Tanzanian billionaire Mo Dewji pledges to invest $250 million in Mozambique and create 20,000 jobs

Mohammed Dewji has committed $250 million to Mozambique and said his group will try to employ 20,000 Mozambicans, after meeting President Daniel Chapo in Maputo.

The Tanzanian billionaire, chief executive of Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited, announced the pledge on the sidelines of the audience on Tuesday, describing the discussion as fruitful and saying he had identified concrete investment opportunities in the country.

"We had a very fruitful discussion and we committed to invest 250 million dollars in Mozambique and to try to employ 20,000 Mozambicans," Dewji said, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

The Mozambican presidency said in a statement that the commitment fits the diversified profile of the group and opens the way for investment in strategic areas, along with new production, distribution and service chains in the country.

"The meeting takes place in a context of seeking greater mobilisation of private investment to drive economic growth, industrialisation and job creation in Mozambique, while the country seeks to deepen economic cooperation with the states of the Southern African region," the presidency said.

MeTL is among the largest privately held conglomerates in Tanzania, with operations in agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, energy, trade and financial services. It employs roughly 37,000 people and already operates in more than a dozen African markets, Mozambique among them.

The commitment would represent a substantial addition to that workforce. Twenty thousand jobs would increase MeTL's headcount by more than half, in a single country where it already has a presence.

Mozambique has struggled to attract private capital outside its liquefied natural gas projects in Cabo Delgado, where an insurgency has repeatedly delayed development. Chapo took office in January last year after a disputed election followed by months of protests, and has made investment mobilisation and industrialisation central to his economic programme.

Dewji, 51, took over the business his father Gulam founded in the 1970s as a trading operation and expanded it into manufacturing across textiles, edible oils, flour, beverages and agricultural processing. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2.1 billion, ranking him 14th among Africa's wealthiest people and the only Tanzanian on the list.

He served two terms in the Tanzanian parliament representing Singida Urban from 2005 to 2015, and was the first Tanzanian to sign the Giving Pledge, committing at least half his wealth to philanthropy.

He also holds 49 percent of Simba Sports Club Company Limited, the Dar es Salaam football club, and pledged about $11.3 million this month to build the club a stadium and training complex at Bunju, subject to approval by its board of trustees.

Neither Dewji nor the Mozambican presidency set out a timetable for the investment, the sectors it will target, or when the jobs would be created.