Mo Ibrahim Quotes & Sayings

Roads are not practical in Africa. — Mo Ibrahim

When I was young, there was only one TV channel, sponsored by the government, and it only broadcast things like what the leader had for breakfast. There was no real media. — Mo Ibrahim

Multinationals don't pay taxes in Africa - we all know that. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

You fly for hours and hours and hours over Africa to go from one place to another. — Mo Ibrahim

It's time Africa started listening to our young people instead of always telling them what to do. — Mo Ibrahim

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

Governance has been at the heart of the work of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations and is a clear focus in its report, 'Now for the Long Term.' — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

Many African people are smarter than me - kids who could have been better. I have no claim for genius. — Mo Ibrahim

The Zimbabwean people, like everyone else, have a right to live in freedom and prosperity and to select their leaders through fair and democratic elections. — 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

Rwanda really did take very strong steps towards development. I mean, this place is unrecognizable. There's a very good management of economy and resources - it's a success story, and that's great. — 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

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

Cape Verde produces good people. — 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

Business is global. Countries need to react to that; taxes need to be paid where profit arises. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

I'm uncomfortable, frankly, with the hype about Africa. We went from one extreme ... to, like, Africa now is the best thing after sliced bread. — Mo Ibrahim

Everywhere in Africa, you see Indian, Chinese, Brazilian businesses. Other than Coca Cola and the oil companies, it is very rare to see American businesses. — Mo Ibrahim

In a world of growing food demand, Africa is home to two-thirds of the world's unexploited arable land. — Mo Ibrahim

Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa. — Mo Ibrahim

I come from a typical family. — Mo Ibrahim

Before any investor goes into any country, he is looking for the exit door. — Mo Ibrahim

Not any amount of aid is going to move Africa forward. — Mo Ibrahim

The Ibrahim Index is a tool to hold governments to account and frame the debate about how we are governed. — Mo Ibrahim

We measure everything - why not governance? — Mo Ibrahim

The way forward for Africa is investment. — Mo Ibrahim

Women in Africa are really the pillar of the society, are the most productive segment of society, actually. They do agriculture. — 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

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

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide? — Mo Ibrahim

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

Experience counts in government even more than in business. — Mo Ibrahim

People never confess to failure. They should. — Mo Ibrahim

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

Africa offers the highest return on investment in the world. — Mo Ibrahim

Women do kids. Women do cooking. Women doing everything. And yet, their position in society is totally unacceptable. — 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

While the Marshall Plan was important for Europe's recovery, Europe's prosperity was really built on economic integration and policy coherence. — Mo Ibrahim

I never had a doubt that I wanted to do engineering. — Mo Ibrahim

More people smile at me now I'm richer. — Mo Ibrahim

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

The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are. — Mo Ibrahim

United States has always been very close to Africa and it's very sad now to see that Africa has a lot more friends - a lot more engagements with the Chinese, with the Indians, with the Brazilians as the United States retreats. Actually, Africa is a wonderful place to do business and American business is missing a big opportunity by really overlooking Africa. — Mo Ibrahim

I need to be free, to speak the unspeakable. You can't do that in office. — Mo Ibrahim

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

For citizens to become fully engaged in holding their leadership to account, accurate information is required to see where action is needed, to measure the results of policies and programmes, to build support for courageous decisions and to consolidate political legitimacy. — Mo Ibrahim

Many Africans are used to a life where they get up in the morning and don't know what they're going to do that day. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

What is a government supposed to do for its people? To improve the standard of living, to help them get jobs, get kids to schools, and have access to medicine and hospitals. Government may not directly provide these public goods and services, but government must be accountable for whether or not they are delivered to citizens. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

If we are to build grassroots respect for the institutions and processes that constitute democracy, the state must treat its citizens as real citizens rather than as subjects. — Mo Ibrahim

Governance is everything. Without governance we have nothing — Mo Ibrahim

What we need in Africa is balanced development. Economic success cannot be a replacement for human rights or participation or democracy ... it doesn't work. — Mo Ibrahim

Transfer pricing is causing huge problems in Africa. — Mo Ibrahim

To be frank, I don't think President Obama gives much thought to Africa - or gives much to Africa. — 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

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

The Nobel Prize is worth $1.5 million, but that's not the issue. Do the distinguished scientists who win the Nobel Prize need the money? Probably not. The honor is more important the money, and that's the case with the prize for African leadership as well. — Mo Ibrahim

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

If you are African, the more educated you are, the less chances you have of getting a job. — Mo Ibrahim

Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans. — Mo Ibrahim

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

All we hear about Africa in the West is Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, as if that is all there is. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

African leaders work really under severe limitations and constraints. — Mo Ibrahim

Nobody in Africa loves to be a beggar or a recipient of aid. Everywhere I go in Africa, people say, 'When are we going to stand up on our feet?' — Mo Ibrahim

Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen. — 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

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

We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime. — Mo Ibrahim

Retail banking in Africa is very weak. You can't go to a village and get money from an ATM or visit a branch of the bank. So people have to use the Internet. — Mo Ibrahim

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

Celtel established a mobile phone network in Africa at a time when investors told me that there was no market for mobile phones there. — Mo Ibrahim

If we cannot accurately measure poverty, we surely cannot accurately measure our efforts to tackle it. — 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

Mexico established a unique three-part governing system shared by the government, the information commission and civil society organisations. — 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

Make as much money as you can, but can you please pay your taxes, because this is a major problem. — Mo Ibrahim

When Captain Moussa Dadis Camara came to power, too many thought he would hold to his promise to stand down, introduce democratic elections and restore the rule of law. — Mo Ibrahim

There's no point in trying to hoard money after life, so better really to share with people. — Mo Ibrahim

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

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

Literacy in Tunisia is almost 100%. It's amazing - no country in the region or even in Asia can match Tunisia in education. — Mo Ibrahim

The mobile industry changed Africa. — Mo Ibrahim

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

The Security Council represents the situation from 1945 - you had the Allies who won the war who occupied that. The defeated guys - the Germans and Japan - were out. The occupied countries had no voice. That was fine in '45, but today, Germany rules Europe, frankly. They are driving Europe but have no voice. — Mo Ibrahim

Compared to developed countries, or even to some major emerging countries, burdened by aging populations, financial crises, widening budget deficits, faltering faith in politics and growing social demands, Africa has become the world's last 'New Frontier:' a kind of 'it-continent.' — Mo Ibrahim

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