Tanzanian billionaire entrepreneur Mohammed Dewji, who was abducted by unidentified kidnappers on October 11 in Dar es Salaam, has been released and has returned home safe.
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In a statement released by MeTL group at 3.15AM today, the prominent businessman says: “I thank Allah that I have returned home safely, I thank all my fellow Tanzanians and everyone around the world for their prayers. I thank the authorities of Tanzania, including the Police Force for working for my safe return.”
The Tanzanian police have also released a video in which Dewji, dressed in a t-shirt and who looks visibly shaken and worn out, thanks his supporters.
Said a source who works closely with Dewji to FORBES AFRICA: “He was released in the middle of Dar es Salaam around 3AM today, unharmed, after which he ran to the nearest security guards who dropped him off home. He does not know who his abductors were. He was only taken about 20 minutes away from the city center, so he has been in Dar es Salaam since the abduction. He has no visible bodily harm with the exception of marks from the handcuffs.” 
She also revealed that the abductors wanted ransom but let him go on account of the media hype around the kidnapping.
Dewji was on his way to a gym session at a luxury hotel in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam, in the early hours of October 11, when he was kidnapped by the masked gunmen.
Dewji’s family had earlier offered 1 billion Tanzanian Shillings ($436,674) to anyone who could help them find him. 
Dewji, popularly known as “Mo” in Tanzania, is the CEO of MeTL active in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils in eastern, southern and central Africa. He is also the main sponsor of football club Simba. 
Dewji was featured on the cover of FORBES AFRICA in July 2013 and was named FORBES AFRICA’s Person of The Year in 2016. The 43-year-old single-handedly turned his father’s trading business into Tanzania’s largest import-export group.
Dewji’s personal networth is $1.5 billion, according to the Africa billionaires list released by FORBES earlier this year. He is also Africa’s youngest billionaire.
Dewji’s office has said it will release a personal address by Dewji “once he is settled”.

Abducted Tanzanian Billionaire Mo Dewji Returns Home

When you first meet Sanjeev Kumar, you do not expect the kind demeanor from his serious stature. The Founder of Bank M stands tall in blue jeans, a black Lacoste dress shirt and a black jacket. He breaks into a small smile as we exchange greetings and lets me know that he is ready for anything I may throw at him.
Although he is behind one of Tanzania’s most successful banking institutions, Kumar’s background is very far from finance. Born and raised in India, he graduated with a degree in law, specializing in taxation law, and was selected to join the management-training program at State Bank of India, the biggest bank in India about 35 years ago. It is here that his love for banking was born; Kumar says it grew on him and he wouldn’t go back to law today if given a chance.
So how does a man of Indian descent end up in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam? Call it perfect timing. Kumar built his banking experience with State Bank of India and soon after moved to the French bank BNP Paribas before making the calculated move to Tanzania in 2001 to become the Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Trust Bank (DTB). His time here showed him the challenges his corporate customers had with managing large cash collections that would not get delivered to the bank in time due to the early closing times most institutions enforced.
“When I came to East Africa, banks here were fat cats and customers didn’t have a choice and had to take what was given. Banks used to open whenever they liked and closed promptly at 2PM,” says Kumar.
This gave him the idea to provide customers with better service by extending operating hours during the day and keeping the bank open over the weekend.
“There are banks in Asia who have done the longer working hours strategy and it has worked for them, but they couldn’t incorporate the service standard guarantee so when I saw that, I knew this new model would work very well in Tanzania and Kenya as well.”
Bank M was an idea formulated by Kumar, and five other investors, after he left DTB in 2004. Kumar had a desire to do his own thing and create an institution that provided the type of service customers were looking for.
“We started with focus. I believe focus is the key for good customer care, so right from the word go, we were focused on wholesale banking and within wholesale banking we concentrated on large business families. We don’t do anything else. We don’t do savings accounts, no ATMs – nothing except wholesale banking,” says Kumar.
