In conversation with Africa’s youngest billionaire Mohammed Dewji on entrepreneurship

[Music] this event has had many learnings at the beginning I did promise you that the speakers were going to bring to the stage are going to give you the tools and the insights to cross that bridge from where you are to where you want to be do you feel like what on the track to doing that for you awesome the final talk we're going to have is a talk we've all been waiting for it's a talk that's going to top it all off that's going to seal the deal for everyone in this room today it's the most highly anticipated talk of the event my talk that is sure to inspire us all because it's a talk by the youngest billionaire in the continent as per the Forbes 20:19 the Forbes Africa list of African billionaires Mohammed uji is not just a trailblazer in East Africa in specifically in Tanzania the country that he comes from but it's a shining light for the entire continent proving that hard work that hearts soul passion not just for business but for people creates results that are multiplied now he is also a humble man if you've checked out his videos on YouTube you've seen that he has a heart for people he's offered to take a few questions from the audience as soon as his talk is done so it's not thinking about those questions but also post them on the app I'm going to be choosing one of the most potent questions that I can find on the app and I'm going to be posing that question to him of course we're only gonna take a limited amount of questions so do start thinking about those as you're listening to his talk also he has come all the way from Tanzania to deliver this talks today so as we watch his intro video I want us to give him all the love all the mihrab shares all the applause that we have left in us it is our final talk of the day in any case and let's roll the video [Music] Muhammadu G presidents of metal group Africa's youngest billionaire Mohammed is a businessman entrepreneur philanthropist and former politician and Africa's youngest billionaire in 2019 Forbes magazine enlisted him as the 14th richest person in Africa with an estimated net worth of 1.9 billion US dollars mohamed Uji was also the first Tanzanian billionaire on the cover of Forbes Africa magazine in 2004 we open the flow and see equations from the floor I'm going to kick off with a question from social media and the question is around this phenomena of manufacturing the person is asking about this issue of the east and the West coming into Africa taking raw materials producing all these products that didn't come back and sell into Africa and as an industrialist yourself you know how do you think young people can begin to navigate the issue of manufacturing our own products but also what are the policy that you think are hindering that kind of manufacturing growth in Africa and how do we address those issues especially politically yes so I'll give you an example of a specific industry I mean that creates large number of jobs we all know that whether if you look at Ivory Coast and you look at cocoa beans and then you see the total amount of chocolates that are sold all over the world and the value that is attached to it and you see what Ivory Coast is actually getting out is only 5% of the total value one or you see a lot of cotton been grown into bikini Faso or if you look at countries like Mozambique and Tanzania and Uganda and yet what we do is we just export raw cotton so what doesn't make sense to me is that we have cotton we have quite competitive labour we have power that is not as competitive but compared to China in India which are the largest textile producers we are quite competitive to them so what does it make sense you take cotton they go and spin and they weave in the process and there they print and then they come and dump these products into Africa and so the jobs are being exported our raw materials been exported the value addition has been exported and how can they be competitive to bring it all the way back with all the freights of going and coming so I took this these challenges so I think coming back to you know customs and coming back to revenue authorities I think it is very very important to protect manufacturing and the only way to protect manufacturing it's like you know how Donald Trump talks about America first you need to be you know having a priority for Africa first so protect your industries from outside or subsidize products that come in and are dumped and that affect your your market thank you so much for that I'm now going to take hands from the audience I have one hand here do we have any other hands for this round if you just raise them high because the lighting is pretty bright from stage I have the second hand do we have a third hand I'm not sure if I'm missing any hand so if anyone can just have a look at there so we have our hand here so Mike where where's our mic so if you can just start here in the front thank you and then we're going to go over to this end hello hi hi my name is Tammy boy I'm a business partner to Brucie and her part-time bodyguard so so here my question is this so as an industrialist in Africa I think you know we always talk about like the phenomenon of the fourth Industrial Revolution and what it really means is how automation is going to start to rapidly take over jobs and working in industry means that so many people are dependent on the jobs that exist within that sector and I think jobs are most threatened in your sector more than any other sector in Africa really especially in this continent have you found yourself in a situation where you have to make you know way ups between implementing you know automation machinery they could perhaps maybe we assume will help you pasture your profits at the expense of people's jobs have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were