The Interview

“I do want to make money, but I want to make money in the right way, ethically. But more importantly, I want use this money to be able to give back.”
Charles Gitonga speaks to entrepreneur and businessman Mohammed Dewji about becoming one of Africa’s youngest billionaires and how he wants to use his wealth.
Mohammed Dewji is a Tanzanian businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has primarily accumulated his wealth from his family business, an East African conglomerate founded by his grandparents and expanded by his father in the 1970s. It deals with textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils.
About twenty-five years ago, Africa had no dollar billionaires. Today, there are still only 23, not a huge number for a continent rich in mineral wealth and an abundance of relatively cheap labour. Their combined wealth has grown to more than 100 billion US dollars.
Dewji signed the Giving Pledge in 2016 promising to donate at least half his fortune to philanthropic causes. He explains why he believes billionaires have a responsibility to give back.
Thank you to the Focus on Africa team for its help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sierra Leone’s first lady Fatima Bio, former Sudanese leader Aisha Musa, and SungAh Lee from the International Organisation for Migration. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Producer: Cordelia Hemming
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Mohammed Dewji. Credit: Getty)

‘We are transforming feelings of revenge into reconciliation. We are transforming despair into hope, trauma into healing. So the future is peace is also like a manual, like a guide, not just for a shared journey across the holy land, but a guide for human conscience.’
Rajan Datar speaks to Palestinian and Israeli authors and peace activists Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon.
Maoz Inon‘s parents were killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7th. Aziz Abu Sarah’s brother died after being detained for nearly a year in an Israeli military prison. Together, they have forged an unlikely friendship across the Israeli Palestine divide, become leading voices for reconciliation, arguing that peace can only be built through empathy, dialogue and a recognition of each other’s humanity.
Their new book, The Future Is Peace, chronicles their eight day drive across Israel and Palestine.
They talk about loss, forgiveness, and why they remain hopeful despite the devastation of war.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Rajan Datar
Producer: Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. Credit: Getty)

“It's what we call a new world disorder: 60 wars, 120 million people - refugees and displaced, 300 million people hungry, plus another 45 million according to the World Food Program as a result of the constrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. That's a disordered world. And people can inveigh against international institutions as much as they like, but the problem we're facing is not that there's too strong an international system - it's too weak.”
Caitríona Perry speaks to David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee.
Miliband, who was previously British Foreign Secretary, first took up the post in 2013, overseeing the New York-headquartered organisation whose humanitarian relief operations are active in over 40 war-affected countries.
As the world navigates multiple conflicts across the Middle East and Africa, in places such as Sudan, Lebanon and Gaza, humanitarian crises continue to grow.
They are further compounded by cuts to international aid, the breakdown of the rules-based order, plus trade and shipping difficulties due to the conflict in Iran.
This means aid organisations like the IRC are increasingly having to adapt how they respond.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the World Health Organisation’s Hanan Balkhy; former US Ambassador to the UN, Samanthan Power; and humanitarian chef José Andrés. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Caitríona Perry
Producers: Ben Cooper and Chloe Ross
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: David Miliband. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)

Amol Rajan speaks to tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, about why he thinks artificial intelligence could transform the future of work.
Reid Hoffman is best known for co-founding LinkedIn, the largest professional networking platform in the world, and revolutionising the world of work. He wants to do it again with a rapid adoption of AI in the workplace in a way he says is safe and ethical.
As one of the world’s richest men he also gives his thoughts on tech billionaires and his former relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Thank you to the Radical with Amol Rajan team for its help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with entrepreneur Emma Grede, CEO of Otter.ai Sam Liang, and First Lady of Sierra Leone Fatima Bio. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producer: Cordelia Hemming
Editor: Farhana Haider
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Reid Hoffman. Credit: Jason Alden/Getty Images)

“Historically, as a region, we’ve been extracted at two levels. If you look at the AI value chain, a lot of our youth, some who have studied computer science, are left at data labelling roles at the bottom of the value chain, where the least value is created. In a different way, a lot of our data is being extracted for free to train those systems. We want to make sure we don’t go into similar models that we had during colonisation.”

Leanna Byrne speaks to Kate Kallot, founder of the Kenyan artificial intelligence company Amini, which is building AI infrastructure across Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
She warns that billions of people risk being left out of the artificial intelligence systems shaping modern life, with languages, cultures and knowledge from large parts of the world underrepresented in the technology being built today.
Kate argues that AI risks repeating old patterns of global inequality, with poorer countries supplying valuable data while richer nations reap the rewards.
She explains why the Global South should help shape the future of AI, rather than simply supply the data behind it.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard.
You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Leanne Byrne
Producer: Osman Iqbal
Editor: Farhana Haider and Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Kate Kallot. Credit: Getty)