One story that tends to inspire young entrepreneurs who have the passion and goal of making something out of nothing is the story of Ismail Ahmed, a strawberry picker and refugee who, in his quest to satisfy the wants and needs of people, has become one of the most powerful people of African heritage in the UK.
Ismail Ahmed is the founder and chairman of WorldRemit, the leading digital money transfer company that’s pioneering a mobile approach to sending money around the world.
Ahmed was born in May 1960 and grew up in Hargeisa, Somaliland, a breakaway country that declared independence from Somalia in 1991. He was awarded a World Bank scholarship to study economics at the University of London, in the UK, and had to be smuggled out to the UK to live as a refugee during the civil war in Hargeisa.
He holds a Master of Science degree in economics from the University of London, as well as a PhD degree from the same university. He also holds an MBA from the London Business School.
While studying, Ahmed worked at a number of part-time jobs, including strawberry picking, and so on. Whatever amount he made was sent to his family, scattered all over refugee camps in Africa. The process of sending money home to his family was long and costly, so he began research on how to ease the sending of money and payment of bills across the world. The research that gave birth to his mobile-to-mobile money transfer service.
Founding WorldRemit
He became interested in the money transfer business when he realised how many people depended on it. And thus, he decided to learn the industry’s know-how while studying economics in the UK.
Describing how his interest in starting the digital money transfer service started, he said, “When I was a school boy (in Somaliland) tens of thousands of men crossed the Red Sea to work in the Gulf states (in the oil industry). It was kind of a gold rush. I became a recipient of remittances from my brother, who was one of the men that went to Saudi Arabia. Then, when I came (to the UK to study) on a scholarship, I became a sender. So I saw remittances from both sides.”
He came up with a business plan for WorldRemit, which was first launched as AfricaRemit, and serves as a means of rendering money transfer services for migrant workers to send money across the world using their smartphones.
Ismail founded the money transfer company in 2010, and since then, it has secured over $375 million in funding, made and completed 588,000 transactions in 2016, and employed 328 staff worldwide.
About World Remit
WorldRemit is a leading digital money transfer service that makes sending money as easy as sending an instant message. Known for its mobile-first approach, the majority of WorldRemit’s customers are migrant workers from the developing world living in developed countries who send money back home to support their friends and family using their smartphones.
His Work Experience
Ismail Ahmed served as a compliance adviser to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he helped run a money transfer project.
Ahmed also worked for the World Bank’s Agricultural Development Project in Hargeisa.
Awards And Achievements
He was named first in the Power List 2020, an annual list of the 100 most powerful people of African heritage in the UK.
His company, in 2020, 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.
