Mo Ibrahim

Mo Ibrahimis a Sudanese-born British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded one of the largest mobile phone companies operating in Africa and who created the multimillion-dollar Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

Ibrahim grew up in Sudan, the son of a clerk. He moved with his family to Egypt, where he received an engineering degree from Alexandria University. After graduation he returned to Sudan to work as an engineer for the state-run phone company, Sudan Telecom. In 1974 he traveled to England, where he earned a master’s degree in electronics and electrical engineering at the University of Bradford and a Ph.D. in mobile communications from the University of Birmingham, where he also taught. He left academia in 1983 to become the technical director of Cellnet (later O2), which handled wireless operations for British telecommunications giant BT. In 1989 Ibrahim resigned in order to found Mobile Systems International, a firm that designed mobile networks. He would later sell the company, in 2000, to telecommunications company Marconi for more than $900 million.

While still working for Mobile Systems, Ibrahim decided to address the lack of a pan-African mobile telephone network by creating, in 1998, MSI Cellular Investments, which was later renamed Celtel International. He created a business plan that was built around the idea that no bribes would be given or accepted by him and his cofounders, in stark contrast to standard dealings among many African companies. Celtel expanded quickly to become one of the largest companies providing mobile communications services in Africa, offering coverage to more than a dozen countries and hundreds of millions of people. In 2005 Ibrahim sold Celtel to MTC Kuwait for $3.4 billion but continued to serve as chairman of the company until 2007, when he retired from its board.

Ibrahim subsequently focused his attention on investing and philanthropic efforts, in particular the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he created in 2006 in an effort to foster improved governance of African countries. The foundation promoted increased accountability via the Ibrahim Index, a rating system for governing bodies, and from 2007 it awarded the Ibrahim Prize to African leaders meeting standards established by the foundation’s board. Ibrahim acknowledged that these standards were such that the prize, intended as an annual one, might not be granted in some years. (In fact, after being awarded in 2008, the prize was not bestowed again until 2011.) At its founding, the Ibrahim Prize was worth $5 million, paid over a decade, plus an additional life stipend, which made it the largest individual prize in the world.