At the forefront of Africa’s energy landscape, Samuel Nwanze, Executive Director and CFO of Heirs Energies, merges rigorous financial acumen with a forward-looking strategic vision. He is instrumental in steering the continent’s largest indigenous-owned energy company toward sustained growth and market leadership in upstream oil, gas, and power.
His leadership has been instrumental in landmark deals, such as the acquisition of a 45% operating interest in OML 17 in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, where he orchestrated financing strategies that turned undervalued assets into high-performing engines of production—doubling output to 50,000 barrels per day in record time.
More than a numbers guardian, Nwanze embodies the dual essence of CFO and Chief Investment Officer at Heirs Holdings, the proprietary investment powerhouse fueling Africa’s key growth engines.
Nwanze’s illustrious career weaves a tapestry of reinvention across finance, banking, and beyond, marked by over 25 years of high-stakes execution. At Heirs Holdings, he spearheaded the origination, structuring, and management of public and private equity investments, overseeing group-wide finance and strategy to ignite sectors from oil and gas to power and agriculture.
Earlier, as Group Treasurer at Bank PHB, he commanded treasury operations across five African subsidiaries, while his tenure as Head of Corporate Execution forged pan-African deals and birthed investment banking arms.
From managing post-merger integrations at Platinum Bank to driving financial performance and advisory at Standard Trust Bank and United Bank for Africa, Nwanze honed a relentless focus on controls, revenue optimization, and cross-functional synergy. His foundational roles, including as a management trainee at First City Monument Bank and consultant at Phillips Consulting, laid the groundwork for pioneering operating models in multi-billion-dollar enterprises.
A boardroom titan since his early career, Nwanze has shaped governance across diverse landscapes. As a pioneer Executive Director at Heirs Energies, he influences all board committees, while at Heirs Technologies, he guides finance and general-purpose strategies as a Non-Executive Director.
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His imprint graces United Capital PLC, Nigeria’s premier investment banking group, where he bolsters risk and investment oversight; Redtech Ltd, an African payments innovator; and Transcorp Power PLC, a NGX-listed powerhouse, where he chaired the Technical Committee. Deeper still, he chaired Finance, Investment & Risk at Africa Prudential PLC and Avon Healthcare, chaired Governance at East Africa Exchange, and became the first African on the Global Impact Investing Network’s board—championing impact investing’s global scale. Roles at NASD PLC, Seadrill Nigeria, Africa Exchange Holdings, and Mtanga Farms underscore his versatility, from ultra-deepwater drilling to commodity exchanges and agribusiness.
Nwanze’s accolade underscores his role in redefining sustainable finance amid energy transitions. Under the Africapitalism ethos of Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, he fuses automation, intelligent productivity, and ethical capital allocation to empower resilient ecosystems. In Nwanze, Africa’s corporate vanguard finds not just a leader, but a blueprint for enduring value—one that transforms challenges into legacies of trust, innovation, and inclusive prosperity.
TheCFO Magazine’s CFO of the Week recognizes exceptional Chief Financial Officers across the globe, celebrating their outstanding leadership, impactful achievements, innovative solutions, extensive industry expertise, and invaluable contributions to their organizations.
