Rostam Abdulrasul Azizi (born 21 August 1964) is a self-made

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and former politician. In 2013, according to

Forbes Magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also repo ...

he was the first Tanzanian dollar billionaire with a net worth of over 1 billion dollars, and according to

Henley & Partners Henley & Partners is an investment migration consultancy based in London. The company also advises governments on residence and citizenship-by-investment policy and works with them to develop and implement residence and citizenship programs. It ...

Africa wealth report 2022, and was only dollar billionaire in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

. He represented the Igunga constituency in

Tabora Region Tabora Region (''Mkoa wa Tabora'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the municipality of Tabora. The region is located in mid-western part of Tanzania. Tabora is bordered by Shinyanga to the no ...

from 1994 until his resignation in 2011. He was the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) National Treasurer from 2005 to 2007 and member of the Politburo/Central Committee of CCM from 2006 to 2011. Some of the key as an MP he pioneered community health insurance in East Africa and every household in his constituency was provided with

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

from the Community Health Fund. He also achieved access to water for every resident in his constituency and Igunga Constituency became the first district to have a dispensary in every village and electricity in every ward. According to Forbes magazine Rostam Aziz of Tanzania owns nearly 18% of Vodacom Tanzania, the country's largest mobile phone company, with 15 million subscribers. Rostam, via Cavalry Holdings, previously owned 35% of the company, but, in May 2014 he sold 17.2% of Vodacom Tanzania to Vodacom Group of South Africa for an estimated $250 million. In 2019 he sold his remaining stake in Vodacom Tanzania through his investment vehicle Mirambo Holdings for USD$ 220 million. He also owns MIC Tanzania Plc (TIGO Tanzania and Zantel Ltd), Taifa Gas Group, Caspian mining, a contract mining firm in Tanzania, and real estate in Dubai and Oman. Aziz got his start in his family's trading business and then branched out on his own.

Background

Rostam was born in Igunga District of

, where he completed his schooling before proceeding to the United Kingdom for higher education. He completed his Bachelor in Economics from

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. During his political career Rostam was appreciated by former Tanzanian president Benjamin William Mkapa in his memoir, for the formation of the National Health Insurance. He worked on improving the water supply in his constituency Igunga, which became the first district to have a dispensary in every village and electricity connection in every ward.

Overview

Rostam investments range from telecoms, energy, mining, agriculture, media, real estate, port facilities and services. His holdings include: * Shareholding in

Vodacom Tanzania Vodacom Tanzania Limited is Tanzania's leading cellular network company. As of December 2020, Vodacom Tanzania had over 15.6 million customers and was the largest wireless telecommunications network in Tanzania. Vodacom Tanzania is the second t ...

, the leading mobile telephone network in the country, a subsidiary of

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

. * ''Caspian Limited, the largest contract mining company in Tanzania. Mining contractor to

DeBeers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...

and others. * MIC Tanzania Plc( TiGO Tanzania) ''together with Axian-Telecoms.'' * Taifa Gas Group t''he leading LPG energy supplier in East and Southern Africa''. * Ace Leather Tanzania

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aziz, Rostam 1964 births Living people Tanzanian businesspeople Chama Cha Mapinduzi MPs Tanzanian MPs 1990–1995 Tanzanian MPs 1995–2000 Tanzanian MPs 2000–2005 Tanzanian MPs 2005–2010 Tanzanian MPs 2010–2015 Tanzanian people of Iranian descent Baloch people Tanzanian billionaires