Since opening in July 2007, Bank M has grown steadily with paid-up capital now reaching TZS73.06 billion (around $33 million) and balance sheet and profitability growing at a compound annual growth rate of 45% over the past decade. The company has since won the heart of the Tanzanian corporate sector with its longer working hours and customer service guarantee. It is the only financial institution in Africa that is open 12 hours a day, from 8Am to 8PM, seven days a week. It also won the Best Commercial Bank Tanzania 2015 award and is the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of profitability.
Kumar claims that this new style of banking has helped Tanzania’s economy in various ways. Many of Bank M’s customers are supermarkets and restaurants that deposit their earnings for the day in the late evening hours. The bank also does cash collections and deliveries from their customers’ offices.
Bank M started at the right time in Tanzania. The country’s GDP has consistently grown since then, at an average of 7 to 8%, but there is uncertainty for the private sector, according to a Stanbic Bank report on African markets.
“Prospects are looking good for Tanzania’s economy as it grows closer to the 7% mark, making it stronger than both the Kenyan and Ugandan economies. The jury is still out though on the various reforms mandated to enhance productivity in the region,” says Jibran Qureishi, Regional Economist for East Africa at Stanbic Bank.
Jesse James A’ruwa, Co-Founder and Senior Investment Advisor at SMA Capital Limited,  however, says banks can still do more.
“There still remains a huge gap to fill in the financial sector to ensure that the public has access to the full array of financial services, including access to money markets and investment funds etc. I believe that for the financial sector to really take strides towards advancing the economy, the stakeholders within the financial sub-sectors need to adapt their products to the reality of the Tanzanian people and their mindsets,” he says.
Kumar has since opened a variant of Bank M in Nairobi, Kenya.  The majority shareholders of Bank M have set up a Bank Holding Company, M Holdings Limited, which has been licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya as a non-operating bank holding company. M Holdings has been licensed by CBK to acquire a minimum 51% stake in local Nairobi bank, Oriental Commercial Bank – now rebranded to M-Oriental Bank. With this new acquisition, the bank will focus on large family businesses in Kenya. Kumar says there is a big difference in finance management between Kenya and Tanzania.
“In Kenya, $1 is just KSH102 while in Tanzania it is TZS2,235, so the circulation is much less in Kenya. In Tanzania, if you change $100,000 you’ll need a suitcase to carry it, but in Nairobi that is still manageable cash. So Kenyans don’t need as elaborate a structure but we will definitely still offer cash pick-up and delivery.”
Bank M plans to expand in eastern and southern Africa, to countries such as Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Malawi.
Kumar is an avid runner but finding time for this can be difficult. He spends about 14 hours a day in his office in either Tanzania or Kenya, but says it does not feel like work as he enjoys his job immensely. He credits the company’s success on its customer service.
“Our focus on clients is the main factor that determined our success. Giving them the kind of service they wanted, delivering what they need to them at the time and place of their choice,” he says.
Kumar left India to advance in his career as a banker and ended up doing a lot more than that. He has found a new home in East Africa and is playing an important role in developing the constantly growing financial sector here. Fat cats beware.

The Tiger Taking On The Fat Cats

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) PLC was set to list on its own main board on July 12 after raising TZS10.1 billion ($4.6 million) in an IPO. It received bids totalling TZS35.8 billion, or 4.8 times oversubscription, for its TZS7.5 billion offer of 15 million shares at TZS500 each which closed on June 3. The DSE had a “green shoe” option to take up to 10% extra and applied to Tanzania’s Capital Markets and Securities Authority to boost this to 35% with the result that it was able to take an additional TZS2.6 billion. Staff took up their full allocation of 3% of the shares.
