Ours was rather a fortuitous meeting. I was at the Heathrow Airport in the early hours of Tuesday, April 26th, waiting to catch a flight to San Francisco, when I saw him briskly walking towards my direction. I quickly seized the moment to introduce myself to Dr. Mo Ibrahim, one of Africa’s champions of sustainable governance.
Dr Mohamed "Mo" Ibrahim is 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 London Business School.
In 2007 he initiated the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, which awards a $5 million initial payment, and a $200,000 annual payment for life to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents and democratically transfer power to their successors. Dr Ibrahim has pledged to give at least half of his wealth to charity by joining The Giving Pledge.
Our brief discussion centered on the progress that the continent is making towards democracy and good governance. The examples in Nigeria and Tanzania readily came to mind. The challenge posed by the current collapse in commodity prices portends the opportunity for a largely resource dependent continent to diversify her economies through inclusive growth mechanisms.
We noted that a healthy entrepreneurial culture anchored by technology is a panacea to the high unemployment and poverty on the continent. With a vibrant youth population, there is a need to ensure inclusive growth to stem the trend away from antisocial behavior arising mostly from the desperation of joblessness. The devastation caused by terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are an indication of where the pendulum could swing if we do not take swift action.
We renewed our commitment to use our respective organizations to continue to contribute towards attaining a sustainable ‘Africa Rising’ narrative.
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