The family of Africa’s youngest billionaire have offered a 1bn Tanzanian shillings (£330,000/ $436,000) reward for the safe return of Mohammed Dewji, who was kidnapped from an exclusive hotel gym in a dawn raid. 
 
 Dewji, 43, an industrialist and former politician known as Mo, was abducted by armed men as he arrived for his daily workout at the Colosseum hotel in Dar es Salaam at 5.35am on 11 October. The regional police commissioner said it appeared that Dewji – who has pledged to give away at least half of his $1.5bn (£1.15bn) fortune to charity – had been “kidnapped by whites [white people]”. 
 
 Dewji, who was the first Tanzanian to feature on the cover of business magazine Forbes, is thought to have fallen victim to a well-planned attack in the affluent Oysterbay neighbourhood of Dar es Salaam. 
 
 “The family is offering a reward of a billion [Tanzanian] shillings to any person who has information leading to the whereabouts of our son,” Dewji’s uncle Azim Dewji said at a press conference on Monday. “We want to assure anyone with the information about the whereabouts of our son to come forward and we will treat their information as secret.” 
 
 Mohammed’s company MeTL (Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania) tweeted details of reward and said it would pay out “for any tip that will help us find our MO!”. 
 
 MeTL Group (@MeTL_Group) “For every matter that you fear, God has his plans” MO#BringBackOurMO#MrudisheMoWetu#BringBackMo 
 
 
 
 We are offering a reward of 1 billion TSHS for any tip that will help us find our MO! Please email tips to findmo@metl.net 
 
 The family promises to maintain secrecy pic.twitter.com/YHiSlVXuBX 
 
 Mohammed, who is married with three children, is widely known to travel without a personal security detail despite the heightened threat of kidnapping in Africa. Local media quotes one of his employees as saying he has a “huge celebrity status” in Tanzania. 
 
 Police said he was dragged away by masked armed men as he arrived at the luxury hotel’s spa and leisure complex in a black Range Rover with the licence plate “Mo 1”. 
 
 Paul Makonda, regional police commissioner in Dar es Salaam, said: “They fired a gun and then they opened the gate. Initial information indicates he was kidnapped by whites travelling in two vehicles. This kind of incident is new here”. 
 
 More than 20 people have been arrested in connection with the abduction. Tanzania’s home affairs minister, Kangi Lugola,said: “The police will never rest until the culprits are brought to book.” The hashtag # BringBackMo was trending in Tanzania. 
 
 supadada (@tulanana) #Tanzanian billionaire family offer close to half a million dollars for news leading to the return of @moodewji who was kidnapped a few days ago pic.twitter.com/HmZLS6FeMP 
 
 Dewji was born in 1975 in a house built from mud and sand in rural Tanzania. 
 
 His father, Gulamabbas, transformed his mother’s shop into an import-export empire, which enabled Mo and his siblings to be sent to private schools and exclusive sports clubs. Mo showed an early flair for golf, and his father sent him to the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in Florida. But, when it was clear he wouldn’t make it to a PGA grade player, he enrolled at Georgetown University, in Washington DC, to study international business and finance with a minor in theology. 
 
 On his return to Tanzania, Dewji joined the family business as chief financial controller and quickly set about expanded the operation. MeTLis now the country’s largest home-grown business employing 24,000 people and accounting for 3.5% of gross national product (GDP). 
 
 Maria Sarungi Tsehai (@MariaSTsehai) @BillGates please help us to make the world know that in #Tanzania we want the culprits to #BringBackMo 
 
 We pray and demand the safe return of @moodewji 
 
 We know that you know him ☺️ pic.twitter.com/2Oj1C9ihDI 
 
 He has featured on the cover of Forbes three times, and is ranked by the magazine as Africa’s 17th-richest person with a $1.5bn fortune. 
 
 Dewji also launched a fizzy drink brand called Mo Cola to compete with Coca-Cola, and owns a majority stake in Simba Sports Club football team in the Tanzanian Premier League. The team, which was formerly known as Eagles and Dar Sunderland, has also tweeted calling for Dewji’s return. 
 
 Mohammed has said he is proud of his business success, but his real passion is in his commitment to giving away his wealth in order to help poorer Tanzanians. MeTL’s stated mission is to “ending poverty in Tanzania”. 
 