The Tanzanian bourse is set for a boost in activity after telecoms firms were ordered to list up to 25% of their shares within six months from July 1, in terms of the government’s Finance Bill 2016 and an amended Electronic and Postal Communications Act in June. DSE CEO, Moremi Marwa, said there would be enough liquidity: “The combined 25% of all telecommunications companies’ balance sheets is about $1 billion… Our current market capitalization is TZS22 trillion and annual market turnover is exceeding TZS750 billion. Treasury bonds and bills issued per annum at DSE normally exceeds TZS2.5 trillion and they are normally oversubscribed, meaning there is more liquidity to invest in less risky assets than instruments available.”
The DSE plans to use IPO proceeds to enhance its core operating system, introduce new products and services and for “strategic and operational purposes”. One in two Tanzanians have learned to use mobile financial services, according to a FinScope survey, and investors can use phones to apply for some DSE share offers.
In May, the Botswana Stock Exchange issued a tender for its valuation as it becomes demutualized, for-profit company, BSE Ltd, and works out how to convert the proprietary rights owned by stockbrokers and its government subvention. The Casablanca Stock Exchange is also demutualizing and mulling an IPO – its shareholders include banks 39%, brokers 20% and the Caisse de dépôt et de gestion (CDG) 25%. Johannesburg and Nairobi were Africa’s first securities exchanges to complete the steps through demutualization, IPO and self-listing.
Enko Capital runs the $83-million Enko Africa Private Equity Fund, which focuses on pre-IPO investments, and says Kenyan IT company, The Copy Cat, which operates in four East African countries, and Nigerian interior design company DO.II Designs are considering IPOs. Nigeria’s government is working on privatization of eight state-owned companies: Port Harcourt Refining Company, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Telecommunications, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Bank of Agriculture, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry.
Innscor Africa Holdings spun off and listed Axia Corporation on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) in May. Axia has three operating subsidiaries – logistics and warehousing Distribution Group Africa, furniture and appliance retailer TV Sales &amp; Home, and auto spares retailer Transerv – and $40.6 million market capitalization. Innscor’s previous unbundlings and listings were Simbisa Brands in November and Padenga Holdings in 2010 as the conglomerate focuses on light manufacturing. It was the ZSE’s second listing in 2016 after GetBucks in January.
West African utility group, Eranove, postponed its IPO and listing on the Paris-based Euronext exchange. Its owners include private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners (56%) and insurer AXA (19%) and its four core subsidiaries which supply water and generate and distribute power in Côte d’Ivoire, and distribute water in Senegal.
Miguel Azevedo, Citigroup’s Head of Investment Banking Africa, says the IPO drive will continue in 2017 as capital-raising moves from debt to equity. Bond sales have been hit by rising yields and declining local currencies.
“Sometimes entrepreneurs, all they want is debt, no equity, just debt. This crisis showed them that this can be very expensive. It makes sense to bring in some more equity,” says Azevedo.
His tips for exciting industries include consumer goods, banking, power and infrastructure.
“I see the growth profile of the continent, and in the blocs, is still there. The opportunity in Africa is still there.”
He forecast that multinationals expanding in Africa would aim to take significant positions in companies, rather than outright purchases.
“The base case is buying around 50% with an agreement to buy the remainder.”
Private equity will remain very active and there could be more consolidation among leading firms.

Entrepreneurs Move  From Debt To Equity

Seven years ago, 22-year-old Patrick Ngowi sat in a small office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He held several positions in his newly-formed renewable energy company, Helvetic Solar. He was the founder, CEO, assistant, cleaner and had one investor, his mother.
He was young, energetic and ready to change the way his country creates energy. But it was tough to convince the rest of Tanzania.
“I had cases where you extend a hand to someone and they don’t want to shake your hand. Some people were rude unnecessarily,” he says.
Many companies saw the potential of solar energy, but questioned the capabilities of the young man. Ngowi had come a long way as an entrepreneur and wasn’t going to give up that easily.
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His first business venture was selling scratch cards at the age of 15 where he would make at least $5 a day. After high school, his parents could not afford to send both him and his sister to university so his mother gave him $1,800 and a plane ticket and he flew to China and set up his own business in the cellular phone industry.
