Africa: Can Shs9 Billion Turn Corrupt African Leaders Into Saints?
Mr Mo Ibrahim, the founder of Celtel, has done something bold – he has established a $5m (Shs 9bn) prize for African leaders who govern wisely.
The winning presidents will get the Shs9 billion over 10 years when they leave office, plus $200,000 (Shs 370m) a year for life. The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership would be the world’s richest prize – exceeding the $1.3 million awarded by the Nobel Peace Prize.
The catch is that it will be available only to a president who democratically transfers power to his or her successor, and doesn’t cling to office. In an interview with the Financial Times, Ibrahim, said leaders had no life after office.
“Suddenly all the mansions, cars, food, wine is withdrawn. Some find it difficult to rent a house in the capital. That incites corruption; it incites people to cling to power. “The prize will offer essentially good people, who may be wavering, the chance to opt for the good life after office,” said Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, a son-of-the-soil from Sudan, made $3.4bn when he sold Celtel to MTC in Kuwait last year – probably the most money an African has made from an honest trade. And he’s the only African I know of who has given such an amount of his personal fortune to a public service cause.
As observers have noted in reality Mo is bribing African leaders to govern well, and not to turn themselves into presidents for life.
Significantly, Harvard University will assess how well the president has served his or her people while in office. Only an African could figure out all this. First, that while there are African leaders who come to power with high ideals, almost all those that cling to power do so because of their stomachs – i.e. money, and the trappings of power it brings.
Secondly, that there are few African universities that you can trust to judge the conduct of a president objectively. If the university chiefs are relatives of the president and ruling party supporters, they will give him high marks although he has done a stinking job. If they are from a rival party and a community other than the president’s, even though he performs brilliantly, they might deny him deserved marks.
For all these, however, Mo’s knowledge of the African political market – especially its price levels – is clearly rusty.
For the Mo Prize to be the “incentive” that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says it is, it needs to be bigger than what African leaders steal from the taxpayers.
There are a few more honest leaders on the continent today, than there were 15 years ago. However, those who step down from power voluntarily or when they have served out their statutory two terms, already have the incentive to do well. For example, Nelson Mandela and Tanzania’s Ben Mkapa would have left when they did, with or without the Mo Prize.
Every corrupt African leader who has been in power for over 15 years and his henchmen and relatives, are stealing more than $5m a month. In the oil and mineral-rich countries, the presidential coterie steals about $5m a day.
For the prize to be a real temptation for the Big Men to leave office honourably and to govern well in order to qualify to be considered, the money needs to be boosted. In other words, contrary to what nearly every commentator is saying, the money isn’t enough. If it was $50m, then it would actually influence a few power-hungry rulers on the continent.
Secondly, the African Big Man is never on the gravy train alone. There are his relatives, generals, and ruling party strongmen. Any exit package must therefore be dangled before the eyes of the president and his men and women. A fatter Mo Prize could, therefore, have something for the ruling party chairman, the vice president, Army Commander and, how can we possibly forget, the First Lady! That way the whole Eating Party is taken care of.
However, if I had $5m to spend on promoting democracy in Africa, I wouldn’t use it to set up incentives for the difficult rulers to behave well because history tells us that that is rarely successful.
I would instead use it to structure punishment for bad behaviour. One possible route of attack would be to set up a Whistleblower Fund. I would pay any whistleblower in any bank or property company anywhere in the world $2m a year for 10 years, plus $100,000 a year for life for revealing a corrupt African president’s stash and homes bought with stolen public funds.
I would then put up $3m (Shs 5.5bn) for a smart law firm a year for 10 years, plus $150,000 for 15 years for it to help seize and freeze the loot, and prosecute the corrupt African president and his associates in a jurisdiction where it is possible to make hell for them.
In fact to really be effective, I would offer the money to the president’s confidantes to betray him. In addition, the squealers would receive immunity from prosecution, and get to keep their ill-gotten wealth. But then, I am not Mo.
Source- http://allafrica.com
Celtel offers Africa best leader $5m
Celtel Chairman, Mo Ibrahim, has reiterated that he had a dream project to save Africa from bad leadership and its numerous consequences which had put the continent in an unenviable situation.
Ibrahim said he does not only spare much thought for the problems afflicting Africa but care for the continent with real passion.This, he demonstrated last week when he unveiled an ambitious initiative to foster and reward good government in Africa, by offering an annual prize of $5m to the best political leader on the continent.
According to a statement from the group,Dr Mo, as he is fondly called by his colleagues in Celtel, has spent a gruelling 18 months garnering support for the Foundation, discussing the idea with over 250 influential figures, from world leaders to the chairmen of multinational businesses.
