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
Mo Ibrahim quotes about
Literacy in Tunisia is almost 100%. It's amazing - no country in the region or even in Asia can match Tunisia in education.
Many Africans are used to a life where they get up in the morning and don't know what they're going to do that day.
Many African people are smarter than me - kids who could have been better. I have no claim for genius.
We need to keep pressure on our own governments to force more and more transparency.
From my father, I learnt kindness and how to talk straight.
I ended up being a businessman unwittingly. I wanted to be an academic; I wanted to be like Einstein.
Celtel established a mobile phone network in Africa at a time when investors told me that there was no market for mobile phones there.
Business people get many undeserved prizes - golden parachutes and bonuses even when companies fail. I don't think people should get rewarded for screwing up.
Business is global. Countries need to react to that; taxes need to be paid where profit arises.
If we cannot accurately measure poverty, we surely cannot accurately measure our efforts to tackle it.
Positive market incentives operating in the public interest are too few and far between, and are also up against a seemingly never-ending expansion of perverse incentives and lobbying.
Nobody messes with China, nobody messes with the United States, or with Europe, because these are really big entities with a lot of clout and a lot of economic power. They have a place at the table.
Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.
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.