25 Apr 2023

 The Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa has given youth an opportunity not only to rub shoulders with industry leaders but to learn from some of the world’s top leaders.

On Monday, the youths got to meet Africa’s youngest billionaire, Mr Mohammed Dewji, President of MeTL Group in Tanzania and got to be inspired by his story of how he was able to build a fortune after his graduation in the USA.

“It was either I remain in USA or return to Africa,” he said.

Africa at that time had challenges while the US was advanced and had a bigger market.

However, he returned to Africa where he saw the need for value chain development and manufacturing.

Entrepreneurs have an eye for business and they know how to look for opportunities where ordinary people see challenges.

Mr Dewji runs a big textile company and said this was after he realised that Tanzania and East African countries produced cotton yet they imported textile from China.

“We had all the advantages to compete against China,” he said, adding the textile industry employs 4 000 people. I could wrap the world three times with the textile that we produce,” he said, illustrating his company’s production size.

In addition to the textile industry, MeTL Group also has an agriculture business and is the world’s largest producer of sisal yarns, twins and ropes for the local and export markets.

Further, the company makes sisal bags which are used for packaging food materials like coffee, beans, cocoa and maize and the bags  are exported to numerous countries in Europe and Asia and other East African countries.

Mr Dewji, who is also a Member of Parliament and he said he ran for office to develop his community.

He said over 10 years, the number of secondary schools had increased from two to 22 and through his philanthropy, he offered scholarships to university students. Further, he plans to increase the country’s accessibility to portable water to 100 per cent in the next 5 to 10 years.

“That was inspiring,” said one youth, Mr Tebogo Jane of The Ark Learning Centre. He said he was inspired by how Mr Dewji was able to find a gap in the economy and used that to start his businesses.

“This is what business is about and I also want to see my business someday grown,” he said.

Mr Jane quit his job as a physics teacher to establish his own pre-schools and tutoring centres in the country. The former  Gaborone Secondary School teacher said he had learnt a lot from Mr Dewji’s presentation.

His concern, however, was that most presentations were done by internationals and suggested that more locals should be featured to share their stories as they faced similar circumstances. ENDS