He said the project holds much future for the people of the continent. The Celtel boss, a 60-year-old Sudan-born British citizen and telecoms billionaire, said his Foundation would encourage African heads of democratic states to show outstanding leadership by delivering health, education, security and economic progress.
Many of the continent’s over 300m people still earn less than $1 (53p) a day. According to the Founder of Celtel, This is the best investment I will make in my life. That is because the winners will be the guys who take hundreds of millions of Africans out of poverty. They will make aid programmes redundant. Aid and charity are the aspirins – they ease the pain but do not cure the cancer. We need to operate. We need leadership. The return on this investment is incalculable.???
Ibrahim said that nothing, simply nothing, is more important to African development than good governance.
Source- http://www.tribune.com.ng
For Celtel’s Mo Ibrahim, the poorest of the poor are his raison d’etre
Mo Ibrahim: Revolutionising communications in Africa. His tool? The mobile phone
For a man who describes himself as a former Marxist???, Mo Ibrahim has clearly made his peace with the forces of capitalism.
The chairman of the fastest-growing mobile phone group in sub-Saharan African, talks with relish of breaking down the Arab business world’s wariness towards his continent, of cellphones making the internet virtually redundant. Few inventions can boast as dramatic an impact on society as the mobile phone in Africa. Embraced there long before it became commonplace in the west, the technology allows Africans to communicate in spite of fraying landlines, and from areas that colonial-era networks never reached.
Mobiles have helped ordinary citizens free themselves from the grip of the state.
The Kenyan farmer who was once obliged to sell his coffee beans in a fug of uncertainty can now check world prices; the small entrepreneur whose business depended on the whims of a government agency can now operate from any kiosk. Mobiles even play a role in the democratic process, as formerly corrupt officials in remote constituencies are confronted by the vigilant election monitor, phone in hand.
No wonder that Africa is the first continent where mobile phones outnumber fixed lines. Yet that revolution is still in its infancy. When we started in 1998 there were two million cellphones on the continent. Now there are over 100 million, but a quarter are in South Africa,??? says Ibrahim. There’s still a huge amount to do.???
Ibrahim, who has British nationality but was born a Sudanese Nubian, had his brainwave in 1969. Rushing to a screening of Charlton Heston’s epic Khartoum, he jumped into a taxi and became intrigued by the cab radio. ‘How are you communicating?’ I asked the driver.
‘How does the signal reach the car without direct line of sight?’???
This question became the focus of several degrees, and Ibrahim then joined BT, where he played a part establishing Britain’s first mobile network, before setting up an international consultancy firm. But Africa remained his passion, and he was appalled at the assumption among potential investors that the continent was a place where contracts would not be respected. We said to ourselves, ‘Who’s afraid of Africa?’ and set out to do something different, to build a European-quality company with the best equipment . . . which said from the outset, ‘We will not pay a single dollar in bribes’.???
Today Celtel has more than seven million customers, employs 3,500 staff and boasts 120,000 points of sale. While dwarfed by Vodacom and MTN, it is the only mobile network to see the poorest of the poor as its raison d’etre. Such figures leave vast room for expansion and may explain why in May the Kuwaiti mobile operator MTC bought Celtel for $3.4bn, yet left the company free to continue operating as a separate entity.
Ibrahim, a pipe-smoking, compact ball of energy, aims to raise market penetration in Celtel’s target areas to 20 per cent by 2015. He enthuses over the opportunities represented by challenging countries such as poverty-stricken Ethiopia and war-scarred Angola. Up till now everyone has focused on the cities, bypassing villages and hamlets. We want to focus on cut-off rural areas, which is why we are looking at solar energy.???
He does not underplay the frustrations of operating in Africa, expressing exasperation at governments’ love of red tape and their preference for trading with former western masters rather than one another, a damaging legacy of colonialism. He recalls how Celtel challenged the absurd system which dictated that calls between Brazzaville and Kinshasa, two capitals facing one another across the Congo River, were routed via France and Belgium, at international rates.
Interestingly, he is sceptical about the other great change that has swept Africa in recent years: the internet. Computers are very expensive and they need power, and that can be a problem in Africa. SMS text messaging is replacing e-mail and, more and more, phones are carrying out the functions of the computer.???
Ibrahim’s success has given him a huge reach. He is finalising plans for a $100m personal foundation to fund development projects in Africa – investment with a heart???, he calls it. For him, Africa’s salvation lies in private sector efforts, rather than the western-funded, more-aid-please approach favoured by Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. It’s great that Africa is on the agenda and Blair and Brown are interested. But I’m resigned to doing my own little things in my own little way.???
Source- http://www.vanguardngr.com
Celtel to introduce one network in Ghana
Celtel International, a telecommunications group based in the Netherlands, has declared its intention to invest in Ghana, as well the as likelihood of introducing its mobile phone system that networks countries and eliminates roaming charges.
