للمهتميين بجائزة مؤسسة محمد فتحي ابراهيم -الجائزة ليست للصوص والفاسديين

Quote: الجائزة ليست للصوص والفاسديين

(عدل بواسطة abubakr on 11-01-2006, 09:30 AM)
(عدل بواسطة abubakr on 11-01-2006, 09:32 AM)

Quote: Mo Ibrahim's big idea By Gwynne Dyer IT IS VERY unlikely that Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh, re-elected last month to a third term with a 67 per cent majority, will ever win the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. He is a stereotypical African "big man" ruler, which is precisely what the prize seeks to eliminate. Yahya Jammeh first came to power in a military coup twelve years ago. He has won three terms in more or less free elections on the strength of his lavish spending (of borrowed money) and his control of the police (who wore "Vote Jammeh" badges at his election rallies ). He is not a monster, and his small West African country has escaped the horrors that devastated other countries in the region. But you would definitely not trust him with the rent money Mo (short for Mohammed) Ibrahim is a very different sort of person. When I first met him in 2004, I thought he had a very good idea and practically no chance of turning it into reality, but money opens many doors. This week in London, he has launched a prize so rich that it puts the Nobel Peace Prize in the shade. To qualify for the Mo Ibrahim Prize, you have be a democratically elected African ruler who handed over power peacefully to a similarly elected successor, and did good things for the country while you had power. The prize is worth five million dollars in the first ten years, and more if the ex-leader enjoys a very long retirement. Mo Ibrahim was born 60 years ago in Sudan, grew up in Egypt, and moved to Britain in 1975 to study telecommunications. In 1989 he set up Mobile Systems International (MSI), and sold it to Marconi in 2000 for $900 million. Then he created Celtel, to bring mobile phones to all the countries in Africa. They all thought he was mad, because everybody knows that Africans don't have any money. But being poor doesn't make you stupid, and Africans quickly realised that mobile phones are an investment that pays: if you are a fisherman, or a farmer, or a herdsman, or a market trader, this is how you find out where today's best prices are. Between 1999 and 2004 mobile phones in Africa grew tenfold, from 7.5 million to 77 million (out of a total population of 800 million) – and Mo Ibrahim got a lot richer. Last year the Kuwait-based mobile operator MTC bought Celtel for $3.4 billion – and Mo Ibrahim started looking for something useful to do with his money. Most Africans would agree that bad governments are one of their continent's biggest problems, so what might be done to encourage powerful people in Africa to behave better? He focussed on just one key aspect of the problem: African presidents and prime ministers cannot afford to quit. Most of them are paid less than taxi drivers in New York, London or Tokyo, and politically it cannot be otherwise, because their voters make twenty times less than that. So long as they are in office, they are well looked after – but most of them must either steal enough to retire on, or stay in office until they die. Mo Ibrahim's solution – and he would admit that it is only partial – is the Prize. As things stand now, if an African leader is legitimately elected, serves honourably, and quits when his time is up, he faces ruin. "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. The Prize, for which only retiring African presidents and prime ministers are eligible, is $500,000 a year for ten years for their personal use, plus an additional $200,000 a year to give to charity. That deal ends after the first decade of retirement, but the ex-leaders continue to get $200,000 a year until they die. Some may call it cynical; Mo Ibrahim would prefer to call it pragmatic. To help choose the winners, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation is creating an index of good governance. It will be similar to Transparency International's corruption index, but it will measure how well African leaders deliver security, health, education and economic development to their people and how well they respect human rights and democratic process. The index will be produced annually by an independent team based at Harvard University – and it may actually be the most important component of the project. Almost half of Africa's 53 ######### of state have been in power for more than ten years, and fifteen of them have been in power for over fifteen years. At most, the Mo Ibrahim Prize can persuade only one of them each year to retire. But if the index by which the lucky one is chosen becomes a widely accepted measure of the quality of governance in Africa, it will become an immensely useful tool in the hands of a younger generation of Africans who desperately want to break with the "big man" traditions of the first generation of post-colonial leaders. Which is doubtless what Mo Ibrahim really has in mind. n Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries ?? ?? ?? ??