confronted with those kind of conundrums and how do you navigate those kinds of things especially in a situation where we would feel a developmental imperative to people having jobs here in our continent ok thank you it's a very very fair question I think this is an issue but as an entrepreneur you must have heard about impact investing and you know I believe I'm an impact investor I believe that by investing I need to make profits by the same time I think I need to do good also so it's not all about the profits number one and number two what is happening is that countries that are mainly affected by robotics are countries where labor is very very expensive now if you look at I still believe in Africa I mean you look at the East African economies you're talking about GDP of 50 55 billion you talk about 50 55 million you're talking about a thousand dollars a year per capita so you're talking about eighty five dollars so so you are still very very competitive but three what we should do is that we need to build capacity and for that labor force to do something that robotics cannot do and then you have those jobs that are repetitive that need consistency then you can automate but not by giving up jobs this is my belief thank you so much for that our second question here in the front good day everyone thank you for sharing with us how you as a pan-africanist make a difference in the lives of the contrary in in make a difference in the continent and the lives of African people may the African God continue to bless you and increase your business I would like to find out from you and personally as an entrepreneur we do entrepreneurs or we should entrepreneurs Park their liquid assets firstly to ensure that they have a failsafe and also for I guess for the future you know for being able to pass that on for the future generations because we'd assume that if you have so much money in your bank you'd like to make a sip day and then look at the zeros you know once in a while but like where do you park your your your view of your liquid assets you know you feel cash yeah thank you so so thank you for for your positive comments to be very honest I just before I respond to that question that you know when you're an entrepreneur it's very very important to do all this impact investing and make sure that end of the day it's not only about the money and it's about the people I'll give you a small example what happened to me recently where I was kidnapped and it's very it's very funny what happened it was nine days and majority of people in my country are very poor people and there are differences of political affiliation there differences of religion there are differences of color the differences of tribes but the biggest difference in Africa and in the world is between the haves and the have-nots so when I was abducted and I was away for nine days when I came back and I saw was happening in the social media and I saw what how Africans and poor Africans stood up for me in terms of praying hashtags bring back more I mean this really really really touched me because how do you expect a poor person to think about the rich person's problems and and and I was very very surprised because the problem is between the haves and the have-nots so I think it is very very important in our careers like the speaker before you know spoke that life is very very short and and I think it is important to always give back to our communities specific communities coming back to your question I think you know old-fashioned bankers will always tell you to have thirty thirty five percent of your money in very liquid liquid cash assets and then other thirty thirty five percent so called brick and mortar and other in gold and now with all the problems that we're having in the world I see gold prices are also going up but my idea I think the world and Africa is moving to FinTech you know I think the world is changing like crazy and I think if if you can come up with an idea of a startup that is related to technology and connecting people I just feel that there is just a lot of money to be made there thank you so much for that and then we had a question I think was the question in the minute beside oh it's yeah with the white okay thank you so much for the opportunity my name is Nobu Manilow degree and my question is that you have all the success and I think everybody in this room wants that we're here because of that but I want to know who is Mohammed like who are you really so with 100 hours a week 85 million dollars a year let's take that away who are you really what is your dogma like what is inside fair question so so Muhammad is an African boy that was born in the hinterlands of Tanzania for a small place called Sangeeta I was second and you know I never made it to the hospital I imagine my dad was so crazy that he took a risk I was born at home with the Midwife and it took my mother 18 hours and they didn't even know there were no ultrasounds then and there was an umbilical cord that was around my neck and that's why I wasn't coming out and the hospital was about 50 60 miles away but the road to the hospital was so terrible and you know it got to a point where you know they they thought that one of us was gonna die or both of us so my life started from a very small town in Tanzania and yes I I went to I did high school and then I went to university in DC when I came back I I also joined politics and I was a member of parliament for 10 years and it was very very you know usually to get it to politics at that young age was very very difficult but the reason why I got into politics was and I want to share this small story with you so cingi des is an urban constituency but when you drive ten kilometers out of singita you the periphery is rural and when I we have about 100,000 people in the in town and then