“It was an industry that yielded high profit margins but because capital was low, many people started coming up with similar business models.”
Ngowi adjusted his sights and focused on selling mobile phones to the rural communities. He thought that the market had been neglected and it brought him greater profits.
While working in China he learned that discipline and hard work were essential for success. One thing that made him sit up was seeing the respect people had for one another.
“From the common man on the street to the boss at the top, first and foremost people are very down to earth. They are not egotistic so you don’t get people over the top and for me that was important. As a young man, I saw men who were multi-millionaires who were literally loading the consignment onto the containers. For me it’s one of those things that wakes you up.”
With the money Ngowi made from his cellular business he was able to study renewable energy at Dezhou University, in Dezhou which is close to Beijing. Every day, he was troubled by the way the thick smog would blot out the sun. He decided that he didn’t want to see the same thing happen to the African sun in Tanzania.
“If you can lower your carbon footprint, it’s life changing. The idea is to preserve the world and make it a better place and to leave it better than the way you found it… I am so happy because right now, with the prices of solar panels going down, you’re seeing more and more people are able to afford it.”
While sitting near the beach, Ngowi slouched back in his chair and spoke of the positive impact China has had on the continent. In the last few years, China has made massive investments in several African countries. And while some question their motives, others, like Ngowi, see the benefits in improving the infrastructure.
“If you want to see the impact of how the Chinese are transforming Africa, ask a person in the rural parts of Africa, ask a person who did not have a road, did not have water, did not have a hospital or school. Suddenly those things are being done… They [the Chinese] are bringing about change that we have not seen before and you cannot turn a blind eye to it.”
Over the years, Ngowi has had massive success in turning the Helvetic Group into an $8-million company. Last year he made the FORBES 30 Under 30: Africa’s Best Young Entrepreneurs list. Ngowi hopes to turn Helvetic into a power brand that is able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in Africa.
With the strong global interest in Africa, Ngowi still fears that foreign investors overlook African entrepreneurs.
“It will really be so pathetic if today we wait for European, Chinese or American solar contractors to come and light up our rural home while there is a younger person with a proven track record, already doing it, not being able to scale up.”
While the effects of climate change and global warming continue to destroy the world, Ngowi is focused on educating the youth and making changes that will benefit generations to come. For him renewable energy is not a business, it’s a way of life that captures the light.

The Green Eye For Energy

What most entrepreneurs don’t achieve in a lifetime, he did in just over a decade. Mohammed Dewji single-handedly turned his father’s trading business into Tanzania’s largest import-export group. He grew Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania (MeTL) 30-fold and increased revenues from $30 million to $1.1 billion, by diversifying into everything from cement and real estate to energy and mobile telephony. The man claims to be worth at least $1.3 billion; as the company is not listed, it is difficult to make an independent estimate.
It’s not surprising that many have a hard time imagining the humble beginnings of Dewji. Legend has it that his family, who stem from Gujarat state in western India, were blown in a dhow across the Indian Ocean, landing in Zanzibar with very little. They moved south and his grandmother opened a small trading shop out of their home in Singida, a poverty-stricken town in central Tanzania. In this simple house, built from sand and mud, Dewji was born with the help of a midwife from around the corner.
“That wasn’t very smart. My mother and I almost died because I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck,” he says.
His father, Gulam Dewji—who had, by the mid-1970s, turned his mother’s shop into a flourishing import-export business— was able to send his six children to good schools. First, in Tanzania’s third-largest city, Arusha, later in the capital Dar es Salam; in their free time, Dewji and his siblings played tennis and golf.
“My father spent a lot of money educating us. He also believed sport creates discipline. He didn’t want us to just play a sport for fun. He wanted us to push ourselves. We probably have a thousand trophies at home that we won,” he says.
Until this day, there is almost nothing Dewji undertakes as a hobby. He either aims for success, or doesn’t bother. And so, he plows millions of dollars into Tanzania’s national soccer team, the Taifa Stars, instead of being content watching the odd game or kicking around a ball on a Sunday.
