Mo Ibrahim

Sir Mohammed Fathi Ahmed Ibrahim, 'Mo Ibrahim' (born 3 May 1946 in Sudan), is a Sudanese-British engineer and businessman; he founded the Celtel telecommunications company, which served over 24 million subscribers in 14 African countries before its 2005 sale for $3.4 billion, then founded the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Ibrahim Index of African Governance and the $5 million Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, and was appointed KCMG in 2023 ^{1 2}.

Ibrahim was born at Old Halfa in northern Sudan, as the Arabic article records, and was raised in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father worked for a cotton company; he read electrical engineering at Alexandria University, took a master's at the University of Bradford and a PhD in mobile communications at the University of Birmingham, and worked in British telecommunications before turning to Africa ^{1 2}. No text read says anything about his religion at all; his Wikidata item carries a single generic Islam statement with no source and no school, so his faith is recorded as unknown ^{1 2 3}.

In 1998 he founded MSI-Cellular Investments, renamed Celtel, building mobile networks in African countries most investors avoided until it had 24 million subscribers in 14 countries, and in 2005 sold it to Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company for $3.4 billion; he then created the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage better governance in Africa, launched in 2007 the Ibrahim Prize — $5 million for heads of state who deliver development and democratically transfer power — and the annually published Ibrahim Index assessing governance across Africa's 54 countries, joined The Giving Pledge to give at least half his wealth to charity, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2023 New Year Honours ^{1 2}.

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