CONVERSATION Linking People, Crossing Borders A CONVERSATION WITH TELECOM PIONEER AND PHILANTHROPIST MO IBRAHIM orn in northern Sudan at the end of World War II, educated in England with a Ph.D. in engineer- Bing and mobile communications, Mo Ibrahim returned to Africa in 1998, bringing cellular technology with him. At the time of his arrival, there were barely three million landline telephones on the entire conti- nent—the bulk of them in North Africa and the nation JEFF DANZIGER of South Africa. Most of sub-Saharan Africa was all but SPRING 2013 43 Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 CONVERSATION inaccessible to terrestrial telephone lines. happening is the changing nature of cul- The Democratic Republic of Congo had tures. People in this globalized world only 3,000 phones to serve its population are acquiring multiple identities. Just of about 55 million. Seeing demand for to give an example, you have more Man- mobile phones and with little competi- chester United [soccer] fans in Asia than tion from landlines, Mo Ibrahim created in the UK. Celtel, beginning in Kenya, branching We are really seeing more and more quickly into Uganda and Tanzania. The that behaviors are coming closer together. company allowed millions of mobile sub- There’s a wonderful bridge built by broad- scribers to roam freely across borders, re- band between cultures. I doubt that it will charging with local cards as they went. physically bring us closer, because there Quickly, Celtel expanded across Gabon, are other forces working there. We might the Democratic Republic of Congo, the consider the European project, which was Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia, and quite successful in bringing peace and se- finally his native Sudan—a vast pan-Af- curity to Europe. Now, it’s having difficul- rican territory almost devoid of telecom- ties, and even if Europe is extremely well- munications boundaries. By the time he connected, it is still entrenched sometimes sold Celtel five years ago, he had linked within their own little boundaries. 24 million people—a number that was growing exponentially. WPJ: Perhaps mobile phones help people Today, Mo, as he insists on being on both sides of these borders, who may called, encourages the spread of democ- have been very hostile to each other, to un- racy and democratic leadership as chair of derstand each other and thereby make the the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. The billion- borders more porous? aire philanthropist believes his transbor- der communications system contributes IBRAHIM: You are correct. Basically, we to improved political transparency across understand each other much better, be- Africa and helps the everyday lives of cause more and more we share with each millions. To explain his vision, he talked other. That’s why, instead of being seen from Paris with World Policy Journal editor only as our separate ethnic or religious David A. Andelman and managing editor identities, we are acquiring all these new Christopher Shay. identities through the face of media and social media. We have new friends, we WORLD POLICY JOURNAL: As part of have built hobbies like Scrabble or Words our examination of borders and boundar- with Friends, and that’s wonderful. It’s re- ies, we’d love to begin by hearing your ally a soft power being generated by all thoughts on the role the Internet and mo- this. Hopefully, over time this will help bile telecommunications may be playing bring people together. in rendering traditional borders increas- ingly obsolete. WPJ: Is there one region or even one coun- try where this impact has been most in- MO IBRAHIM: It is not so much a ques- tense, either positively or negatively? In tion of the legal abolition of borders or your mobile communications empire, you a change in the status quo, but what is may have seen this quite directly. 44 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 MO IBRAHIM IBRAHIM: Let’s start from the beginning sense of understanding and less conflict. here. What happened was that the first I don’t think the Arab Spring could have mobile phones liberated the phone from been possible so soon without mobile the socket on the wall. And then smart phones and social media. phones, tablets, and iPads liberated the computer from the desk, enhancing us- WPJ: Reflecting on the role mobile age and innovation because someone is phones and social media played in the able to carry these devices around all the Arab Spring, do you now see a sub-Saharan time—using them not only while sitting African Spring? at a desk. Increasingly, innovation began to ease mobility. You could define where IBRAHIM: An African Spring is happen- you are going, the next restaurant, the ing already. Maybe not in the same way as next place, bus times, and entertainment it’s happening in the north [of Africa], but as well. Suddenly, it created a major social we can see much better elections taking space to connect and do things. All this place in Africa already. Don’t forget that connected Africa, since Africa was not while the north of Africa was more devel- well-connected before. oped than sub-Saharan Africa in terms of The total number of phones in Africa infrastructure and education, it was more was maybe two or three million fixed-line backward when it came to political free- phones. And this was mainly in South doms, inclusive voices, mechanisms, all Africa in the south or in Egypt, Tunisia, kinds of corruption. and Morocco in the north, and nothing in It was far worse actu- between. Right now, Africa has more than ally than the rest of we’re all naked 550 million mobile subscribers. This is Africa. We did mea- now in the more than the number of mobile phones sure all these things in Europe, by the way. This brought farm- with the Ibrahim In- light of this ers to the market place. It brought new dex of African Gov- new social services. Banking now in Africa is done ernance, and North media. it forces more with mobiles than in actual physical Africa was worse in branches of banks. All kinds of services are the areas of democ- people to available cheap like mobile banking ser- racy, transparency, behave better. vices, which are more used there than in and participation. So Europe or the United States. It improved in the rest of Africa, many of the countries elections and democracies. The demo- already had their Springs. It did not come cratic process improved a lot because of like a tsunami, rather it was more a suc- the transparency. It encouraged entrepre- cession of waves. We can see a lot of truly neurship and economic growth. So a lot democratic elections in Africa in at least of things happened, especially in a place 30 countries—really peaceful transitions like Africa, which badly needed that kind of power taking place now. of service which bridged so many years of A lot of that actually is being support- underdevelopment, and that is wonderful. ed by this new social media. Don’t forget With information at their fingertips, peo- how we knew there was a problem in the ple are able to communicate, able to talk election in Zimbabwe. We knew it because to each other. This should bring a better people used mobile phones to photograph SPRING 2013 45 Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 CONVERSATION the results in each polling station. So peo- like highways to connect countries, but also ple were able to aggregate and knew the broadband to connect people. Highways and results way before the government declared broadband are almost the same. Roads to it. It has become impossible to falsify the travel across and broadband to communicate outcome. So social media actually enhances with each other need to be built. It’s a prior- transparency and accountability. You know ity for us. We are moving together, maybe you have to be careful not as fast as we wish to, but we are moving what you do, because toward it. We actually need to give it a kick with mobile people can have your in the butt to make sure it moves a bit faster. technologies, picture anytime. We’re all naked now in the WPJ: Now that pace of change you talk everybody light of this new social about is very interesting. Do you think walking in media. It forces people the people of many of these areas are fully the street is a to behave better. prepared for the changes of such an intro- duction to the modern world? radio station WPJ: Many of these and a tv boundaries were IBRAHIM: Once people find an application formed in the colonial or a tool that really meets one of their basic station and era that has been needs, they take to it like there’s no tomor- a studio. outpaced by history. I row. I will give you an example. I was the would like you to talk technical director of a British telecommu- about new advances that you think will nication company. We introduced mobile facilitate regional unions or cross-border phones to the UK in 1985. When our mar- cooperation and understanding. keting and business people were calculat- ing what sort of customers we might have, IBRAHIM: In Africa, projects for regional they were totally wrong. We thought our integration are forging ahead. We started first adopters were going to be business in Africa what we call regional economic people, executives, bankers, but actually, communities, so each African community the most significant first set of users were is moving toward a union.