you've got another 100,000 people in rural singular so when I drove I saw an old man at that time there was a puddle of yellow water and it was basically at a plate and it would scoop this water and put it into into the bucket and I asked him so what are you doing and because my grandfather and my great-grandfather they are all buried in singular as Muslims we kind of go back to the graveyard and pray for them and so so when I saw this old man and he says no no no this is the water we're drinking so I asked them that who's your Member of Parliament and finally they said the Member of Parliament was the Minister of water at that time hey when I started researching I realized you know three out of ten kids die from waterborne diseases because of typhoid exactly etc etc and then the problem is the education level was so low so you know it was a vicious circle that they were not very educated and therefore when the kids got sick they started treating them not medically but treating them in their own you know informal ways and when the kid got really really sick by the time they got the kid to the hospital many kids died and you know I I have children and I say that I love my children and I know every parent loves their child the way I love mine and I always say that a child from New York or you know from Tokyo and his or her life equals to a child in Africa because you know there is no life that is greater than another life life equals to life so so that prompted me to get into politics and I was in a very good MP because I was not representing the constituency much in Parliament because I felt I was a little conflicted because of the businesses that I was running but I had a very strong team I mean on the education front we had imagine two secondary schools and in ten years we were up to 23 accessibility of water was at 23% when I left it was almost 85 86 % and this is according to the World Health Organization so I'm more is the person of people I like people I I feel wherever I can bring value to people or help people I believe that you know when God gives you well that sometimes your representative for the people and that you know this Walton that is why I've also signed The Giving Pledge it's an initiative that is from the Bill Gates and Warren Buffett where you pledge half of your wealth away and I keep on telling my children that I'm really going to give majority of my wealth away to philanthropy and I think it's just you know so that's that's more and of course I have a passion for football I own a club called Simba in Tanzania which drives me crazy it it increases my heart rate I mean I think you know what there was a time when we were playing the Champions League and you know like ten minutes before the game I felt my hands are all numb I'm like dude I'm gonna die here you know and I'm no control so so this is more a little bit of more I mean thank you so much for that I don't know if you have time to take two more questions just one question here and one question from right in the front row unfortunately and then maybe the third question right at the gray suit so let's start right here so if you could just stand up so yeah it's just you so the the person with the mic knows who you are there we go my name is she's at home Sonam from Malawi first of all like to congratulate you for evading that 30 million to 1.1 billion but what I wanted to ask you is I believe we have guys here that are starting from this clash they didn't have the opportunity to have that money to stop their business if it is in your case that there was no that money would you be a billionaire and if your answer is yes how would you advise the guy that are starting from the clutch that are here so so that's definitely I did have an advantage that my father was a rich man reasonably a rich man and then I got this fantastic education I think capital is important but I don't think I would have reached where I would have reached today if it wasn't for capital and the time when I went back to Tanzania the banking sector liberalisation was delayed in East Africa so I remember 1990 9 I walk into a butler's bank and the paid up capital of Barclays Bank is 2 million dollars and the maximum they can lend me was 20 percent of the paid up capital so was $400,000 I realized that I was never gonna get anywhere with a phone mm and so I started looking for solutions and that is why I mention ethical Ness your world you know even when you give you a word even if you're losing money you make sure to you are dear to your work so I actually started coming to South Africa and knocking indoors and people you know you know I I could feel what they're saying you know look at this guy wearing a suit talking big stories you know you know why should I lend him money you know but I kept on coming and finally I broke through I got a couple of million dollars I was lucky at the right time at the right place with you know interest rates being low and started off with a few million dollars and now we have signed a quarter of a billion dollars of syndication so yes money makes money but specifically with only my father's wealth I don't think I would have got where I would have got today you have to be able to access Capital and with today I think you know it is important that that yes you once you have a fantastic idea and you're fantastic executioner of that idea I think there's many startups that are getting funded big-time I mean startups that are losing money in the past when we were young you go to someone and say look I've this business and I'm losing money and I you know I four seed losing it for five years and you invest in my money you tell you to go well you know today you know you have this big startups I think I was in the CEO conference and I I gave one of these awards to this company that is projecting to lose money for the