Mohammed Dewji

Mohammed "MO" Gulamabbas Dewji (born 8 May 1975) is a Tanzanian businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former politician. He serves as the President and CEO of MeTL Group, a Tanzanian conglomerate founded by his father in the 1970s. Dewji served as Member of Parliament from 2005 – 2015 for his home town of Singida, after which he resigned from politics. In March 2015 Forbes magazine named him as the 21st Richest Person in Africa, with his net worth an estimated US $1.1 billion, having also been the first billionaire in Tanzanian Forbes Magazine in 2013.^[2][3]

Early life and family

Dewji was born on 8 May 1975 in Ipembe, Singida. He is the second child of Gulamabbas Dewji and Zubeda Dewji. He is one of five siblings, all of whom reside in Tanzania.

Dewji received his primary education in Arusha at the Arusha Primary School and continued his secondary education at the International School of Tanganyika (IST) in Dar es Salam, Tanzania.

In 1992 when his father saw that his son showed potential in golf, he decided to enroll him at the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in Orlando, Florida, where Dewji also attended Trinity Preparatory School for 11th Grade. Dewji then moved for his last and final year of high school to the Saddle Brooke High School in New Jersey.^[4]

After finishing high school in 1994, Dewji was accepted and enrolled to Georgetown University in Washington D.C. In 1998, Dewji graduated from university with a Bachelors in International Business and Finance^[5] and a minor in Theology. Shortly after graduation he returned to Tanzania and joined the family business.

In 2001, Dewji married Saira. They have three children and reside in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Dewji is a Shia Muslim from the Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Jamat as known as the 'Twelvers' sect.^[4] Dewji stated in regard to his faith:

"I studied theology as a minor because I feel that religion is complementing me. It makes you strive to become a better person. I am very conscious of everything I do. If you get too engrossed in making money, you lose focus on life. Life is very short. I don’t want to die with all this money.” ^[6]

Business

Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (MeTL)

Upon graduation from university, Dewji returned home and assumed the management of Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (METL), a commodities trading business founded by his father. After two years of working with company, he became Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at MeTL. In the early 2000s, when the Tanzanian government privatized loss-making companies, he acquired them inexpensively and turned them into profit centers by trimming personnel expenses. MeTL Group of Companies is the largest privately owned conglomerate in Tanzania.^[7][8]

Dewji is responsible for increasing MeTL’s revenues from $30 million to over $1.3 billion between 1999 and 2014. Currently, the MeTL Group has investments in manufacturing, agriculture, trading, finance, mobile telephony, insurance, real estate, transport and logistics, and food and beverages. The group is conducting business in 11 countries and employs over 28,000 people with the aim to target over 100,000 people by 2021. MeTL’s operations contribute ~3.5% of Tanzania’s GDP.^[9]

According to Forbes, Dewji has an estimated net worth of US$1.1 billion (2016). He is the 21st Richest Person in Africa^[10] and Africa's Youngest Billionaire (2016). He is the first Tanzanian on the cover of Forbes Magazine in 2013 and has been featured on three separate occasions. In November 2015, Dewji was recognized as the Forbers African Person of the year^[11] In his acceptance speech, he dedicated the award to the youth of Tanzania:

"It gives me great pleasure to dedicate tonight's award to the youth of Tanzania. May you shine bright, conquer your fears and embrace challenges. May you aspire to make our world a better place to live in. And most importantly, may you leave behind a memorable legacy, one that is worthy of your children and future generations."^[12]

Politics

Former President of Tanzania, H.E. Jakaya Kikwete and Mohammed Dewji during a political rally in 2010.

In 2000, Tanzania hosted its second multiparty elections where Dewji, at the age of 25 competed to become the Member of Parliament (MP) for Singida Urban. Despite winning the preliminary votes for the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) with overwhelming majority, Dewji was deemed too young to hold the parliamentary seat.

Tanzania held its third multi-party elections in October 2005 and Dewji stood for the parliamentary seat again and was chosen by the CCM party to stand as a candidate for Singida Urban. In the general election he won with a majority of 90 percent of the total votes and was sworn in as a Member of Parliament for Singida Urban constituency on the 29 of December, 2005.

Dewji served as Member of Parliament for 10 years after which he resigned from politics in October, 2015. In an interview^[13] Dewji described his feelings after not being able to run in 2000:

"...being 25 years old at the time, I was deemed too young to hold the seat in Parliament. Despite the decision of the party, I chose not to lose hope. I humbly supported the candidate who replaced me for the MP seat and did my best to campaign in support of his nomination. It was a very important lesson I learnt that day the first of many scenarios where I made sure the party’s interests were a given priority over my own ambitions. Luckily, my patience and perseverance paid off - in 2005 during the third multi-party elections in Tanzania, I campaigned again to become MP and won a landslide victory with over 90% of the total votes. Subsequently on 29th December 2005, I was sworn in for the first time in my career (not the last), as MP for Singida. Being sworn in was a monumental moment in life. My discouragement transformed into forbearance. And in that moment, I knew, every good thing in life has its time."^[14]

Philanthropy

Mohammed Dewji is known for his commitment to the advancement of Tanzania most notably in Singida where he improved the number of people with access to clean water from 23% to 75% during his tenure as MP.

Dewji also has demonstrated a record of contributing to the well-being of the people of his country via the Mo Dewji Foundation. His Foundation which he established in 2014. The scope of his contributions have covered educational assistance, improving accessibility to basic needs such as water and healthcare and agri-business community projects. He has also made substantial contributions in his personal capacity and through his group of companies. Dewji has taken a very hands-on approach to his philanthropic efforts. By making time to personally visit donation sites and patients, he has played a key role in encouraging others about the importance of philanthropy. Over the last few years, Dewji has spent more than US$3 million on projects that have directly improved the lives of Tanzanians.^[15]

In 2006, he founded the NGO Singida Yetu, with the vision of uniting Singida’s citizens, local government, civil society and the private sector in a collaborative partnership striving to improve the lives of people in the region. In the decade following its inception, Singida Yetu spent more than one billion Tanzanian Shillings (TZS) on community service projects, including the provision of safe and clean water, improvement of sanitation schemes, donation of mosquito nets and the funding of healthcare treatment and cataract operations.

After the successes in Singida and the realization of the needs throughout the rest of Tanzania, the next logical step was to provide the same services nationally, and thus the Mo Dewji Foundation was created. Launched officially in 2014, the foundation is involved in education, health, and community development-related projects across Tanzania.

Dewji joined the Giving Pledge; an effort to help address society's most pressing problems by inviting the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetime or in their will. Dewji is the first Tanzanian and one of the three Africans that have made the pledge in this group of 150+ billionaires, some of whom include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Strive Masiyiwa and Patrice Motsepe.^[16]

Honours and Awards

• 2012: Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum^[17]
• 2014: 10 Most Powerful Men In Africa, Forbes Magazine^[18]
• 2014: African Philanthropist of the Year Award by the African Leadership magazine^[19]
• 2014: Top 100 of young economic leaders^[20]
• 2015: Recipient of Ahlulbayt TV Award for Excellence for contributions to the community
• 2015: Philanthropist of the Year Award for the East African region by All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA)^[21]
• 2015: Business Leader of the Year Award by African Business Magazine^[22]
• 2015: Forbes Africa's Person Of The Year 2015^[23]
• 2016: Choiseul 100 Africa 2016: Economic Leaders for Tomorrow^[24]

See also

• List of wealthiest people in Tanzania
• Politics of Tanzania
• Economy of Tanzania

References

External links

• Official website