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
Remember, 2000 was the year of the dot-com bust. The telecom industry lost about $2 trillion in market capital at that time.
Celtel established a mobile phone network in Africa at a time when investors told me that there was no market for mobile phones there.
Mobile communications had been around for a long time, but always as a limited market, constrained by the radio spectrum.
Now is the time for Afro-realism: for sound policies based on honest data, aimed at delivering results.
It's time Africa started listening to our young people instead of always telling them what to do.
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.
Mexico established a unique three-part governing system shared by the government, the information commission and civil society organisations.
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out of U.N. - international, publicly funded bodies that neither you or I know their names, because they are completely outdated and still publicly funded because there are no sunset clauses.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.
Transfer pricing is causing huge problems in Africa.