next four or five years and there's raising rounds and rounds of capital so I think capital accessibility today is far more easier than you but you just have to believe in your idea and you have to work hard and you have to keep on going edges okay thank you so much for that response we had a question right here at the front and then the final question with the gentleman wearing a gray suit so more we know that you work hundred hours a week you're always on a plane always busy managing these various businesses tell me how do you stay in great shape we know you have a six-pack we're about your workout routine and regiment so by the way I go kidnapped at the gym ah it was five o clock in the morning and you know my dad was when I was not there this is the stories there my dad and like what does he do at the gym at 5:00 in the morning right it's crazy so I think a healthy body is a healthy mind I think it is very very important and you can go to the gym you can run but it's you need to exercise you need to sweat you can even play sports you know it takes your mind away from the real world you can think etcetera etcetera so I think it is very very important so what I do is that that I sacrifice my mornings now I don't anymore so I have picked the lunchtime and and I make sure it is you know religious that even if I'm feeling down and many times because I start so early by the time it's 12:00 1:00 o'clock you have already clocked in seven seven and a half hours and when I go out the gym and I come back and I run five seven eight kilometres every day and I work I do like weights I I don't to be what a big guy but but I whenever I come out of the gym I feel so good I feel like I'm just like you know my my the new day has started you know so I always encourage and you know this it's it's very important that that this habit has to be formed from a young age whether it is healthy eating or you know exercise you need to do it from now don't think that you know yes you have a high metabolism today I don't need to I'm okay you know when I'm 40 and then you develop these bad habits and then you never go to the gym so for those they think you know you know when you look at someone is gained a lot of weight and you're like you know how the hell that happened but let's look at it from a math perspective right I mean if you gain one kilo in a year right I mean you won't notice it right would you notice it one kilo no right now imagine one times fifteen serious business okay thanks it thank you now final question for the day all right Thank You Marisa my name is javi I'm a comma I'm representing the KBN Koba ambassadors so basically I'm not a gentleman so you know me now I'm happy my comma the Business Forum and it's so good to see you my brother I mean we have heard of our network as KBN there are a few question I want to ask you firstly as you understand that Africa has signed the Africa free trade which allows the access to market to trade among each other and we able to as you mentioning that we don't have to export most the materials we can able to trade among ourselves but there are two challenges regarding of the monopoly system I mean I'm listening to your presentation like you said before that you obviously control the whole value chain of the success that you in so how does this I mean the perhaps and the small businesses get you able to access their market if you had that big player that you almost control their whole value chain of the oil industries in Tanzania and it's only China to all the SMM means that they are not able to have the access to market because they are super league players that absorb all these businesses all the markets and they don't able to open up a market so how do you able as a business as a met to create access to market to the small businesses and the other question I want to ask how is your business help in the enterpreneurship I don't philanthropic because we believe entrepreneurship is literally catalyst to really create an economy that can be sustainable and SSMS model ready doesn't work so that's the question I wanna ask thank you so I'll start with the third one in terms of what we do to enhance intrapreneurship what we have is called the more entrepreneurs where we actually ask people to come and present their startup ideas and what we do is give them interest-free loans so I actually spend my personal time to listening to the stories and making sure that these ideas are just not ideas and they can have a follow up and they will be executed and they will be very successful so I kind of deal with two things one I do a mentorship but to also I give them access to capital that is interest-free now when you look at a country like Tanzania or Kenya where interest rates are high you know when you have no security or collateral or you have no credit history you go in and they ask you to pay 20% which is interest rates which gives a tough start for an entrepreneur so this is my personal initiative through the more Dave gee foundation that's number one number two I jump to the Africa trade Africa one I think you know this this you know whether it is equal or the estaphan community or it is Sadek they're very very complicated because you know you know they say okay free trade Sadek we can free trade anything from each country to each country but the question is that these rules of origin right you cannot be importing something in South Africa and just doing a little bit of value addition and then exporting it and getting access free into Malawi or access and well you know there's that specific raw material and specific industry in Malawi so so what is happening I believe you know the way we're moving forward is a lot more protectionism one - in in East Africa web-based African community so what we did was that you know we said that you know we need a common external