In the wake of the adverse migrant crisis, one man has offered to help solve the stubborn situation in a way very few people can.
Naguib Sawiris, a billionaire from Egypt, offered to buy a Mediterranean island to settle the migrants fleeing the Syrian conflict, at least until a permanent solution for the situation is found.
The business tycoon made an announcement earlier this month that he was looking to buy an island which would “host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country”.
Thousands of people continue to flee Syria after experiencing the four-and-a-half year conflict that has quite literally tore their country apart.
Already, more than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January.
It is because of these deaths and the harsh transit conditions that Naguib has offered to purchase an island that will host the migrants as other more permanent solutions are sought.
The tycoon said that he had been approached by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR to cooperate on the project, which he estimates would require $100 million to get off the ground.
Many people have been shocked by this offer and now try to find out just who Naguib Sawiris is.
Naguib Sawiris is currently ranked the tenth richest man in Africa with a worth of about $3.1b. He is the son of Onsi Sawiris who established the Orascom Group, a family business.
Naguib joinied Orascom, the family business in 1979, and has since then contributed to the growth and diversification of the company into what it is today. Orascom is one of Egypt’s largest and most diversified conglomerates and the country’s largest private sector employer. Naguib established and built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom. The success of these ventures as well as the other sectors of the company led to the management’s decision to split Orascom into separate operating companies in the late 90s: Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Orascom Hotels & Development and Orascom Technology Systems (OTS).
As the founder of OTH, Naguib led the growth of the company, culminating in the merger deal between Wind Telecom, the mother company of Orascom Telecom Holding and VimpelCom limited in April 2011. At the time, the merger created the world’s sixth largest mobile telecommunications provider by number of subscribers with operations in 20 countries serving 181 million customers.
Naguib also owns a national Egyptian television.
He has already enrolled a platform where people can send him ideas and proposals on how to go about implementing the project.
