Mohammed Dewji

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Mohammed "Mo" Gulamabbas Dewji (born 8 May 1975) is a Tanzanian billionaire businessman and former politician.

He is the founder of MeTL Group, a Tanzanian conglomerate established by his father in the 1970s.

Dewji served as Member of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) from 2005 to 2015 for his home town of Singida.

Dewji's estimated net worth of $1.9 billion as of October 2019, ranking him as Africa's 17th richest individual and Africa's youngest billionaire.

In 2013, Dewji became the first Tanzanian to cover Forbes Magazine.

Early life

Dewji was born in Ipembe, Singida. He is the second of six children of Gulamabbas Dewji and Zubeda Dewji. They are Twelver Shias, descendants of Gujarat, India, who left Gujarat, India, in the late 1800s to become traders in East Africa. When Dewji was born, the family was still of modest means; Dewji was born in a house made from sand and mud, and he needed the assistance of a neighboring midwife. Dewji testified that he almost died at birth after being wrapped around his neck, a condition that is also known as nuchal cord. By the time Dewji began attending school, his father had developed a family store into a burgeoning import-export business.

Dewji completed his primary education in Arusha at the Arusha Primary School and continued his secondary education at the International School of Tanganyika (IST) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In 1992, his father enrolled him at the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in Orlando, Florida, where Dewji attended Trinity Preparatory School for 11th grade. Dewji then went to Saddle Brook High School in New Jersey for his last and final year of high school.

Dewji earned a bachelor's degree in international business and finance as well as a minor in theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1998.

Personal life

Dewji married Saira, his high school sweetheart with whom he has three children, in 2001. They live in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Dewji is a Shia Muslim from Khoja's Ithna-Asheri Jamat, which is also known as the 'Twelver' branch of Islam.

Dewji was kidnapped and arrested outside the Colosseum Hotel in Dar es Salaam, where he was arriving for a morning workout at 5:35 a.m. on October 11, 2018. The kidnappers reportedly shot shots into the air before kidnapping Dewji and speeding away with the billionaire. Despite Dewji's fortune, he did not travel with a security camera and had to go to the Colosseum gym on his own the morning of the attack.

At least 20 people had been arrested in the probe into Dewji's abduction by 13 October by the end of October. The family held a press conference on October 15, where they received TSh 1,000,000,000/= (US$440,000) as a reward for information that might lead to his rescue.

Dewji's family was called to his family at 2:30 a.m. on October 20th, claiming that he was released on the Gymkhana grounds. On Dewji's METL Twitter account at 3:15 a.m., a tweet was sent out expressing his pride and admiration for the Tanzanian people's help at 3:15 a.m. Police Commissioner Lazaro Mambosa was seen discussing Dewji, who acknowledged the police's efforts; Mambosa reported that Dewji was visiting them at his house and was not rescued by police. Dewji had told them that his kidnappers were speaking in a South African dialect, which Dewji also revealed that they had been told that they had been informed that his kidnappers were not speaking in a South African language. January Makamba reported that he had met Dewji and noticed rope marks on his hands and legs. No ransom had been paid in a 2019 interview with BBC Dewji. According to him, the kidnappers gave up due to the widespread media and political scrutiny.

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Honours and awards

• 2012: Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum
• 2014: 10 Most Powerful Men In Africa, Forbes Magazine
• 2014: African Philanthropist of the Year Award by the African Leadership magazine
• 2014: Top 100 of young economic leaders
• 2015: Philanthropist of the Year Award for the East African region by All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA)
• 2015: Business Leader of the Year Award by African Business Magazine
• 2015: Forbes Africa's Person Of The Year 2015
• 2016: Choiseul 100 Africa 2016: Economic Leaders for Tomorrow
• 2022: Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University