Mo Ibrahim

Dr Mohamed "Mo" Ibrahim (Arabic: محمد إبراهيم‎; born 1946) is a Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire. He worked for several other telecommunications companies before founding Celtel, which when sold had over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries. After selling Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion, he set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to encourage better governance in Africa, as well as creating the Mo Ibrahim Index, to evaluate nations' performance. He is also a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School.

In 2007 he initiated the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, which awards a $5 million initial payment, and a $200,000 annual payment for life to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents and democratically transfer power to their successors. Dr Ibrahim has pledged to give at least half of his wealth to charity by joining The Giving Pledge.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was established in 2006 with a focus on the critical importance of leadership and governance in Africa.

It was founded by Dr. Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese philanthropist and businessman who founded telecommunications company Celtel International in 1998.

Dr. Ibrahim is the Chair of the Board. Other Board members are Lord Simon Cairns, Nathalie Delapalme, Hadeel Ibrahim, Abdoulie Janneh, Sir Ketumile Masire, Jay Naidoo, Mary Robinson and Salim Ahmed Salim.

The Foundation’s Secretariat is based in London.

Goals

The stated aims of the foundation are to "bring about meaningful change on the continent, by providing tools to support progress in leadership and governance".

The Foundation, which is a non-grant making organisation, focuses on defining, assessing and enhancing governance and leadership in Africa through four main initiatives:

Abraham

Abraham (/ˈeɪbrəˌhæm, -həm/ (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם‎,  listen )), birthname Abram, is the first of the three biblical patriarchs. His story, told in chapters 11 through 25 of the Book of Genesis, plays a prominent role in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith.

According to Jewish tradition and the Bible's internal chronology, Abraham was born in the year 1948 from Creation (1813 BCE). To date, there has been little if any archaeological or other scientific evidence to confirm his existence at that time. Scholars variously consider Abraham to have lived as late as the seventh century BCE, or that he is a later, literary construct and not a historical person. Potentially, excavation of his traditional burial site, the Cave of the Patriarchs at Hebron, along with carbon dating and/or DNA analysis from the bodies in comparison with the shared Y-chromosomal genes among Jewish and Arab people, his patriarchal offspring by tradition, could provide evidence confirming his existence and chronology.

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of Earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of its total land area. With 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for about 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition.

Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria by population. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.