Quote: Communications in the dark continent were a nightmare until one man went where others feared to tread By Jason Nissé Published: 11 December 2005 Africa’s most successful entrepreneur leans back in his office in central London and reminisces about Bradford. “I did my masters at Bradford University,” smiles Mohamed Ibrahim. “I have a great affection for the city.” That was 30 years ago when, as a 28-year-old engineer from Nubia (“the area between Egypt and Sudan - I come from the Sudan side”), he arrived in the UK to continue his studies. Since then, Ibrahim has gained a PhD, from Birmingham University, and rewritten the book on mobile elecommunications -not once, not twice but three times. En route he has helped create the company now known as O2, contributed (unwittingly) to the financial problems of Marconi, and built the most successful company in sub-Saharan Africa -outside natural resources. Ibrahim can claim to be one of the great innovators of mobile phones. He studied the subject in the late 1970s, before the mobile industry even existed, and was one of the team who created BT Cellnet (now 02) in the mid-1980s when he was the group’s technical director. He left in 1989 to create his own consultancy, Mobile Systems International, which was responsible for helping to design GSM systems across the world. Ibrahim casually reels off the names of places where MSI worked: “Norway,Sweden, Denmark, France, Japan, Germany, er Italy, oh, and Shanghai”. At MSI, Ibrahim and his partners gave out shares to all the staff, arguing that this would help motivate them and everyone would end up richer. It worked. In 2000 MSI became one of the acquisitions that turned Marconi from a boring, conservative company into a highly indebted basket case. The $900m (then around £650m) paid created over 30 millionaires - though buying a telecoms consultancy with little assets at the peak of the markets did little for Marconi’s finances. In the meantime, Ibrahim had started another venture. “Mobile communications was like the Wild West in the 1990s. Everybody was fighting over licences. But no one wanted to go into Africa. There was fear. There was ignorance. There were worries. Some of it was understandable. But most of it was exaggerated.” So MSI applied for a mobile licence in Uganda. When that business was up and running, it secured a licence in Zambia, then Malawi. Now it is in 14 African countries and is bidding for an operation in Madagascar. The business, renamed Celtel International, was spun out of MSI before the Marconi deal and, on the verge of floating on the London Stock Exchange last April, was bought by Kuwaiti mobile operator MTC for $3.4bn, so creating another 150 millionaires. Ibrahim is astonished that nobody saw the potential of African mobile phones before Celtel, given the dreadful state of African infrastructure. “The equity in a mobile phone call is greater in Africa,” he explains. “In the UK you can make a fixed- line call and get your fellow; you can send a letter and it is delivered the next day; you can take a car; you can take a train; you can get one of those lovely buses Ken Livingstone is giving us. You have so many ways of passing on a message. In Africa you have only a mobile phone.” He warms to his point with examples. A girl in Uganda who wants to tell her mother she is getting married might need to catch a bus and then a boat to visit her, taking over a week, when now she can make a phone call. Or a farmer in Zambia might be offered only a shilling a kilogram for his courgettes, but now can make a call and find that the going rate is four shillings. “We can really help change the way of life,” says Ibrahim. “We save time, save fuel, save money, save unnecessary trips. We create efficiency.” And make money, of course. Celtel is growing at 35 per cent a year, and is market leader in all but two of its territories. As billing is impossible in Africa, it is all pay as you go. “It is nice to get paid before you provide the service,” Ibrahim laughs. “Imagine if you went to a restaurant and had to pay before you could eat.” The success has attracted the sorts of companies that shunned Africa before. Vodafone has just committed hundreds of millions into South Africa and Egypt, while deals have recently been done to buy Celtel’s rivals in Ivory Coast and Malawi. Ibrahim insists all this was built up without paying a penny in bribes. His company, he says, follows European corporate governance standards with the likes of Lord Cairns, the ex-Warburg banker, Sir Gerry Wendt, founder of Vodafone, and Sir Alan Rudge, formerly of BT, involved. “We had no lackeys or suits on the board,” Ibrahim argues. “When you have those sorts of people on your board, nobody asks you for a bribe.” He argues that a bribe - like adultery - needs two consenting adults. If European companies