Mo Ibrahim

“The way forward for Africa is investment.”

“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.”

“In a world of growing food demand, Africa is home to two-thirds of the world's unexploited arable land.”

“It's time Africa started listening to our young people instead of always telling them what to do.”

“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?'”

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

“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.”

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

“Transfer pricing is causing huge problems in Africa.”

“Make as much money as you can, but can you please pay your taxes, because this is a major problem.”

“The state and its elites must be subject, in theory and in practice, to the same laws that its poorest citizens are.”

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

“The issue with international institutions is that there is a crisis of legitimacy. Trust in these institutions is a serious problem.”

“The fight against Ebola cannot undermine the fight against poverty.”

“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.”

“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.'”

“Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa.”

“All we hear about Africa in the West is Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, as if that is all there is.”

“Africa offers the highest return on investment in the world.”

“I come from a typical family.”