About

When charismatic entrepreneur Mohammed Dewji joined his father’s trading company in 1999, it was the beginning of Tanzania’s greatest business success story. A little over fifteen years later, the company – Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania (MeTL Group) – has become Tanzania’s largest home-grown business. Now worth more than $1 billion and operating in 11 African nations, MeTL is the undisputed Tanzanian national champion and a reference point for African entrepreneurs. With this rapid growth has come increased complexity, and the various business sectors within the group – which include trading, agriculture, manufacturing, financial services, real estate and transport – present a range of legal challenges that Mr Dewji could scarcely have imagined when he began his journey.

Overseeing the legal affairs of MeTL is one of East Africa’s leading legal teams. Led by general counsel Shemane Amin, the team has won praise for matching the extremely high standards of MeTL and ensuring the group’s rapid growth has not been derailed by legal complexity. In a region that suffers from foreign currency shortages and where exchange rates are often unfavourable to larger businesses that conduct trade through formal channels, expert professional advice is essential to maintaining this momentum. A complex regulatory and permitting regime that is often not friendly to business can also be a challenge for a company of MeTL’s size. In helping to address these problems and facilitating the cross-border activities of a group that contributes nearly 3% of Tanzania’s national GDP, MeTL’s legal team has shown that Tanzania’s lawyers are among the most highly skilled in East Africa.