Africa conference will be delivered by John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana.?