Mo Ibrahim

Mo Ibrahim (actually Mohammed Ibrahim; * 1946) is a British- Sudanese mobile phone entrepreneur who is committed to good governance in Africa.

Life

Mo Ibrahim was born in 1946 the son of a Nubian cotton merchant and grew up in Egypt. He studied in Alexandria and was during this time ardent Marxist. After graduation, he worked for the Sudanese telephone company until he was given the opportunity to go for further education to Britain. There he completed his doctorate in 1981 from then he was with British Telecom worked as technical director for the then new field of mobile telephony.

1989 Mo Ibrahim started his own business with the software and consulting company MSI, which he sold in 2000 for 618 million U.S. dollars to the Italian Marconi. In 1998, he founded the company Celtel, which offers mobile telephony in Africa. Five years later, Ibrahim sold Celtel, which operates in 13 countries and the African mobile service provider with the highest growth rates, meanwhile, was - for $ 3.4 billion to a Kuwaiti company.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Prize for Achievement in African Leadership

His own entrepreneurial experience in Africa prompted Mo Ibrahim to ask: what the obstacles to the economic development of Africa lie. He came to the conclusion that especially poor governance is hindering the development, and founded in 2006, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which aims to promote good governance ( good governance ). The Foundation will award a prize for its former heads of state in Africa and created a ranking of countries. The latter was first published in mid-2007 and calls Mauritius, the Seychelles and Botswana as countries with the best governance, Somalia,. Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad as those with the worst and Rwanda as a country with the biggest advances in the last few years

Award winners

  • 2011 was the former president of Cape Verde, Pedro Pires, the award
  • 2010: no award the prize ( given Mo Ibrahim: " The standards that will be provided to the winner, are high and the number of potential candidates slight Therefore, it is predictable that there are years in which the price is not awarded.. " )
  • 2009, the prize was not awarded since the award committee could not find a suitable prize winners.
  • 2008 won Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana, the prize for successful government work and the fight against AIDS in Botswana.
  • 2007: The first winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership in Archievement politician was in October Joaquim Chissano, the former President of Mozambique. The price is the material most valuable prize in the world: One payment of $ 5 million for the first ten years of follow live long, 200,000 dollars. Chissano ended the long civil war in Mozambique and entered voluntarily resigned his presidency, although he for a further period would have under the Constitution may run for office.

Swell

  • Tages-Anzeiger, September 10, 2007, p 25: An entrepreneur wants to heal Africa
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