Top 100 Mo Ibrahim Quotes
#1. 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
#2. People never confess to failure. They should.
Mo Ibrahim
#3. Africa is rich, and why are we poor then if our continent is rich. It is not right.
Mo Ibrahim
#4. 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
#5. 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
#6. Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen.
Mo Ibrahim
#7. 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
#8. Modern slavery is a hidden crime and notoriously difficult to measure.
Mo Ibrahim
#9. 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
#10. 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
#11. The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are.
Mo Ibrahim
#12. The U.S. has been a great friend all these years, but as soon as Africa found itself starting to move up, the U.S. is really disengaging.
Mo Ibrahim
#13. There's no point in trying to hoard money after life, so better really to share with people.
Mo Ibrahim
#14. Africa has 53 countries. And you find that three or four countries in these 53 are dominating the news.
Mo Ibrahim
#15. When you ask people what they think of Africa, they think of AIDS, genocide, disasters, famine.
Mo Ibrahim
#16. Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.
Mo Ibrahim
#17. 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
#18. Mexico established a unique three-part governing system shared by the government, the information commission and civil society organisations.
Mo Ibrahim
#19. More people smile at me now I'm richer.
Mo Ibrahim
#20. All we hear about Africa in the West is Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, as if that is all there is.
Mo Ibrahim
#21. The African Development Bank is one of the most aggressive advocates of regional integration.
Mo Ibrahim
#22. The issue with international institutions is that there is a crisis of legitimacy. Trust in these institutions is a serious problem.
Mo Ibrahim
#23. Africa is progressing but maybe not in the way you think it is. Even if the overall picture looks good, we must all remain vigilant and not get complacent.
Mo Ibrahim
#24. It is very difficult for any dictator or any incumbent to falsify the results of an election and just get away with it.
Mo Ibrahim
#25. Societies are not sustainable without institutions.
Mo Ibrahim
#26. The Ibrahim Index is a tool to hold governments to account and frame the debate about how we are governed.
Mo Ibrahim
#27. Computers are very expensive and they need power, and that can be a problem in Africa.
Mo Ibrahim
#28. I really don't have heroes in business; I never looked up at business people.
Mo Ibrahim
#29. I think the Cold War was worse for Africa than colonialism.
Mo Ibrahim
#30. I never set out really to build a financial empire or to be a wealthy man.
Mo Ibrahim
#31. Many African people are smarter than me - kids who could have been better. I have no claim for genius.
Mo Ibrahim
#32. 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
#33. We need to keep pressure on our own governments to force more and more transparency.
Mo Ibrahim
#34. While the Marshall Plan was important for Europe's recovery, Europe's prosperity was really built on economic integration and policy coherence.
Mo Ibrahim
#35. I came to the conclusion that unless you are ruled properly, you cannot move forward. Everything else is second. Everything.
Mo Ibrahim
#36. 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
#37. After the sale of Celtel, I really wanted to give the money back, and I had a number of choices - to go and buy masses of blankets and baby milk or to go into Darfur or Congo. That would have been very nice actually, but it's just like an aspirin: it doesn't deal with the problem.
Mo Ibrahim
#38. I'm an engineer. I'm a techie, really.
Mo Ibrahim
#39. 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
#40. Mobile communications had been around for a long time, but always as a limited market, constrained by the radio spectrum.
Mo Ibrahim
#41. 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
#42. 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
#43. You fly for hours and hours and hours over Africa to go from one place to another.
Mo Ibrahim
#44. 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
#45. The brain drain from Africa has been reversed.
Mo Ibrahim
#46. 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
#47. 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
#48. Business is global. Countries need to react to that; taxes need to be paid where profit arises.
Mo Ibrahim
#49. 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
#50. 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
#51. Young people, all too often, find their interests overlooked and their voices ignored.
Mo Ibrahim
#52. I never had a doubt that I wanted to do engineering.
Mo Ibrahim
#53. African leaders work really under severe limitations and constraints.
Mo Ibrahim
#54. Women do kids. Women do cooking. Women doing everything. And yet, their position in society is totally unacceptable.
Mo Ibrahim
#55. Africa is underpopulated. We have 20% of the world's landmass and 13% of its population.
Mo Ibrahim
#56. Roads are not practical in Africa.
Mo Ibrahim
#57. I made money. I wanted to give it back to Africa but I wanted to give it back in a meaningful way. So I really want to do something which deals with the root of the problem of hunger, of disease, of ills we have in our society.
Mo Ibrahim
#58. Africa offers the highest return on investment in the world.
Mo Ibrahim
#59. The way forward for Africa is investment.
Mo Ibrahim
#60. In the final analysis, finding a way to do clean business and not to pay bribes actually improves your bottom line.
Mo Ibrahim
#61. 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
#62. Before any investor goes into any country, he is looking for the exit door.
Mo Ibrahim
#63. To be frank, I don't think President Obama gives much thought to Africa - or gives much to Africa.
Mo Ibrahim
#64. Electoral turnout is falling among the young, and political apathy is on the rise.
Mo Ibrahim
#65. 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
#66. I need to be free, to speak the unspeakable. You can't do that in office.
Mo Ibrahim
#67. 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
#68. Experience shows that when political governance and economic management diverge, overall development becomes unsustainable.
Mo Ibrahim
#69. Make as much money as you can, but can you please pay your taxes, because this is a major problem.
Mo Ibrahim
#70. I ended up being a businessman unwittingly. I wanted to be an academic; I wanted to be like Einstein.
Mo Ibrahim
#71. We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime.
Mo Ibrahim
#72. Tony Blair is paid $500,000 for one speech, and no one asks how he is going to spend it.
Mo Ibrahim
#73. 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
#74. 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
#75. 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
#76. Mobile phones could not work in Africa without prepaid because it's a cash society.
Mo Ibrahim
#77. Almost every country in Africa has now instituted multi-party democracy.
Mo Ibrahim
#78. Governance is everything. Without governance we have nothing
Mo Ibrahim
#79. Every man, woman and child knows about Mugabe, but people say, 'Mogae, who is that?'
Mo Ibrahim
#80. Experience counts in government even more than in business.
Mo Ibrahim
#81. In a world of growing food demand, Africa is home to two-thirds of the world's unexploited arable land.
Mo Ibrahim
#82. Billions of dollars are thrown at African countries.
Mo Ibrahim
#83. What do you do if you're an executive who resigns? You declare yourself a consultant.
Mo Ibrahim
#84. There is a crisis of leadership and governance in Africa, and we must face it.
Mo Ibrahim
#85. It's time Africa started listening to our young people instead of always telling them what to do.
Mo Ibrahim
#86. It was a no-brainer that the cellular route would be a great success in Africa.
Mo Ibrahim
#87. Multinationals don't pay taxes in Africa - we all know that.
Mo Ibrahim
#88. Rule of law is the most important element in any civil society.
Mo Ibrahim
#89. 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
#90. Botswana had three successive good presidents who served their legal terms, who did well for their countries - three, not one.
Mo Ibrahim
#91. The leakage of information means you're going to be able to read everybody's e-mail.
Mo Ibrahim
#92. Africa should not again face isolation or stigmatisation based on ignorance and unrepresentative imagery.
Mo Ibrahim
#94. 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
#95. I am not a politician. I am not in politics. I'm just a citizen.
Mo Ibrahim
#96. 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
#97. 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
#99. The mobile industry changed Africa.
Mo Ibrahim
#100. Not any amount of aid is going to move Africa forward.
Mo Ibrahim
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