do not pay bribes, Africans cannot ask for them. With the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Hong Kong coming up this week, Ibrahim is keen for a deal on trade liberalisation to go through, though he is not confident a deal will be reached. He argues that investment from the private sector is what is needed to pull Africa out of poverty. “Private equity has trillions of dollars to spend. How much money is available from charities, the World Bank and do-gooders pales by comparison.” This is something Ibrahim feels that Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa failed to realise. “It is wonderful that Mr Blair is interested in Africa -but what we need is investment and jobs, not white elephants.” Ibrahim argues that freeing trade would allow Africans to develop their own businesses. Worries that African governments will not welcome Western countries are out of date - “Africa has changed, it’s the West that is living in the past.” In the end, just trying to help the continent is not going to work. “Charity is like giving aspirins and paracetamol to people who need a surgical operation.” With his billions, Ibrahim is setting up a fund to invest in African businesses. He is also setting up a trust to promote charity- with the aim of giving the fund to the trust when it is up and running. “It is important that it is sustainable.” As he says: “I am an African. I was successful. I had the chance to have a higher education and was able to leverage that into a successful business career. My friends whom I grew up with did not have that chance. So I feel I owe a debt.” BIOGRAPHY BORN 3 May 1946 EDUCATION BSc in electrical engineering, University of Alexandria, Egypt; MSc in electronics and electrical engineering, University of Bradford; PhD in mobile communications, University of Birmingham CAREER 1969-74: head of radio, ITU technical centre, Khartoum, Sudan PTT 1983: UK director of cellular engineering, British Telecom; technical director, Cellnet 1989: established Mobile Systems International, specialising in designing GSM networks 1998: founder and chairman of MSI Cellular Investments. Now called Celtel International, it has 8.5 million customers in 14 African countries, producing revenues of $1bn 2000: sold MSI to Marconi for $900m May 2005: sold Celtel to the Kuwaiti mobile operator MTC for $3.4bn but remained as the chairman Africa’s most successful entrepreneur leans back in his office in central London and reminisces about Bradford. “I did my masters at Bradford University,” smiles Mohamed Ibrahim. “I have a great affection for the city.” That was 30 years ago when, as a 28-year-old engineer from Nubia (“the area between Egypt and Sudan - I come from the Sudan side”), he arrived in the UK to continue his studies. Since then, Ibrahim has gained a PhD, from Birmingham University, and rewritten the book on mobile telecommunications - not once, not twice but three times. En route he has helped create the company now known as O2, contributed (unwittingly) to the financial problems of Marconi, and built the most successful company in sub-Saharan Africa - outside natural resources. Ibrahim can claim to be one of the great innovators of mobile phones. He studied the subject in the late 1970s, before the mobile industry even existed, and was one of the team who created BT Cellnet (now 02) in the mid-1980s when he was the group’s technical director. He left in 1989 to create his own consultancy, Mobile Systems International, which was responsible for helping to design GSM systems across the world. Ibrahim casually reels off the names of places where MSI worked: “Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Japan, Germany, er Italy, oh, and Shanghai”. At MSI, Ibrahim and his partners gave out shares to all the staff, arguing that this would help motivate them and everyone would end up richer. It worked. In 2000 MSI became one of the acquisitions that turned Marconi from a boring, conservative company into a highly indebted basket case. The $900m (then around £650m) paid created over 30 millionaires - though buying a telecoms consultancy with little assets at the peak of the markets did little for Marconi’s finances. In the meantime, Ibrahim had started another venture. “Mobile communications was like the Wild West in the 1990s. Everybody was fighting over licences. But no one wanted to go into Africa. There was fear. There was ignorance. There were worries. Some of it was understandable. But most of it was exaggerated.” So MSI applied for a mobile licence in Uganda. When that business was up and running, it secured a licence in Zambia, then Malawi. Now it is in 14 African countries and is bidding for an operation in Madagascar. The business, renamed Celtel International, was spun out of MSI before the Marconi deal and, on the verge of floating on the London