Rostam, Dewji, Mengi in 50 richest Africans list

Dar es Salaam.Tanzania has three new entrants in the list of Africa’s top 50 millionaires even as fresh data reveals that poverty levels have dropped significantly since 2007. Rostam Azizi, Reginald Mengi and Mohammed ‘Mo’ Dewji are the newcomers in the latest edition of Forbes, an American business magazine. Said Salim Bakhresa rounds up the number to four on the list published on Wednesday.

Kenya has produced two--Vimal Shah and family, worth $1.6 billion, and Naushad Merali worth $430 million. Uganda has one, Sudhir Ruparelia. Azizi, a fifth generation Tanzanian of Persian origin, is the richest man in Tanzania with a fortune that Forbes pegs at $1 billion. His key assets include a 35 per cent stake in Vodacom Tanzania. The mobile phone firm commands a subscription market share of 36 percent. The company had 9.6 million subscribers, according to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority. When The Citizen caught up with him, he simply said: “From Forbes to God’s ears”.

Mr Azizi also owns Caspian Mining, a contract-mining outfit. He also holds a minority interest in a Tanzanian container terminal controlled by Hutchison Whampoa (which is, in turn, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing). Azizi also has real estate in Dubai and Oman.

Mr Mengi is Africa’s second richest media mogul after South Africa’s Koos Bekker. His privately-held IPP Group owns newspapers and television and radio stations. His other assets include gold mines, mining concessions and a Coca-Cola bottling plant. He is worth $550 million, Forbes estimates.

Mr Mengi told The Citizen that Forbes has listed only some of his businesses, suggesting that he could be richer that reported. “I thank God for the honour, for it is by his grace that I have made it where I am today…I cannot be proud of my riches but it is enough to say God has blessed me…..He has exalted me from an impoverished person sleeping in a wattle and mud house to where I am now,” he said. He thanked Tanzanians for turning him into what he is today--which he attributes to hard work and integrity in his business deals.

Mohammed ‘Mo’ Dewji is one of Africa’s most successful young businessmen. He is the CEO of METL, a large Tanzanian conglomerate with interests in distribution, textiles, manufacturing, agriculture and real estate. His father, Gulam Dewji, started out as a commodities trading business but Mo took it where it is today. He is also a Member of Tanzania’s parliament and has a net worth estimated at $500 million.

As of November 2013, Said Salim Bakhresa had a net worth of $500 million. He founded and chairs the Bakhresa Group, a conglomerate that employs over 2,000 people and has interests in grain milling, beverages, packaging, ferry services and petroleum trading. Bakhresa dropped out of school at 14 to sell a potato mix, then opened a small restaurant and later moved into grain milling. The Citizen could not independently verify these figures.

Meanwhile, data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that the number of Tanzanians living in extreme poverty has dropped significantly in the past five years, driven by consistent economic growth.

Results from the 2011/12 Household Budget Survey released yesterday indicate that the overall basic needs poverty level in Tanzania Mainland is 28.2 percent. It is 33.3 percent in rural areas.

In other urban areas, basic needs poverty level was 21.7 percent while Dar es Salaam has the lowest rate at 4.1 percent, Servacius Likwelile, permanent secretary at the ministry of finance said.

A similar survey was conducted in 2007 and showed that the overall poverty level was 33.4 percent, 37.4 percent in rural areas, 24.2 percent in other urban areas and 16 percent in Dar es Salaam. “This is actually a reflection of Tanzania’s economic growth at around seven percent per year, pushed up by construction, manufacturing, transport, financial services and communications,” said Dr Likwelile.

The results also show that national average food poverty is at 9.7 percent. The government aims to reduce this to 12.5 percent come 2015. Food poverty is a bit higher in rural areas at 11.3 percent, 8.7 percent in other urban areas and the lowest in Dar es Salaam at 1.0 percent.

“From the results, we acknowledge that both extreme and basic needs poverty are more of a rural phenomenon when compared to urban areas,” said Dr Likwelile. “There is an improvement but the government is investing more in agriculture and infrastructure to reduce poverty level.”

Non-income poverty indicators

The study, which also covered non-income indicators, shows that 18 percent of households in Tanzania Mainland use electricity for lighting as compared to 13 percent in 2007. Secondary school enrolment almost doubled to 29 percent compared to 15 percent in 2007.