“I have no moderation. My wife always complains. She says, ‘Mohammed, why don’t you do things in the middle?’ It’s either very much or nothing at all,” he says.
His favorite sport has always been golf. Dewji spent many afternoons on Dar es Salaam’s golf course, not only because he was good at it, he had a three handicap, but also because he realized, from early on, that many high-profile business deals are concluded on the world’s 18-hole courses.
“I already liked to network as a very young guy. I was told that the golf course is a good place to meet important people. So I started playing golf. At one time, I even wanted to become a golf professional,” he says.
When his father saw that his son showed potential, he enrolled him at the legendary Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in Orlando, Florida, where Dewji also attended Saddlebrook High School. A few years later, when it became clear that Dewji wasn’t going to make the cut as a professional golfer, he decided to study international business and finance with a minor in theology at Georgetown University, an elite tertiary institution in Washington D.C. The University has a long list of alumni: former American President Bill Clinton; former Philippines President Gloria Arroyo and Jordan’s King Abdullah.
During his time at Georgetown, Dewji learned what he says were key lessons in leadership.
“Georgetown really molded me. It took me a step forward. I understood that you need to be dreaming, but not daydreaming. You need to try to dream a reality. Then you have vision,” he says.
Pietra Rivoli, deputy dean of Georgetown University’s school of business, who taught Dewji international finance, remembers him as a student with boundless energy.
“While other students tried to stay awake through discussions of exchange rates, Mohammed would stay after class to talk about how the readings might pertain to the Tanzanian shilling, and how Tanzania could address its economic challenges. Even at the age of 20, or so, he was thinking about how to improve life in his country,” says Rivoli.
Dewji never questioned whether he should return to Africa, after graduating in 1998. He joined his father’s business, which had by then become a million dollar trade and transport group, as chief financial controller. Five years later, at the age of 29, he was promoted to managing director, after expanding his father’s business swiftly.
“I went into manufacturing and value-addition. I built a distribution system and created branches,” he says.
Today, MeTL Group is buying and selling more than 200 commodities in east, central and southern Africa, from sugar to rice, salt, fertilizer, second-hand clothing, motorcycles, bubblegum, yeast and ballpoint pens. The group also exports 50 of its own brands, taking advantage of the fact that Tanzania borders eight countries.
“The goods that I am mainly dealing in are FMCGs [fast moving consumable goods]. It’s goods that touch people’s lives, that are needed by the common man,” he says.
The distribution of FMCGs is not easy in a vast country such as Tanzania, which measures one million square kilometers and where 80% of the population lives in far-flung villages. But with more than 100 trade outlets countrywide, MeTL Group has managed to undercut multi-national giants such as Unilever and drive them from the market.
“I have a big basket of goods. I have warehousing and logistics. I have over a thousand trucks. It’s all complimenting each other. It’s very difficult for people to come from the outside and compete with me,” says Dewji.
He invests in whatever sector he sees opportunity and growth potential. Or to say it differently: the only two industries Dewji is not involved in are beer and tobacco.
Agriculture is another key sector for MeTL Group, with 50,000 hectares of arable land, it is the largest private landowner. The company employs 24,000 people, making it the country’s biggest employer. Dewji’s sisal farms, tea gardens and cashew fields are good money makers. Nearly all the cashew kernels are shipped to the United States.
Always thinking two steps ahead, Dewji has been planning how to profit from his land, as Dar es Salaam, a city of 4.4 million people, grows quickly. He is turning a 17,000 acre plot, which he bought cheaply several years ago, 25 kilometers outside the capital, into a dry-port with an internal container depot. A railway connection will feed into Dar es Salaam’s massive harbor, which is slowly, but surely, running out of space. It will, of course, also generate huge profits.
Since MeTL Group already contributes 3.5% of Tanzania’s GDP, according to Dewji, it is fast outgrowing national boundaries.
