Business is global. Countries need to react to that; taxes need to be paid where profit arises.
— Mo Ibrahim
Nobody can come and develop Africa on behalf of Africans.
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.
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.
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.
Celtel established a mobile phone network in Africa at a time when investors told me that there was no market for mobile phones there.
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.
You get over your first love by falling in love with something new.
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'm an engineer. I'm a techie, really.
I am a Nubian.
The mobile industry changed Africa.
If you are African, the more educated you are, the less chances you have of getting a job.
I don't subscribe to the narrative that Africa is backward because of colonialism.
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.
The Ibrahim Index is a tool to hold governments to account and frame the debate about how we are governed.
Tony Blair is paid $500,000 for one speech, and no one asks how he is going to spend it.
Multinationals don't pay taxes in Africa - we all know that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.'
I need to be free, to speak the unspeakable. You can't do that in office.
I never had a doubt that I wanted to do engineering.
I think the Cold War was worse for Africa than colonialism.
I come from a typical family.
Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa.
Women do kids. Women do cooking. Women doing everything. And yet, their position in society is totally unacceptable.
Societies are not sustainable without institutions.
The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are.
I am not a politician. I am not in politics. I'm just a citizen.
Literacy in Tunisia is almost 100%. It's amazing - no country in the region or even in Asia can match Tunisia in education.
What do you do if you're an executive who resigns? You declare yourself a consultant.
To be frank, I don't think President Obama gives much thought to Africa - or gives much to Africa.
Intimidation, harassment and violence have no place in a democracy.
The brain drain from Africa has been reversed.
Computers are very expensive and they need power, and that can be a problem in Africa.
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.
If we cannot accurately measure poverty, we surely cannot accurately measure our efforts to tackle it.
You fly for hours and hours and hours over Africa to go from one place to another.
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?'
Many African people are smarter than me - kids who could have been better. I have no claim for genius.
There's no point in trying to hoard money after life, so better really to share with people.
Corruption exists everywhere.
Women in Africa are really the pillar of the society, are the most productive segment of society, actually. They do agriculture.
Not any amount of aid is going to move Africa forward.
We cannot expect loyalty to an unjust regime.
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.
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.
