Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. File
As business landscapes keep changing worldwide, investors and businessmen find themselves dipping their feet in waters they are not used to.
In the early aughts, when telecommunication hit East Africa, the region innovated and developed mobile money transfer and became a leader in the category.
Ever since, the economy, more so of Kenya, has skyrocketed attracting technological and business investors into the game. Here are the top foreign tycoons who tried buying Kenyan companies but their deals got rejected. 1. Mark Zuckerberg An undated photo of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge In 2016, Facebook founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg packed his bags in a surprise visit to Kenya, where part of his itinerary was reported to be in line with M-Pesa.
It was revealed that while in Kenya, he expressed his interest to learn about mobile money and helping roll out the service globally.
At around the same time, Zuckerberg was to meet the then Safaricom Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore, but he could not because the CEO was in a meeting.
Rumours then began swirling that the Facebook mogul was trying to acquire M-Pesa.
Collymore, however, refuted the claims and told the press that the rumours were not authentic and that if Facebook wanted a money sharing platform, they should build their own.
2. Aliko Dangote An undated photo of Dangote Group CEO Aliko Dangote. CEO Magazine In November 2018, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, set his eyes on acquiring a Kenyan company to add to his already diversified portfolio.
He was speaking at an interview with an international media house where he revealed that his company was in talks with a view of acquiring the firm.
“Dangote Cement is in talks about a potential acquisition of a company with operations in Kenya and Tanzania," read the statement without revealing specifics.At around the same time, reports emerged that he had inked a deal with China’s Sinoma International Engineering Company to set up a cement production company.Nothing tangible has, however, ever emerged from the alleged deals.3. Xeng Yang An undated photo of Chinese-based tycoon Xeng Yang. reactorreview.com In 2019, Chinese tycoon Xeng Yang was the talk of the town after he placed a bid valued at Ksh3 trillion (US$30 billion) aimed at acquiring the entire Nairobi City.At the time, he was seeking to lease the city from the Kenyan government for […]
