Mohamedi Dewji
MOHAMMED Dewji, Group CEO of Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (MeTL) has taken home this year’s prestigious CEO of The Year award.
Mr Dewji, Africa’s youngest billionaire,
becomes the first Tanzanian to win the coveted Africa CEO of the Year
Award issued by African CEO Forum, which held its two-day annual meeting
in Geneva, Switzerland.
He beat off competition from business
heavyweights across the continent, which brought in compatriot Said
Salim Bakhresa, to take home one of the biggest awards in Africa’s
private sector at a gala dinner on the first day of the Africa CEO
Forum.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Dewji
thanked the organisers and jurors saying he was “humbled and honoured
for this fantastic recognition”. He also thanked President John Magufuli
for his relentless fight against corruption.
Dewji, the 20th richest man in Africa,
is responsible for increasing MeTL’s revenues from $30 million to over
$1.4 billion between 1999 and 2016. The firm has investments in
manufacturing, agriculture, trading, finance, mobile telephony,
insurance, real estate, transport and logistics, and food and beverages.
The group conducts business in eleven
countries and employs over 28,000 people with the aim to target over
100,000 people by 2021. Dewji also became the first Tanzanian on the
cover of Forbes Magazine in 2013 and has been featured on three separate
occasions.
In November 2015, he was recognized as
the Forbes African Person of the year. A Senegalese, Anta Babacar Ngom
Bathily, was crowned ‘Young CEO of the Year’ in Africa for her
remarkable leadership skills as Executive Director of Sedima, Senegal’s
leading agribusiness group.
This category was created at last year’s
Forum, to recognize a promising young African business leader under 45
years old. Receiving the award, Ms Ngom Bathily dedicated her award to
“all women and young women” as well as to her father, who was present at
the ceremony.
Egypt-based Elsewedy Electric received
the African Company of The Year award, and African Bank of the Year
award went to Morocco’s leading Attijariwafa Bank, ranked Africa’s
fourth largest bank. The Private Equity Investor of the Year award was
given to AfricInvest, a Tunisia-based firm dedicated to the
international expansion of French SMEs in Africa.
The International Corporation of the
Year Award was jointly won by German insurer Allianz and Portuguese
company Mota-Engil, which has been working in Africa for over two
decades.
Each year, the Africa CEO Forum is
attended by more than 800 people in total, including over 500 CEOs from
all four corners of the continent, 100 bankers and financiers, and 200
prominent African and international figures.
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