Ismail Ibrahim Ahmed ( so, Ismaciil Axmed, ar, إسماعيل أحمد) is the founder and chairman of

WorldRemit WorldRemit is a digital cross border remittance business that provides international money transfer and remittance services in more than 130 countries and over 70 currencies. It was founded in 2010 by Ismail Ahmed, Catherine Wines, and Richard I ...

, a money transfer company, and director of the Sahan Foundation International.

Career

Ahmed was born and raised in Somaliland, where he grew up in the city of

Hargeisa Hargeisa (; so, Hargeysa, ar, هرجيسا) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland. It is located in the Maroodi Jeex region of the Horn of Africa. It succeeded Burco as the capital of the British Somaliland Protector ...

. Before the outbreak of the

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War ( so, Dagaalkii Sokeeye ee Soomaaliya; ar, الحرب الأهلية الصومالية ) is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Bar ...

, Ahmed was awarded a World Bank scholarship to study economics in the UK at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. After the outbreak of war, with the help of his family Ahmed was smuggled out of Somaliland to reach the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

as a refugee. While studying, Ahmed worked in a number of part-time jobs including Strawberry picking in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and sending money home to family in Somaliland. The act of sending money home was important to him, following the tradition of other family members who worked abroad that did the same to support those in need back home in Somaliland. However the financial and time costs of conducting transactions to send money home began to get prohibitive, which prompted Ahmed to begin thinking if there was a "better way to do this". Ahmed has a PhD in economics from the University of London, and an MBA from London Business School. Ahmed worked for a World Bank agricultural development project in

, Somaliland, before moving on to work for the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

(UNDP), where he helped run a money transfer project. He went to his boss with allegations of corruption he had uncovered in its Somalia programme, "My boss said if I went and submitted the dossier, I would never be able to work in remittances again, and I took that threat very seriously. I lost my job to uncover the fraud." He was later found to have been unfairly treated by the UNDP and awarded compensation of £200,000. Ahmed eventually began developing the idea of creating a mobile money transfer system which would undercut the higher costs of similar services from banks and traditional money transfer systems. Before founding the business, Ahmed decided to pursue an executive MBA course at

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

in order to receive a formal business education and subsequently launched

in 2010. By moving the transactions to mobiles, it created an opportunity for many people in the world that don't have bank accounts but may at least have access to a mobile phone. In October 2019, Ahmed was named first in the

Powerlist The ''Powerlist'' is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The ''Powerlist'' is ...

2020, an annual list of the 100 most powerful people of African heritage in the UK. The following year, his company launched the ''Top 10 Most Influential Africans in the Diaspora list'', in order to explore and celebrate the contributions of African immigrants to the USA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Ismail Living people 1960 births British company founders Black British businesspeople