Stock Exchange last April, was bought by Kuwaiti mobile operator MTC for $3.4bn, so creating another 150 millionaires. Ibrahim is astonished that nobody saw the potential of African mobile phones before Celtel, given the dreadful state of African infrastructure. “The equity in a mobile phone call is greater in Africa,” he explains. “In the UK you can make a fixed- line call and get your fellow; you can send a letter and it is delivered the next day; you can take a car; you can take a train; you can get one of those lovely buses Ken Livingstone is giving us. You have so many ways of passing on a message. In Africa you have only a mobile phone.” He warms to his point with examples. A girl in Uganda who wants to tell her mother she is getting married might need to catch a bus and then a boat to visit her, taking over a week, when now she can make a phone call. Or a farmer in Zambia might be offered only a shilling a kilogram for his courgettes, but now can make a call and find that the going rate is four shillings. “We can really help change the way of life,” says Ibrahim. “We save time, save fuel, save money, save unnecessary trips. We create efficiency.” And make money, of course. Celtel is growing at 35 per cent a year, and is market leader in all but two of its territories. As billing is impossible in Africa, it is all pay as you go. “It is nice to get paid before you provide the service,” Ibrahim laughs. “Imagine if you went to a restaurant and had to pay before you could eat.” The success has attracted the sorts of companies that shunned Africa before. Vodafone has just committed hundreds of millions into South Africa and Egypt, while deals have recently been done to buy Celtel’s rivals in Ivory Coast and Malawi. Ibrahim insists all this was built up without paying a penny in bribes. His company, he says, follows European corporate governance standards with the likes of Lord Cairns, the ex-Warburg banker, Sir Gerry Wendt, founder of Vodafone, and Sir Alan Rudge, formerly of BT, involved. “We had no lackeys or suits on the board,” Ibrahim argues. “When you have those sorts of people on your board, nobody asks you for a bribe.” He argues that a bribe - like adultery - needs two consenting adults. If European companies do not pay bribes, Africans cannot ask for them. With the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Hong Kong coming up this week, Ibrahim is keen for a deal on trade liberalisation to go through, though he is not confident a deal will be reached. He argues that investment from the private sector is what is needed to pull Africa out of poverty. “Private equity has trillions of dollars to spend. How much money is available from charities, the World Bank and do-gooders pales by comparison.” This is something Ibrahim feels that Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa failed to realise. “It is wonderful that Mr Blair is interested in Africa - but what we need is investment and jobs, not white elephants.” Ibrahim argues that freeing trade would allow Africans to develop their own businesses. Worries that African governments will not welcome Western countries are out of date - “Africa has changed, it’s the West that is living in the past.” In the end, just trying to help the continent is not going to work. “Charity is like giving aspirins and paracetamol to people who need a surgical operation.” With his billions, Ibrahim is setting up a fund to invest in African businesses. He is also setting up a trust to promote charity- with the aim of giving the fund to the trust when it is up and running. “It is important that it is sustainable.” As he says: “I am an African. I was successful. I had the chance to have a higher education and was able to leverage that into a successful business career. My friends whom I grew up with did not have that chance. So I feel I owe a debt.” BIOGRAPHY BORN 3 May 1946 EDUCATION BSc in electrical engineering, University of Alexandria, Egypt; MSc in electronics and electrical engineering, University of Bradford; PhD in mobile communications, University of Birmingham CAREER 1969-74: head of radio, ITU technical centre, Khartoum, Sudan PTT 1983: UK director of cellular engineering, British Telecom; technical director, Cellnet 1989: established Mobile Systems International, specialising in designing GSM networks 1998: founder and chairman of MSI Cellular Investments. Now called Celtel International, it has 8.5 million customers in 14 African countries, producing revenues of $1bn 2000: sold MSI to Marconi for $900m May 2005: sold Celtel to the Kuwaiti mobile operator MTC for $3.4bn but remained as the chairman © 2005 Independent News and Media Limited

(عدل بواسطة abubakr on 11-04-2006, 11:18 AM)

Quote: الجائزة ربما تكون صغيرة جدا لتؤثر في الفاسديين ولكنها تجازي القادة الذين يحاولون ان يعملو ما هو صحيح و ليبعدوا المفسديين