Mo Ibrahim: the man offering bribes to clean up corruption in Africa

Profile of the Sudanese billionaire offering a $5m annual prize to the sub-Saharan leader who demonstrates the greatest commitment to democracy and good governance.

"Seated on a Versace sofa in his seven-storey Mayfair townhouse, Mo Ibrahim does not look like a man who spares much thought for the problems afflicting Africa," says The Sunday Times. But he does care and he's prepared to put his money where his mouth is. Last week, the Sudanese-born billionaire announced he was offering a $5m annual prize, plus a $200,000 stipend for life, to the sub-Saharan African leader who demonstrates the greatest commitment to democracy and good governance in office.

It's no mean carrot, says The New York Times: Ibrahim's largesse far outstrips the $1.3m Nobel Peace Prize. The rationale is simple, he says. While former Western leaders can look forward to lucrative directorships and lecture tours on leaving office, former African leaders face an uncertain future. "These guys have no life after office. All the mansions, cars, food and wealth disappear. That incites them to stay in power. With this prize, we are saying there is life after office."

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.