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Reports have it that Africa’s youngest billionaire, Mohammed Dewji, has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen in Tanzania’s main city Dar es Salaam.
Dewji, 43, was abducted outside a swanky hotel gym where he was going for his routine morning workout.
Eyewitnesses said the kidnappers fired shots into the air before driving away with Mr. Dewji. Police said he had no security guards with him and had driven to the gym in an affluent suburb on his own.
Police say three people have been arrested in connection with the incident and two of the abductors were said to be white men.
Forbes magazine puts Dewji’s wealth at $1.5billion and has described him as Tanzania’s only billionaire. In a 2017 report, the magazine declared him as Africa’s youngest billionaire.
In 2016, the young billionaire reportedly promised to donate at least half his fortune to philanthropic causes, Forbes said.
Mr Dewji, locally known as Mo, is credited with turning his family business from a wholesale and retail enterprise into a pan-African conglomerate, reports the BBC’s Athuman Mtulya from Dar es Salaam.
His company, METL, has interests in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils in at least six African states.