Dewji scoops Business Leader of the Year award

MOHAMMED Enterprise Tanzania Limited Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Dewji has been crowned the Business Leader of the Year at the 2015 African Business Awards at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York.

Mr Dewji, Daphne Nkosi, Strive Masiyiwa and Helen Hai are among the top business leaders who were recognised at the event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The Awards, organised by African Business magazine, also commended leading businesses including Dangote Cement, Guaranty Trust Bank, Abellon Clean Energy, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the leading provider of mobile-delivered micro-insurance in emerging markets, BIMA. The award for the 2015 African Business of the Year went to Dangote Cement.

Helmed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian cement behemoth plans to expand production in several countries in anticipation of an infrastructure and construction boom.

The judging panel applauded Dangote Cement for its continued drive to develop new tailored products, gain market share and expand its activities throughout the continent.

Daphne Mashile Nkosi, Executive Chairperson, Kalagadi Manganese, South Africa received the prestigious award for Most Outstanding Woman in Business. The judges gave special recognition for Daphne’s remarkable achievements, in an industry which has often been one of those dominated by men.

Daphne is responsible for the creation of over 30,000 jobs in the Northern Cape, and will go down in history as the mother of the largest mining venture of its kind in the last 30 years.

Since taking over his father’s trading business in Tanzania, Business Leader of the Year Award winner, Mohammed Dewji has confidently blazed his own trail. As CEO of MeTL, the youthful businessman, still in his early forties, has acquired and turned around failing state companies in sectors as diverse as manufacturing, agriculture, and real estate.