An African entrepreneur has established his own Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, which provides a thorough overview of the state of governance in each of the continent’s 54 states.

MO Ibrahim tells it straight. According to the 66-year-old Sudanese-born engineer, “Africa is rich but Africans are poor. The balance of natural resources to population should make them wealthier than they are.”

And Mo ought to know. Starting in 1998, the entrepreneur built what eventually became Celtel, a pan-African mobile phone company that he subsequently sold for US$3.4bil (RM10.2bil) in 2005.

Since then and over the past seven years, cellular phone penetration in Africa has soared beyond all expectations as the continent’s population has leap-frogged its own infrastructural limitations.

The BBC, in July, estimated that there are now about 695 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa. These phones not only help connect people but also act as surrogates for missing or inadequate infrastructure, especially banking or payment systems.

At the same time, China’s mad rush for natural resources has led to an economic boom as well as a spike in corruption.

Instead of retreating from public life after the sale of Celtel, Mo has embraced his personal ambitions.

“We in Africa can’t continue to blame others, the colonial powers, for our failures,” he said. “We have to assume responsibility. It’s all about leadership and how we choose to be governed.”

In 2007, Mo, prompted by his frustration with the corruption and mismanagement he’d experienced, set up two governance and leadership initiatives under the auspices of the eponymously-named Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

First, he endowed the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Mo also set up the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

The leadership prize has attracted enormous interest because of the size of the award – laureates receive US$5mil (RM15mil) over 10 years as well as US$200,000 (RM600,000) per annum for life thereafter.

They get an additional US$200,000 per year if they undertake public-interest activities.

Basically, the foundation (Mo is not part of the prize committee) chooses an African head of state or government official who stands down from office and has governed with exceptional leadership.

It’s a tall order and over the past six years there have only been three recipients, including Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano (2007), Botswana’s Festus Gontebnye Mogae (2008) and Cape Verde’s Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires (2011).

Mo, however, is particularly proud of his Index. As he explained to me over dinner recently, the index, which is now into its sixth year, provides a thorough and on-going overview of the state of governance in each of Africa’s 54 states.

According to his foundation, the “index is the most comprehensive collection of quantitative data that provides an annual assessment of governance in every African country” as well as a “framework for citizens, public authorities and partners to assess the effective delivery of public goods and services”.

While the methodology might be open to question (it relies on 88 indicators drawn from 23 independent international data providers), there’s no doubt about the seriousness with which Mo views the exercise.

Moreover, as the index enters its fifth year, it provides a good sense of how different countries are either improving or not.

For example, in the latest index released this month, the foundation revealed that seven countries including Liberia, Angola and Rwanda had demonstrated a significant improvement in their overall governance scores, with Tanzania undergoing a significant upward momentum.

On the other hand, some of Africa’s key regional players – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – have witnessed the opposite trend especially in the Safety and Rule of Law, and Participation and Human Rights indicators.

Mo is by no means the richest African entrepreneur. However, his commitment to good governance and leadership on his continent makes him one of the most important leaders Africa has seen.

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