tariff harmonization so anything that comes into any of these three countries you'll be woman tariffs but then you know certain countries have certain commodities so they need to protect so let's say for example in Tanzania in edible oils Kenya doesn't have variable oils Uganda does in a variable oil so they say zero percent on crude oil but Tanzania has got sunflower has got soybean oil so they want to protect their farmers now if they want to protect their farmers they're going to text the imports now if their text the inputs there is no harmonization so that means Kenya and Uganda can start dumping because they're bringing in at zero they can dump into Tanzania so there's a further protection there so this is just within the East African or the Sadek you still have the Kumasi and then you have Africa route from Egypt to South Africa I think you know this will take time in terms of maturity what was your third question yes [Music] you see so so I'll tell you something excess to market you know we are different case we're a case because we produce a wave 39 industries so Tanzania even Coke or Pepsi or Unilever Procter & Gamble doesn't have the distribution that we have 1 & 2 if there is this specific product because you know when you have one particular product that you are selling it is very very expensive to create the distribution that we have and for us what it is is a pipeline that we have created but what we do is that we white label we buy from other producers products that we do not sell or we also if let's say that that is a specific product that we are targeting in this specific price range and there's another product that comes in we also do that distribution for them so I don't think it would make sense for single product business to set up the full distribution so I still believe that there is room for manufacturing and you can use the current distribution model that is in the country to be able to distribute your products thank you so much mr. doogee for taking those questions can I call you mom yes you know when the question was asked you know who are you strip away the billions and tell us who you are how did you grow up I've heard that story so many times as a good MC you have to prepare in research all the speakers on the program but when you set the story it felt like hearing it for the first time and what that says to me and certainly what I hope it says to use that never underestimate the curiosity and the bewilderment of hungry young people and as you leave this event I want to encourage you to you know someone spoke about you spending a hundred hours a week on work to take two of those hours and go through this magazine that chronicles one hundred and twenty brave bold entrepreneurs innovators creatives and sportsmen see which one's lean need you to lend a voice to causes that are important to them that they're championing in their communities who needs partnership who needs access to capital who's in a community that your service who could you partner with in meaningful ways to ensure that this conversation doesn't end here the impact that you've had that's palpable where so many young people want to continue to ask you questions this is something that continues beyond this event and and and I want to also tell you that this event has been about stories and you mentioned how much you love stories when you're responding this event has been about celebrating 120 young people and digging deep into their why we had a couple of entrepreneurs coming up on stage and speaking about painful stories surviving autoimmune disease to go on and start solar companies that are operating in some of the you know most disparage countries in the world in Sierra Leone and tubby saying Ugandan kickboxer Patricia was sitting in the front row and these are some of the people who have really shown us that it's the why it's the painful moments of strife that must be a motivator but this event has also been about validation I think let's not underestimate what it means for Forbes Africa to say you are under 30 let's not underestimate what it means for so many people who've come here with ideas that for a long time seemed quirky or seemed like they don't make sense within their specific family within their specific friendship group for what they studied what their parents hoped for when they set out to go into university when they set out in corporate and then left and started their own business speaking for myself personally I sit at the table with corporates with SMEs with Walt individuals like yourselves and I try to restructure their 1% need profit that's invested into CSI and see how we can make that transformative but searching at that table means starting with something that for a long time didn't have validation didn't have credibility so this event has been immensely powerful for all of us and for you sitting here to acknowledge the questions the way you did to give a face to the people who you spar so you're trying to see the faces of the people who are asking you questions is immensely important not only who we are right now on the stage but for who we become in the future thank you so much for giving yourself I hope that what you've said is going to create billion a billion is in this room billion is were ethical in this room billionaires have a passion for people in this room billionaires were going to transform lives and as you take your seats I'm just gonna ask everyone to please stand up and give you a huge round of applause to say thank you for the opportunity [Applause] [Music]

Channel: CNBC Africa

Views: 78,276

Keywords: Africa, South Africa, Southern Africa, Executive, FORBES AFRICA Under 30 Meet-Up, FORBES AFRICA, #Under30MeetUp, Mohammed Dewji, MeTL Group

Id: rqLOW8ae3HQ

Length: 34min 15sec (2055 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019