Quotes from Mo Ibrahim

Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.

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

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.

The brain drain from Africa has been reversed.

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

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.

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.

Look at the international bodies that came out of U.N. - international, publicly funded bodies that neither you or I know their names, because they are completely outdated and still publicly funded because there are no sunset clauses.

Mobile phones could not work in Africa without prepaid because it's a cash society.

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

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

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

We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime.

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

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.

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

People never confess to failure. They should.

Societies are not sustainable without institutions.

Computers are very expensive and they need power, and that can be a problem in Africa.

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

Now is the time for Afro-realism: for sound policies based on honest data, aimed at delivering results.

Behind every corrupt politician are 10-20 corrupt businessmen.

I am not a politician. I am not in politics. I'm just a citizen.

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