TRACKING>>Tanzanian self-made media magnate and philanthropist Reginald Mengi has died in Dubai at the age of 75.
Mengi, through his manufacturing, mining and media conglomerate IPP Group, owned newspapers and radio and TV stations. In 2014, Forbes estimated his wealth at $560m (£430m).
He was born into a poor family close to Mount Kilimanjaro and finished his education in Scotland.
President John Magufuli paid tribute to his role in the country’s development.
Mengi initially worked as an accountant when he returned to Tanzania, but the origins of his business empire are in a ball-point pen assembly plant. Starting in the early 1980s he turned the IPP Group into one of the largest private conglomerates in East Africa, employing more than 3,000 people, according to the company website.
It owns prominent local English and Swahili TV stations, ITV and Capital TV, as well as the English-language daily Guardian newspaper. As a media mogul, Mr Mengi was accused by some, including cabinet ministers, of using his influence against them.
The IPP Group also manufactures one of Tanzania’s best-known brands of bottled water and is moving into smart-phone and tablet manufacturing.
