Checking today’s content update of Civil Society  on the Development Gateway, I came across the announcement of an intriguing title :

“Mo Ibrahim helped to bring mobile phones to Africa. Now he has bigger plans”

dgAlert’s reference pointed to a publication in The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9218181

Read at :

dgAlert Civil Society

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/civilsociety/rc/ItemDetail.do?itemId=1103040

“Mo Ibrahim helped to bring mobile phones to Africa. Now he has bigger plans”

Mo Ibrahim set up a foundation last year with the mission of promoting good governance in Africa; the foundation to award an annual prize of $5m to retired African leaders who have ruled well and then stood down, rather than trying to cling to power. He has also put up $150m to establish a fund to invest in African businesses. Mr Ibrahim, a veteran of the telecoms industry in Britain and Sudan, was in 1998 running a consultancy he had founded in London. He recognized the market potential in Africa and founded Celtel, which is now one of Africa’s largest mobile operators, with some 20m subscribers in 15 countries. Mr Ibrahim sold Celtel in 2005 to MTC, a Kuwaiti operator, for $3.4 billion. He was born in Sudan and raised and educated in Egypt. At one point in his career, after study in Britain he became technical director at Cellnet, the wireless arm of BT. The Economist, May 24th 2007. (Subscription required.)

After reading the full text at:

http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9218181

I selected the following paragraph :

“Now that mobile telephony is booming in Africa, Mr Ibrahim has other plans. Not for him the typical rush into private equity. Instead he set up a foundation last year with the novel (and, say critics, utopian) mission of promoting good governance in Africa. It plans to award an annual prize of $5m to retired African leaders who rule well and then stand down, rather than trying to cling to power. The foundation is working with Harvard University to establish a scoring system with which to assess potential candidates. The prize committee is chaired by Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations. The first award will be presented in October, though the prize will be presented only in years when a worthy winner can be found. By that point Mr Ibrahim plans to have stepped down as the chairman of Celtel to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

It is nice to learn that mobile telephony is booming in Africa !  This must be a very comforting news for all those hungry rural people and kids in the drylands of Africa, looking for a better future, for daily quality food and safe drinking water.  I am also extremely interested in a foundation that “plans to award an annual prize of $5m to retired African leaders who rule well and then stand down, rather than trying to cling to power.”  This made me calculating how many family gardens and schoolgardens one could construct with such an amount of money, thus bringing sustainable food security and improving quality of life within a period of 3 months to the poor rural people in Africa.  Maybe the mobile phones would follow their human progress ?

I also noticed that :

“Meanwhile Mr Ibrahim has also put up $150m to establish a fund to invest in African businesses. From its newly opened offices in London, the Africa Enterprise Fund will seek out promising companies in financial services, consumer goods, energy and agricultural processing. The aim is to focus on established businesses that need cash and experienced management to grow, and the average investment is expected to be around $20m. Only companies that can expand their operations regionally or throughout Africa will be considered.“

What could an African established business, needing cash and experienced management to grow, do with an average investment of $20m, if this heap of money could possibly be invested in sustainable rural development.  How ? Well, for instance by offering micro-credits to poor farmers, wanting to construct  a small, rather cheap family garden, or to school boards, wanting to produce fresh food with vitamins and mineral elements for the children in a school garden.

It is true there would maybe a bit less cellphones sold in Africa, but there would be less hungry people too.

Is there any choice when promoting good governance in Africa or when establishing a fund of $150m to invest in African businesses? Probably not. Otherwise we would come up with some very constructive suggestions to help Africa on the road to the MDGs.

Willem