ALI MOHAMMED MAGASHI
MANAGING DIRECTOR, KITARI CONSULT

Ali Mohammed Magashi is a graduate of Aeronautical Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, a licensed Avionics Engineer, Flight Engineer, and a former Instructor and National Examiner on the Boeing-727 aircraft. After a meritorious career in Aviation spanning over a decade with over 5,500 flight engineer hours on the Boeing-727 aircraft, he went back to school and acquired a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and a Master’s in Business Administration.

He founded Kitari Systems Ltd, a Telecommunications and IT company that among many other projects, successfully provided the local content in the design, financing and implementation of the first Broadband Wireless Teleport in West Africa, the Jigawa Wireless Broadband Network, that gave birth to the concept of the present Galaxy Backbone Plc.

He ventured into Mortgage Banking in 2003 as MD/CEO of Jigawa Savings and Loans Ltd, and attended many executive programs in Strategic Finance, International Housing Finance and

Marketing at the Harvard Business School, Wharton School, and Fannie Mae Institute, all in the United States.

Ali successfully turned around Jigawa Savings and Loans Ltd from June 2003 to June 2007, from a moribund and obscure outfit, into a national household name in Mortgage Banking. He held the position of Deputy President of the Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria (MBAN), and created the largest single pool of perfected NHF mortgages ever in Nigeria.

He was in many State and Federal Government Committees on Land Reforms and Housing Finance, and he attended various local and international courses, seminars and workshops on Real Estate, Housing Finance, Islamic Real Estate Finance, Leadership and Marketing.

As aviation consultant to AMCON, Ali held the largest aviation portfolio in Africa that included Arik Air, Air Nigeria, Aero Contractors, Afrijet Airline, Chanchangi Airline and IRS Airline, to mention just a few.

He was a consultant to the World Bank/IFC on Land Reforms, Housing Finance, Urban Renewal and Doing Business in Nigeria, and is widely travelled across all continents.

During President Obasanjo’s Housing reforms, Ali was a member (representing the Nigeria
Primary Mortgage market) of the team of the Washington DC roundtable for mortgage reforms, which was being driven by the US treasury department and included OPIC, US ExIm, Nigeria Ministry of Finance, CBN, DMO, FMBN, FCT and MBAN.

Ali Magashi was appointed national coordinator for the Nigeria Vision 20:2020 National Technical Working Group on Housing, and was later selected to serve on the 27-man panel of experts, the Central Working Committee that produced the final blueprint of the Vision 20:2020 document for Nigeria.

Ali attended an executive program in INSEAD on corporate governance for directors.