Top 133 Quotes & Sayings by Mo Ibrahim

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim.

Last updated on December 23, 2024.

Mohammed "Mo" Ibrahim is a Sudanese-British billionaire businessman. He worked for several 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 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, to evaluate nations' performance. He is also a member of the Africa regional advisory board of London Business School.

Sudanese - Businessman | Born: May 3, 1946

Source: Wikipedia

Experience shows that when political governance and economic management diverge, overall development becomes unsustainable.

Mo Ibrahim

It was a no-brainer that the cellular route would be a great success in Africa.

Mo Ibrahim

Far from being hopeless, Africa is full of hope and potential, maybe more so than any other continent. The challenge is to ensure that its potential is utilised.

Mo Ibrahim

Sudan cannot afford to be on the wrong side of history. The north and south will have to work together, but will they?

Mo Ibrahim

I came to the conclusion that unless you are ruled properly, you cannot move forward. Everything else is second. Everything.

Mo Ibrahim

I think we need to look at ourselves first. We should practice what we're preaching. Otherwise, we are hypocrites.

Mo Ibrahim

The fight against Ebola cannot undermine the fight against poverty.

Mo Ibrahim

Botswana had three successive good presidents who served their legal terms, who did well for their countries - three, not one.

Mo Ibrahim

I never set out really to build a financial empire or to be a wealthy man.

Mo Ibrahim

African leaders work really under severe limitations and constraints.

Mo Ibrahim

The problem is that many times people suspend their common sense because they get drowned in business models and Harvard business school teachings.

Mo Ibrahim

You get over your first love by falling in love with something new.

Mo Ibrahim

In the final analysis, finding a way to do clean business and not to pay bribes actually improves your bottom line.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa's success stories are delivering the whole range of the public goods and services that citizens have a right to expect and are forging a path that we hope more will follow.

Mo Ibrahim

The way forward for Africa is investment.

Mo Ibrahim

Remember, 2000 was the year of the dot-com bust. The telecom industry lost about $2 trillion in market capital at that time.

Mo Ibrahim

Of course, Nelson Mandela, everybody knows Nelson Mandela. I mean, he's a great gift not only for Africa but for the whole world, actually. But do not expect everybody to be a Nelson Mandela.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa has 53 countries. And you find that three or four countries in these 53 are dominating the news.

Mo Ibrahim

Modern slavery is a hidden crime and notoriously difficult to measure.

Mo Ibrahim

Increasing extremism - across Africa and the world - must be understood in the context of the failure of our leaders properly to manage diversity within their borders.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa should not again face isolation or stigmatisation based on ignorance and unrepresentative imagery.

Mo Ibrahim

The issue with international institutions is that there is a crisis of legitimacy. Trust in these institutions is a serious problem.

Mo Ibrahim

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.

Mo Ibrahim

We measure everything - why not governance?

Mo Ibrahim

I think the Cold War was worse for Africa than colonialism.

Mo Ibrahim

Intimidation, harassment and violence have no place in a democracy.

Mo Ibrahim

Almost every country in Africa has now instituted multi-party democracy.

Mo Ibrahim

I left Sudan when I was 25 or 26 years old. If I had stayed, I would never have ended up being an entrepreneur. You can have the qualities, but if you don't have the environment, you just wither away. It's like a fish: take it out of water, it will not survive.

Mo Ibrahim

Educational opportunities have supported the rise of the African middle class, the professional cadre of young people who are now willing and able to contribute to Africa's future prosperity.

Mo Ibrahim

There is a crisis of leadership and governance in Africa, and we must face it.

Mo Ibrahim

Roads are not practical in Africa.

Mo Ibrahim

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.

Mo Ibrahim

Cape Verde produces good people.

Mo Ibrahim

Sudan has been an experiment that resonated across Africa: if we, the largest country on the continent, reaching from the Sahara to the Congo, bridging religions, cultures and a multitude of ethnicities, were able to construct a prosperous and peaceful state from our diverse citizenry, so too could the rest of Africa.

Mo Ibrahim

From my father, I learnt kindness and how to talk straight.

Mo Ibrahim

Every man, woman and child knows about Mugabe, but people say, 'Mogae, who is that?'

Mo Ibrahim

I don't even have a small boat. I don't even have a toy boat in my bathtub. I don't have a biplane, I don't have anything. Those things are toys, and I don't need them to be happy.

Mo Ibrahim

When you ask people what they think of Africa, they think of AIDS, genocide, disasters, famine.

Mo Ibrahim

The African Development Bank is one of the most aggressive advocates of regional integration.

Mo Ibrahim

I really don't have heroes in business; I never looked up at business people.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa is underpopulated. We have 20% of the world's landmass and 13% of its population.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa offers the highest return on investment in the world.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa is rich, and why are we poor then if our continent is rich. It is not right.

Mo Ibrahim

Rule of law is the most important element in any civil society.

Mo Ibrahim

I don't subscribe to the narrative that Africa is backward because of colonialism.

Mo Ibrahim

More people smile at me now I'm richer.

Mo Ibrahim

If Sudan starts to crumble, the shock waves will spread.

Mo Ibrahim

Africa was perceived - it still is to some extent - as a place which is very difficult to do business in. I don't share that view.

Mo Ibrahim

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.

Mo Ibrahim

Tony Blair is paid $500,000 for one speech, and no one asks how he is going to spend it.

Mo Ibrahim

The leakage of information means you're going to be able to read everybody's e-mail.

Mo Ibrahim

Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen.

Mo Ibrahim

A narrative that branded Africa as little more than an economic, political and social basket case was not likely to provide the investment needed to drive development.

Mo Ibrahim

People never confess to failure. They should.

Mo Ibrahim

We need to keep pressure on our own governments to force more and more transparency.

Mo Ibrahim

I am not a politician. I am not in politics. I'm just a citizen.

Mo Ibrahim

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.

Mo Ibrahim

If economic progress is not translated into better quality of life and respect for citizens' rights, we will witness more Tahrir Squares in Africa.

Mo Ibrahim

I ended up being a businessman unwittingly. I wanted to be an academic; I wanted to be like Einstein.

Mo Ibrahim

Young people are better educated. They grew up in a society which is well connected, well informed. They are able to communicate to one another, to know what is happening.

Mo Ibrahim

Top 133 Quotes & Sayings by Mo Ibrahim

Related Authors