“If you compare, for example, Tata and the MeTL Group, we are like Mickey Mouse. But if you look at their contribution to India, vis-à-vis my contribution to Tanzania, mine is bigger. You end up competing with everybody in your own country, and I don’t think that’s healthy. It’s a risk area. It’s a good time for us to replicate what we are doing in Tanzania in other countries,” he says.
A workaholic at heart, Dewji rarely thinks small.
“Slowly, slowly, I am planning to take on the whole continent. I am very bullish,” he says.
His five-year plan is to turn MeTL Group into a $5 billion empire.
“We have to constantly revisit our visions, because we are outgrowing them so quickly. Who would have thought we could turn our business from $30 million to $1.1 billion in only 12 years? I believe that by 2018, we will be a $5 billion business. Easy. It’s a no-brainer. If you look at the business we are in and the growth potential that there is, it’s amazing. My philosophy as a businessman is not to be satisfied with what I have got, but to always work harder to achieve more,” he says.
The MeTL Group, with Dewji at the helm, has expanded so drastically that it has outgrown the coffers of Tanzania’s banks. Dewji has found a solution. He goes to one of the continent’s powerhouses, South Africa, to finance new ventures. Most recently, he secured a $100 million syndicated loan through a grouping of banks.
“If I think of a top African businessman, Mohammed comes to mind. He works very long hours, is always on the move, has an eye for opportunity and a very good business sense. He is levelheaded and pays extremely close attention to detail,” says Helmut Engelbrecht, head of investment banking in Africa at Standard Bank, one of the financial institutions working with the MeTL Group.
Every venture Dewji pursues, links closely into his country’s national policy. When Tanzania’s government launched a national strategy for economic growth and poverty reduction in 2005, that was geared toward entrepreneurship, Dewji saw opportunity.
“I bought a lot of sick industries, including soap production, grain milling, rice and sugar blending. I also went into the edible oil business and the textile industry,” he says.
He first expanded MeTL Group’s edible oil refining capacity from 60 to 600 tons. This year, Dewji almost quadrupled the business when he purchased an additional 1,650 ton refinery, increasing his output to 2,250 tons of edible oil. It comes as little surprise that he has caught the attention of some of Africa’s wealthiest investors.
“I am being approached by many big boys, by multi-national companies that want to partner with me or buy me out. But I am not ready to sell yet. I can see so much more opportunity for growth. I don’t want to be paid based on what I am earning today, because I can see the tremendous potential. I am always looking five to 10 years ahead,” he says.
Another ailing sector Dewji tried to resuscitate is Tanzania’s textile industry. Knowing that the east African nation is the continent’s third largest cotton producer, he decided to buy and refurbish four run-down mills: three in Tanzania and one in Mozambique. His next steps will be into Zambia and Malawi, he says, considering Ethiopia as a potential fifth standpoint.
“We were quite lucky. Tanzania’s previous, socialist government had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to build textile mills. But under socialism everything collapsed. So we were able to acquire these industries very cheaply. Obviously the machinery was all run-down, the technology obsolete. We had to rehabilitate the mills by investing in top European and American machinery,” says Dewji.
He has turned MeTL Group into sub-Sahara Africa’s largest textile player, integrating the entire value-addition chain from ginning to spinning, weaving, processing and printing.
“This year, we are going to produce more than a hundred million meters of cloth. That is more than 2,500 times the circumference of the earth,” says Dewji.
Due to his entrepreneurial vigor, Tanzania is able to compete with the world’s largest and cheapest textile producer, China—at least within its own borders where government policies, including import tariffs on textiles and a standard value added tax (VAT) of 18% help protect the industry.
“Today, overall textile production is cheaper in Tanzania than in China. Labor is competitive in terms of pricing. Tanzania’s big advantage is that we have cotton, while China has to import cotton. So they cannot compete with me in my market,” says Dewji.
His success speaks for itself. This year, he will earn at least $85 million after taxes, he says.
