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Few African business leaders have turned a family trading company on an island into a pan-African group that runs mobile networks, mobile money, solar plants and fibre across two regions. Hassanein Hiridjee did exactly that. He took over his family’s business in Madagascar in 1997, built it into Axian Group with his brother in 2015 and has spent the past decade raising billions in funding to expand. His name is rising in searches this year because of a seat on the board of Jumia and a string of financing deals. This biography covers his age, education, career and the thinking behind Axian.
Who Is Hassanein Hiridjee?
Hassanein Hiridjee is a Malagasy-French entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Axian Group, a pan-African company with interests in telecommunications, financial services, energy, real estate and fintech. He also chairs Axian Telecom, the group’s largest division, and sits on the supervisory board of Jumia Technologies, the New York-listed African e-commerce company. Axian operates across Africa and the Indian Ocean and employs thousands of people.
Hassanein Hiridjee’s Age and Early Life
Hiridjee comes from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and is in his early fifties. His family belongs to the Khoja community, known locally as Karana, which has lived in Madagascar for generations. The family spent about 50 years building its commercial interests before he took the lead. His uncle, Raza-Aly Hiridjee, also served as a senior director of the group.
Hassanein Hiridjee’s Education
Hiridjee graduated from ESCP Europe, the French business school. The training prepared him for a global outlook that he applied back home. Madagascar’s economy is small and isolated, and he built his strategy around the idea that a family company from the island could compete on a continental scale.
Taking Over the Family Business
Hiridjee returned to Madagascar in 1997 and took charge of the family’s business, which was already half a century old. He chaired Moov Madagascar from 2005 and joined the board of Telecom Malagasy in 2006, becoming its chairman in 2008. Those years taught him the telecom industry from the inside, in a market where infrastructure is expensive and customers are spread across a large island with poor roads.
Creating Axian Group
In 2015, Hiridjee and his brother Amin consolidated the family’s holdings under the name Axian. Their aim was to build an African leader in sectors that support sustainable growth: telecommunications, energy and financial services, with real estate and fintech alongside.
Axian now describes itself as operating in five sectors across Africa and the Indian Ocean. It also supports the United Nations Global Compact and the Sustainable Development Goals, and Hiridjee frames the group’s strategy around positive impact, inclusion and innovation.
Axian Telecom and the Yas Brand
Axian Telecom is the group’s telecom engine. It reports revenue of $1.4 billion, serves 42.9 million mobile subscribers and 15.2 million mobile money users, and ranks as the sixth-largest telecom operator in Africa. In 2024, it rebranded its mobile operators as Yas in Tanzania, Madagascar, Comoros, Senegal and Togo, and renamed its mobile money services Mixx.
Two major deals highlight Axian Telecom’s expansion. In 2018, the company acquired a 40% stake in Senegal’s operator, now known as Yas Senegal. French entrepreneur Xavier Niel and Senegalese businessman Yerim Sow partnered in the deal. Axian Telecom also issued its first bond, raising $420 million to finance the acquisition.
In 2025, Yas acquired Wananchi Group. The company provides fixed broadband and enterprise connectivity across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi.
Axian Energy and Axian Real Estate
Hiridjee has also pushed Axian into energy. Axian Energy, the group’s renewable energy arm, secured a $60 million financing facility with the Mauritius Commercial Bank in June 2026. The money will help expand a 350 megawatt renewable portfolio across six African countries by 2030. Energy complements the telecom business, because towers and networks need reliable power.
The Financing Wave of 2025 and 2026
Hiridjee has secured about $730 million from development finance institutions since 2025. He plans to use the funding to expand telecom and power operations. In January 2025, the African Development Bank granted Axian Telecom a $160 million senior loan. In June 2026, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a facility of up to €170 million. The funding will support network expansion in Senegal and Kenya. Axian also raised $600 million through a bond issue.
In 2026, the African Development Bank and Axian launched a digital finance programme for women-led businesses. The initiative targets 34,000 micro, small and medium enterprises in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal. It also aims to train 25,000 women across those three countries, Togo and Comoros.
The Jumia Investment
Hiridjee’s most visible recent move concerns Jumia. Axian Telecom bought an 8% stake in June 2025 and has since raised its holding to about 9%. At the company’s annual meeting on May 15, 2026, shareholders elected Hiridjee to the supervisory board with about 98% of the votes cast. In August, Axian joined the International Finance Corporation in a $50 million equity raise for Jumia, which says it aims for profitability in 2027.
For Axian, the logic is clear. Jumia gives it exposure to e-commerce and digital retail, which pair naturally with mobile money and mobile networks. The board does not classify Hiridjee as an independent director, because Axian is a shareholder.
Giving Back Through Foundations
Hiridjee supports vulnerable communities through the Axian Foundation. In 2017, he created Fondation H, which promotes African artistic creation in Antananarivo and Paris, and he is known as a collector of contemporary art and a patron of artists. He also launched 42 Antananarivo, a free coding school in Madagascar that follows the 42 network’s project-based model, to build digital skills on the island.
Awards and Recognition
The Africa CEO Forum named Hiridjee “CEO of the Year” in 2022, one of the continent’s best-known business honours. He is also a billionaire, and he owns Axian Group outright.
Why Hassanein Hiridjee Is Trending Now
Several developments in the past few months explain the interest: the Jumia board seat, the IFC-backed Jumia capital raise in August, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan, the energy financing and the women’s finance programme in September. Together they show a group raising money fast and reaching further into African technology. Readers search for him to learn who controls Axian and what he plans to do with Jumia.
What His Journey Teaches
Three lessons stand out. First, a small home market can launch a continental company. Madagascar has a modest economy, yet Axian now operates across Africa and the Indian Ocean. Second, patient partnerships open doors. The Senegal deal with Xavier Niel and Yerim Sow let Axian enter a major market without carrying the whole risk. Third, development lenders can fund infrastructure that private capital avoids. Axian’s loans from the African Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development paid for networks that serve remote and low-income customers.