 Simba SC Tanzania (@SimbaSCTanzania) Kwa mtu yeyote mwenye taarifa ambazo zitasaidia kupatikana kwa mwekezaji wetu Mohammed Dewji anaweza kuwasiliana na familia ya Dewji kwa namba 0755030014, 0717208478 na 0784783228 au kutuma barua pepe findmo@metl.net pic.twitter.com/oMz22cXnsm 
 
 “I have been blessed and I am very proud of the success of my company, MeTL, but with this success and the subsequent wealth comes responsibility,” Mohammed said when he created his Mo Dewji charitable foundation. “I believe in putting money back into my country first and foremost. When God blesses you financially, don’t raise your standard of living, raise your standard of giving.” 
 
 Dewji has signed up to the Giving Pledge, created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to call on the world’s richest people to give away at least half of their wealth to charity. 
 
 As well as running his company, Mohammed served in Tanzania’s parliament as a MP for the ruling centre-left Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party for 10 years until 2015. 
 
 
 
 

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Financial magazine Forbes says Mohammed Dewji is worth $1.5bn (£980m) 
 
 The family of Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji, who was kidnapped on Thursday, has offered a 1bn Tanzania shilling ($440,000; £330,000) reward for information that leads to his rescue. 
 
 Mr Dewji, reportedly Africa's youngest billionaire, was taken by masked gunmen in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. 
 
 The police have arrested more than 20 people in connection with the abduction 
 
 But both the motive for the kidnapping and his whereabouts are still unclear. 
 
 Police believe that two white men were behind Mr Dewji's disappearance, reports the BBC's Athuman Mtulya from Dar es Salaam. 
 
 The family hoped that the reward will help the police's investigation, spokesperson Azim Dewji told a packed press conference. 
 
 "We want to assure anyone with the information about the whereabouts of our son to come forward and we will treat their information as secret," he said. 
 
 Kidnappings are uncommon in Tanzania, our correspondent says. 
 
 Who is Mohammed Dewji? 
 
 Financial magazine Forbes puts his wealth at $1.5bn (£980m), and has described him as Tanzania's only billionaire. 
 
 In a 2017 report, it said Mr Dewji, 43, was Africa's youngest billionaire. 
 
 Mr Dewji is also a major sponsor of one of Tanzania's biggest football teams, Simba. 
 
 He promised in 2016 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. 
 
 His company, MeTL, has interests in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages and edible oils in at least six African states. 
 
 Mr Dewji served as a ruling party MP for a decade until 2015. He told the BBC in a 2014 interview that this possibly made it easier for him to meet top politicians, but it did not give him an unfair advantage, as other businessmen also had access to them. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mohammed Dewji spoke to the BBC in 2014 
 
 What more do we know about his abduction? 
 
 The abduction took place outside a swanky gym in the affluent neighbourhood of Oysterbay. 
 
 The kidnappers fired shots in the air before driving away with the billionaire, eyewitnesses said. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Police officers inspect Mohammed Dewji's vehicle after his abduction 
 
 Mr Dewji, a fitness enthusiast, had no security guards with him and had driven to the gym on his own, Dar es Salaam regional police commissioner Paul Makonda told reporters on Thursday.
– Days after Africa's youngest billionaire was kidnapped, Mohammed Dewji's family is offering a $440,000 reward for information leading to his rescue. Dewji, said to be Tanzania's only billionaire, was taken by masked gunmen on his way into a gym in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam Thursday morning. More than 20 people have been arrested in connection with the abduction, but police still have not uncovered a motive for the crime or Dewji's whereabouts, the BBC reports. The married father of three is said to have "huge celebrity status" in Tanzania. "We want to assure anyone with the information about the whereabouts of our son to come forward and we will treat their information as secret," a family spokesperson said at a press conference announcing the reward. Dewji, whose company has interests in textile manufacturing, flour milling, beverages, and edible oils, promised in 2016 he would donate at least half of his $1.5 billion fortune to charity, the Guardian reports. The 43-year-old also served in Tanzania's parliament for 10 years and owns a majority stake in the Simba Sports Club football team in the Tanzanian Premier League. (Dewji was said to have an "incredibly relaxed" approach to security.)