Mo Ibrahim
Mo Ibrahim
Dr Mohamed "Mo" Ibrahimis a Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire. He worked for several other telecommunications companies before founding Celtel, which when sold had over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries. After selling Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion, he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage better governance in Africa, as well as creating the Mo Ibrahim Index, to evaluate nations' performance. He is also a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of...
NationalitySudanese
ProfessionBusinessman
CountrySudan
Mexico established a unique three-part governing system shared by the government, the information commission and civil society organisations.
Women do kids. Women do cooking. Women doing everything. And yet, their position in society is totally unacceptable.
Mobile phones play a really wonderful role in enabling civil society. As well as empowering people economically and socially, they are a wonderful political tool.
Mobile phones could not work in Africa without prepaid because it's a cash society.
Rule of law is the most important element in any civil society.
Young people are better educated. They grew up in a society which is well connected, well informed. They are able to communicate to one another, to know what is happening.
Remember, 2000 was the year of the dot-com bust. The telecom industry lost about $2 trillion in market capital at that time.
Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?
Many African people are smarter than me - kids who could have been better. I have no claim for genius.
Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa.
Look at the international bodies that came out of U.N. - international, publicly funded bodies that neither you or I know their names, because they are completely outdated and still publicly funded because there are no sunset clauses.
After the sale of Celtel, I really wanted to give the money back, and I had a number of choices - to go and buy masses of blankets and baby milk or to go into Darfur or Congo. That would have been very nice actually, but it's just like an aspirin: it doesn't deal with the problem.
Modern slavery is a hidden crime and notoriously difficult to measure.
I don't even have a small boat. I don't even have a toy boat in my bathtub. I don't have a biplane, I don't have anything. Those things are toys, and I don't need them to be happy.