From an idea pursued by one entrepreneur at a time when many investors viewed Africa as too risky, Celtel grew into one of the continent's most influential telecommunications companies, helping to underpin more than $13 billion in landmark industry transactions.

• Celtel, founded by Mo Ibrahim, grew from a risky idea into a leading African telecommunications company, ultimately facilitating industry transactions worth over $13 billion.
• Ibrahim emphasized that Africa is fertile ground for investment, but highlighted the need for more African capital and less reliance on foreign direct investment and aid.
• Ibrahim remains optimistic, viewing Africa's youth as its biggest opportunity and encouraging young Africans to act boldly and invest in their continent's future.
• He believes Africa can unlock significant domestic resources by tackling illicit financial flows and improving tax systems, rather than depending on declining external aid.

In an interview with Business Insider Africa, Sir Mohammed Fathi Ahmed Ibrahim, better known as Mo Ibrahim, reflected on the lessons he learned from building Celtel and why he remains convinced that Africa is one of the world's most compelling investment destinations.

For good reason, few entrepreneurs are better placed to make that argument.

The Celtel founder raised more than $415 million within five years to build a mobile operator that expanded across 13 African countries and helped bring telecommunications services to millions of people.

By 2004, the company had 5.2 million customers, generated $614 million in revenue and posted a net profit of $147 million.

Its licences covered more than a third of Africa's population, while the company invested more than $750 million across the continent.

The following year, just weeks before his 59th birthday, Ibrahim sold Celtel to Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC), now known as Zain, in a $3.4 billion deal, one of the largest corporate transactions in Africa at the time.

Under Zain, the business expanded into Nigeria, Ghana and Madagascar, reaching 15 African markets and about 42 million customers by 2009. Five years after Ibrahim's exit, Bharti Airtel acquired the African operations for $10.7 billion.

Looking back at the age of 80, Mohammed "Mo" Ibrahim believes the experience of building Celtel holds important lessons for Africa today.

"Celtel taught me a simple lesson: Africa is a great place to invest," he told Business Insider Africa.

Betting on Africa before others did

Before launching Celtel in 1998, Ibrahim founded Mobile Systems International (MSI), a telecoms consulting and software company that grew to serve 110 operators worldwide.

His work across global markets exposed what he saw as a major gap. While telecommunications networks were expanding across Europe and Asia, much of Africa remained disconnected despite growing demand.

When he launched Celtel, many investors focused on Africa's challenges rather than its opportunities.

"When we started, many investors looked at the continent and saw only risk: weak infrastructure, difficult markets, instability. They just missed the point," Ibrahim told Business Insider Africa.

"The demand was obvious. People wanted to communicate, to do business, to connect with their families. Opportunity was there. Too many people could not see it. Which was our luck."

To turn that opportunity into a business, Ibrahim raised $16 million in Celtel's first year to acquire licences and begin building infrastructure before securing more than $415 million during the company's first five years.

"Building Celtel meant understanding the market and believing in the continent's potential," he said.

"The environment was of course challenging. But the need was real, and the impact went far beyond business. It changed people's daily lives. Mobile phones helped people trade, send money, stay connected and access opportunity."

By the early 2000s, 99% of Celtel's 5,000 employees were African. The company had become one of the continent's pioneering mobile operators, helping transform how millions of Africans communicate, do business and access services.

Although he sold the company in 2005, Ibrahim has since admitted to having mixed feelings about the decision.

"I always feel that we sold a bit early," he once reflected.

African capital must back Africa

The biggest lesson Ibrahim drew from Celtel's success is that Africans must invest more heavily in their own continent.

"The lesson here is that we cannot wait for others to discover our potential and draw from it," he told Business Insider Africa.

"African capital must invest more in Africa. Currently, only 14% of FDI in Africa is African. This is ridiculous. We cannot ask international investors to believe in our continent if we are not backing it ourselves."

Aid cuts are a wake-up call

The Sudanese-born entrepreneur believes Africa's financing landscape is undergoing a major shift as traditional aid flows decline.

"The recent widespread aid cuts cannot be considered as unexpected. This is a welcome wake-up call," he said.

"Aid is not dead, but it is coming to an end, if only because security has now taken precedence over solidarity."

Rather than viewing the trend as a crisis, Ibrahim argued that Africa possesses substantial domestic resources that remain underutilised.

"But the end of aid is not the end of the world for our continent. As highlighted in our recent Annual Forum Report, Financing the Africa We Want, we have huge domestic resources. It belongs to us to mobilise them properly."

According to Ibrahim, Africa can unlock significant domestic resources by tackling illicit financial flows, strengthening tax systems, making better use of pension and sovereign wealth funds, and monetising assets such as critical minerals, renewable energy and biodiversity.

He noted that illicit financial flows drain an estimated $90 billion from the continent each year, exceeding the amount many countries receive in official development assistance.

The Celtel founder also called for stronger tax systems, noting that Africa's average tax-to-GDP ratio remains roughly half the OECD average.

While acknowledging challenges such as risk assessment, currency convertibility, fragmented markets and non-tariff barriers, he argued that they are not insurmountable.

"All this has been done elsewhere and can be replicated on our continent, whose ability to leapfrog has already been demonstrated. Take mobile phones for example."

Governance remains central

Today, Ibrahim is known not only as the founder of Celtel but also as the founder and chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he established in 2006 to support good governance and leadership across Africa.

For Ibrahim, governance remains central to the continent's future.

"Governance is the foundation of everything," he told Business Insider Africa.

"Governance is not just about moral duty. It is the key to success. Without good governance, resources are not efficiently used, investment does not come, services do not improve, and citizens lose trust."

Despite concerns about democratic backsliding in parts of the continent, Ibrahim said Africa has made meaningful progress.

"Over the last twenty years, as shown by our Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Africa has undoubtedly progressed, and a majority of Africa's citizens live in a country where public governance is better now than it was twenty years ago."

At the same time, he warned that progress remains uneven and that many citizens feel disconnected from institutions that are supposed to serve them.

"Elections matter, but democracy is not only about elections every few years. It is about delivery. It is about accountability. It is about the rule of law."

He also expressed concern about the exclusion of young Africans from decision-making.

"If young people lose faith that democracy can deliver, that is a serious danger for stability and development," he said.

The role of African billionaires

Asked about the role of wealthy Africans in the continent's development, Ibrahim said private capital already has an important role to play.

He pointed to his friend Aliko Dangote and the construction of the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria as an example of what African investors can achieve.

"Of course they have a key role to play, and many of them already do," Ibrahim told Business Insider Africa.

"Let me just take the amazing example of my friend Aliko Dangote, and what he has already accomplished, for the primary benefit of his own continent, by building this huge refinery in Nigeria, providing access to energy to its people first, with a total initial investment exceeding $19 billion."

"Nobody believed in this initially. And now he is already thinking about the next one, in East Africa."

For Ibrahim, the refinery demonstrates the power of African capital to solve African challenges.

"Yes We Can," he said. "Africa First."

Africa's greatest opportunity

Despite ongoing challenges around governance, financing and development, Ibrahim remains optimistic about Africa's future.

He believes the continent's greatest opportunity and biggest challenge are one and the same.

"Its youth," he said.

For Africa's next generation of entrepreneurs, Ibrahim's message is simple.

"Africa is the world's last new frontier. And it's yours. Opportunities, innovation, drive for change: all these are in Africa."

"Be bold, be confident, be autonomous. The floor is yours."