Less Walk More Talk

Celtel was founded in Europe by an African expatriate, the Sudanese Mo Ibrahim, who went from being the son of a humble clerk to running one of the continent s most successful mobile operators.

His work in Britain led him to become a senior figure in UK mobile operator BT Celtel before launching his own company. Against all the odds, he and the international team he put together, convinced skeptical international bankers to invest in the company and demonstrated that the African continent was a place where money could be made.

Celtel went from being a start-up that could barely afford to bid for new licences to acquiring the continent s largest mobile operator in Nigeria for a billion dollars five years later.

Although Africa is not entirely the land of civil war and famine seen nightly on TV screens across the world, it is probably one of the toughest places on the planet to do business. In countries with almost no infrastructure, Celtel built networks and sold phones to consumers clamouring to buy their product. Through making a number of technical innovations, they took the mobile from being a product only for the elite, to a position where nearly everyone could afford access to it. More than in the developed world, access to mobile phones in Africa has begun to change how life is led. It has had an impact on people s personal lives, the way business is done, and even on politics.