African billionaire Mohammed Dewji has been kidnapped by Gunmen from a luxury hotel in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, police told CNN. Dewji, affectionately nicknamed Mo, is known to move around with little to no security, as many successful businessmen are known to do in the country.
Three people have been arrested in connection with the incident and two of the abductors were believed to be foreign nationals, police added. It is thought to likely be a “ransom” kidnapping.
Who is Mohammed Dewji?
Mohammed Dewji, a 43-year-old billionaire.
Financial magazine Forbes puts his wealth at $1.5bn (£980m) and has described him as Tanzania’s only billionaire.
In a 2017 report, it said Mr. Dewji was Africa’s youngest billionaire. Mr. Dewji is also a major sponsor of one of Tanzania’s biggest football teams, Simba. He promised in 2016 to donate at least half his fortune to philanthropic causes, Forbes said.
Mr. Dewji, locally known as Mo, is credited with turning his family business from a wholesale and retail enterprise into a pan-African conglomerate, reports the BBC’s Athuman Mtulya from Dar es Salaam. His company, MeTL a multi-establishment company operating in six African countries which was founded by his father in 1970, has interests in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages, and edible oils in at least six African states. Mr. Dewji served as a ruling party MP for a decade until 2015.
Mohammed Dewji’s black Range Rover is parked outside a gym in Dar es Salaam, #Tanzania, where unknown gunmen reportedly fired shots in the air and kidnapped him this morning pic.twitter.com/FgGco2gnUB
— Fareed (@Fumbuka) October 11, 2018