“People often ask me: ‘Who is smarter, you or your father?’ I ask them back: ‘Is the person who goes from zero to 10 smarter, or someone who goes from 10 to a thousand?’ Obviously, it’s much easier to go from 10 to a thousand than to start from zero. So I believe that my father is much smarter than me,” he says.
Nothing could be further from his mind than taking it easy.
“People in Tanzania look at my wealth and think I must be sunbathing and playing golf all day. But I work really hard. I put in a hundred hours a week. It’s a never stopping game. You can never say, ‘I’ve worked hard enough now’,” says Dewji, who has 60 divisional board meetings every month, or two per day.
Every morning, Dewji—who lives with his wife, daughter and two sons in one of Dar es Salaam’s exclusive neighborhoods—starts work at 6AM, spending the first hour responding to emails and reading commodity reports. He runs meetings until lunch, by which time he has already put in almost seven hours of work.
“When I feel my energy levels starting to drop, I drive to the gym near my house. Every day, I run three kilometers and lift weights. I like to keep fit,” says Dewji, who is slender and the proud owner of a six pack.
After gym, he goes home for lunch and to play with his three children, for 15 minutes before he returns to the office until late at night. The only day he takes off is Sunday, when he spends time with his family.
“Until about four years ago, I also used to work on Sundays, until my wife almost divorced me,” he jokes.
Dewji is not only growing his own empire. He is putting Tanzania on the map, making sure the east African nation—which boasts the continent’s third largest gold reserves, as well as recently discovered uranium and gas reserves—will become one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s big economic players, alongside South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.
Already, Dar es Salaam is the second fastest-growing African city after Lagos. Tanzania, which boasts an average of 7% national economic growth over the past decade, has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. According to the World Bank, Tanzania’s per capita GDP more than doubled from $730 in 2000 to $1,500 in 2012.
“There’s no doubt that the country’s purchasing power is increasing,” says Dewji, who believes the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa, which currently has an overall growth rate of 4.8%, could achieve double-digit growth figures, if countries are well-governed, politically stable and attract investment.
As if Dewji didn’t already have enough on his plate, he is also in politics. The decision was made when he visited Singida, where he grew up, after returning from the United States. As he walked the city’s streets, he encountered an old man who was scooping yellowish water out of a dirty puddle. It was drinking water for his family.
“A lot of people die from water-born diseases in rural Tanzania. But every life has the same value. So I decided to run in the next elections to change the dire situation these people live in. I was 24 years old. My parents thought I was crazy,” he says.
Whatever Dewji sets his mind to, he turns into a success. In 2005, he was elected as a member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Tanzania. Five years later, he was re-elected in a landslide victory with 80% of votes. Not being a fan of politicking, Dewji, who is fluent in English and Kiswahili, says he decided to put his own spin on the role of an MP.
“I don’t really have time for politics. I don’t go to Parliament, and I don’t get involved in national politics, because I don’t want it to conflict with my business interests. All I do is serve my constituency because I believe people see hope in me,” he says.
He puts his money where his mouth is. Every year, he donates $500,000 of his own money to help the people of Singida. In the years Dewji has been representing the central Tanzanian district, the number of people with clean water has increased from 23% to 75%, while the number of secondary schools from two to 18.
“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,” he says.
In the meantime, he is a man who can afford to look good.
“I have a huge wardrobe of suits and over 200 glasses. I like to match the frames with my glasses. I like to match the frames with my suits. At the moment I am not very happy with my brand, because they have stopped distributing color frames, which means I can only wear black suits. You have to live well, but you don’t have to live lavishly to the extreme. You need to be humble. I could buy a plane, a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley. But I don’t. If drilling a borehole costs $20,000, you tell me to buy a watch for $20,000? To make a decision that has an impact on people’s lives is a one-second decision for me. If you get too egocentric, you lose your vision. It deceives you.”
So speaks the Tsar of Dar.

Tag: Dar es Salaam

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