It is currently undertaking investment studies in the country, which will become the sixth West African country it will be operating in and the sixteenth in Africa.
Once operational in the country, the company will study the network system in other West African countries and decide on when to introduce its unique “One Network” service.
The service, which is currently in use in East Africa (Tanzanian, Uganda and Kenya) makes it possible for a user of a Celtel mobile phone to use the same number in another networked country without paying for roaming surcharges.
The “One Network” is automatically activated once a customer crosses over into the geographic border of any other networked countries without prior registration or new cellular phone chip. The customer can also place calls to any of the networked countries without any restriction.
Dave Hagedorn, Business Development Manager of Celtel, and Khaled Al-Anjiri, Mergers and Acquisitions Specialist from Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), the parent company of Celtel, headquartered in Kuwait, are in the country this week to hold talks with investment partners.
Without mentioning the amount to be invested, Mr. Hagedorn told the Times “we are looking at the opportunities and we will be investing substantially.
“We are hopeful that we will start operations in the coming month that Ghana will be the next country for the group,” Mr. Hagedorn added.
He indicated the expansion of their operations to Ghana was in line with their vision to cover the entire continent. Celtel is also operating in Burkina Faso, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Congo, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Sudan.
The company intends covering the entire Africa with the “One Network” service by implementing it on a regional basis, he said.
Mr. Al-Anjiri, for his part, said the MTC was committed to investing in infrastructure to offer improved services for customers and also taking advantage of opportunities that could be used to remove barriers between populations and make life better.
Source- http://www.andnetwork.com
M.Mobile targets to sell 1m handsets next year
M Dot Mobile Sdn Bhd (M.Mobile), a 30% associate of Kosmo Technology Industrial Bhd, targets to sell one million mobile phones next year, mainly to the Middle East, by capitalising on the handsets’ unique Islamic features.
M.Mobile’s chairman, Norhamzah Nordin, said it had sold 60,000 units since its inception in March and had started exporting to Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
He said the company was investing RM10 million to RM12 million to set up a manufacturing facility to produce handsets in Saudi Arabia.
We are not competing with the big boys. That’s why we are into the niche market,??? Norhamzah told reporters in Shah Alam on Oct 9 after announcing M.Mobile’s product development and distribution agreement with Mobalex Malaysia sdn Bhd.
M.Mobile’s other shareholder holding the remaining 70% stake is Mobile Knight Sdn Bhd.
Under the agreement with Mobalex, both companies will integrate Mobalex’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) mobile application which allows for seamless Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) access using M.Mobile’s handsets.
Norhamzah said the partnership would result in the launch of a new model of M.Mobile handsets early next year, whereby users can dial direct to any international number via their existing data channel using VoIP and enjoy savings on international calls.
M.Mobile now only produces one model known as the M10???, which incorporates Islamic features such as prayer times and guidelines and information pertaining to the Muslim rituals of Hajj and Umrah.
Mobalex Malaysia chief technology officer Alexander Lang said the SIP technology was ready and available and it was all about packaging it into a mobile phone.
We only have to look at Windows and IPod to see the explosive growth that can result when these technologies are available to general consumers in a simple and elegant fashion,??? he added.
Source- http://www.theedgedaily.com
MobiTel Sudan awards 2.5G equipment deal to Siemens
Siemens Communications has signed a EUR 20 million frame agreement with MTC subsidiary MobiTel Sudan to supply 2.5G mobile communications infrastructure, Khaleej Times reports. The equipment includes GSM and eGPRS (EDGE) features. Products include the HC BSC/TRAU and BS240XL base stations. MobiTel has a nearly 70 percent market share, according to Siemens Communications Mobile Networks Middle East vice president Jan Cron.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Africa: Multinational Mobile Operators Increase Stake in Continent
Jonah Iboma examines the increasing penetration of Africa by global players and its impact on competition Mobile telephony sector in Africa has increasingly witnessed acquisitions. This had led to the emergence of multinational and pan-regional players dominating the sector and increasing their ability to compete in the market with other global players.
The latest is the purchase of controlling stake in Vmobile Nigeria by Celtel International and MTN’s acquisition of Investcom International, a telecoms group with operations in six African countries besides its coverage in the Middle East.
Also, Vodacom has operations in five countries- Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa Tanzania and Lesotho. Though the number of countries it operates in may seem small compared to Celtel and MTN, Vodacom has not hidden its intention to find an entry into the Nigerian market after the failed acquisition bid for the then Econet Wireless Nigeria.
Obviously, the operations of these firms on the African continent have concentrated market share in the hands of a few players. With its entry into Nigeria, Celtel now has presence in 14 African countries, besides Sudan where it is called MTC. MTN also has presence in 21 African countries.
In terms of subscriber base, Celtel’s acquisition of Vmobile has increased its subscriber base from about 10m to well over 15m. These three firms – Celtel, Vodacom and MTN – with their combined subscriber number of about 72m users-account for over 55 per cent of Africa’s 125m mobile phone subscribers.
The Chief Executive Officer, of Celtel, Mr. Marten Pieters, in August gave indication of a continuation of its acquisition spree, saying during a tour of its operations in Tanzania that it would seek entry into more African countries soon. And with MTN maintaining its lead on the continent, one should certainly see further competition from both Vodacom and Celtel in the coming months and years. A major point of competition for these three operators is the Nigerian market as it has proven to be the preferred bride that each of them has sought how to either enter, or consolidate its position. With Celtel having joined MTN in Nigeria, Vodacom remains the biggest loser in this aspect as its failure to enter Nigeria has made it lose ground to MTN.
But while there is fear that the current situation could lead to lack of competition, these big players are actually beginning to use their might as a marketing tool. For instance, Celtel, according to Pieters, is considering establishing what he called, the One Network concept whereby any of its subscribers can use the same phone line across all its operations in Africa. This means that roaming would be available almost free of charge for its pre-paid subscribers.
The firm has done this in East Africa where Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have all been connected in the One Network arrangement.
Pieters said, “We are operating in these countries under the same brand-Celtel because we are working to build a real Pan-African mobile network. That means that we are also building a Pan-African brand and we have put a lot of energy in that, in the last two to three years.” MTN Nigeria has also introduced a billing arrangement that allows its subscribers to pay rates considerably less that others whenever calls are made to its network across the continent and in the Middle East.
The Chief Executive Officer, of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, said the firm was also introducing a service whereby calls within any of the countries it is operating in, will attract lower charges compared to other networks.
Besides, there is a rash of valued added services that these operators are introducing to their subscribers. For instance, Vodacom and MTN were the first firms to introduce 3G services in South Africa. Similarly, in Nigeria both Celtel and MTN have also completed tests for 3G roll outs.
With current developments, it appears that more competition is still ahead in the days to come. Currently, the dominance of these multinational operators has not impacted negatively on the growth of individual operators on the continent.
The phenomenon appears to be global, as more multinationals have appeared in the mobile sector establishing dominance in the industry. Even Celtel’s presence in Africa has changed from it being a dominant player to being part of a bigger firm as it had been bought by MTC of Kuwait.
Source- http://allafrica.com
Arab mobile provider, Nokia launches Sudan operations
Oct 5, 2006 (DUBAI) — i2, the largest and most diverse mobile provider in Africa and the Middle East announced today in a press briefing the launch of its operations in Sudan.
i2 introduces its retail concept and after sales services for the first time in the country.
i2 is the first authorized Nokia distributor and service center in the country as well as being the first to offer mobile subscribers original Nokia devices with matching accessories and a one-year warranty. In Sudan, i2 will be available through its showroom, distribution network and service center.
i2′s operation in Sudan will be managed by Mohamed Osman El Tayyeb, Chairman, and Hussein Raouf Atwi, General Manager.
i2 plans to expand its operation throughout Sudan within the year to include Bahri, Omdurman and Kalaka. i2 has opened a branch in the state of Adbara and plans to expand to Madani and Port Sudan.
Nokia has long recognized Africa as an important market for the company’s business. Since early 1990, Nokia has provided mobile phones, enhancement, telecoms networks and related infrastructure and services to operators and customers throughout Africa.
‘Nokia’s approach is to develop and support all local distributors and service partners in all countries. Nokia has been working closely with our regional distributor, i2 across most countries in the Middle East and Africa for many years now.
i2 will be able to offer Nokia’s customers authentic Nokia handsets and official Nokia Customer Care Services to ensure that customers in Sudan receive the best possible Nokia experience.” Said Jarmo Santala, General Manager for Nokia Customer and Market Operations North West Africa.
The cost effectiveness of GSM-based services in comparison to fixed-lines has encouraged the fast growth of mobile services in Africa. Nevertheless, mobile penetration levels in Africa remain low.
‘i2 has a big role to play in the development of the mobile market in Africa. We want to make sure that it’s growing market follows international standards of product quality and service’ stated Abdul Hameed Al Sunaid, President and CEO, i2.
Founded in 1993 in Saudi Arabia as Itsalat International, i2 is the region’s largest and most diverse mobile phone provider in the region. i2 operates in: Bahrain, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, KSA, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritius, Morocco, Reunion, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and UK.
Source- http://www.sudantribune.com
