Background and career
Najib Azmi Mikati (born 24 November 1955) is a Lebanese politician and businessman who served as the 52nd prime minister of Lebanon from 2021 to 2025. He also served in this post as the 48th and 45th prime minister from 2011 to 2014 and in 2005, after holding the post of Minister of Public Works and Transport from December 1998 to 2003. In 2005, he headed an interim government that supervised the 2005 general election following the withdrawal of Syrian troops. In 2011, he formed his second government, backed by the March 8 alliance, before he resigned in 2013. He was a member of parliament for Tripoli from 2000 to 2005 and was re-elected in 2009 and 2018. In July 2021, he was designated as prime minister and assumed office on 10 September 2021. He went on to lose the parliamentary consultations on 13 January 2025 against ICJ president Nawaf Salam, receiving only 9 votes to Salam's 84. According to Forbes, Najib Mikati is the richest man in Lebanon along with his brother Taha Mikati, with each having a net worth of $2.8 billion in 2023. In 2019, state prosecutor Ghada Aoun accused Mikati of corruption and pressed charges of illegitimate enrichment via subsidised housing loans against him. The charges were dismissed on 3 February 2022 by judge Charbel Bou Samra. In 2023, an investigation in Monaco cleared him of any wrongdoing due to "insufficient evidence," and he has said that the accusations against him were politically motivated. During his tenure as Minister of Public Works and Transport (1998–2004), Mikati developed a working relationship with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, a period in which Syria exercised significant political influence in Lebanon. He later distanced himself from the Assad government, resigning as prime minister in March 2013 amid tensions between the pro- and anti-Assad camps in Lebanon. Mikati and his brother Taha founded Investcom in 1982, building their fortune through mobile telecommunications operations in emerging markets across Africa and the Middle East. By 2005, the company had operations in ten countries — Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Cyprus — and was listed on the London and Dubai stock exchanges. In 2006, Investcom was acquired by South Africa's MTN Group for US$5.5 billion. The brothers subsequently founded M1 Group, a holding company with investments across telecommunications, real estate, fashion, energy and finance.
Mikati was born on 24 November 1955 and hails from a prominent Sunni Muslim family based in Tripoli. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1980 with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. He also attended a summer school program held at Harvard, and advanced management programs at INSEAD.
In 1979, Najib's older brother Taha Mikati founded Arabian Construction Company (ACC), headquartered in Abu Dhabi, which became one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East. Najib Mikati co-founded the telecommunications company Investcom with his brother Taha in 1982. He sold the company in June 2006 to South Africa's MTN Group for $5.5 billion. Through Investcom Holding the brothers together own the news website Lebanon24 and 11% of the shares in LBCI. He is a major shareholder in the South African telecommunications operator MTN, owner of the high-end fashion brand Façonnable, and an investor in transport, gas, and oil businesses. He also has investments in real estate, notably in London, New York, and Monaco. He owns the 79-metre (259 ft) motor yacht Mimtee.
After being appointed Minister of Public Works and Transport on 4 December 1998, Mikati was elected to the Lebanese parliament from his hometown of Tripoli in 2000, outpolling Omar Karami, who was elected from the same multimember constituency. As a parliamentarian, Mikati retained his cabinet position and developed a reputation as a moderately pro-Syrian politician with a normal relationship with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Later Mikati was made transportation minister and became an ally of then Lebanese president Émile Lahoud, supporting the extension of his term in 2004. He is considered a compromise figure, not being close to any particular political bloc. He is one of the leaders of the Sunni community. He himself denies any closeness to Hezbollah and describes himself as a liberal, emphasizing his background in business to reassure the United States.
Mikati was a perennial candidate for Lebanon's prime ministry since 2000, finally taking the office upon the resignation of Omar Karami on 13 April 2005. During negotiations to form a government, Mikati emerged as a consensus candidate. Mikati acted as a caretaker premier. He is the leader of the solidarity bloc, which has had two seats in the Lebanese parliament since 2004. He also created the centrist movement and ideology in Lebanon and the Arab world, for which he has held many international conferences in Lebanon. In the general election of 2009, Mikati won again a seat from Tripoli, being a member of the centrist groups in the Lebanese parliament.
On 24 January 2011, the March 8 alliance, specifically Hezbollah, Michel Aoun, and Walid Jumblatt, nominated Mikati to become prime minister. Mikati succeeded Saad Hariri, whose government was brought down by the resignation of ten of the alliance's ministers and one presidential appointee on 12 January 2011, resulting from the collapse of the Saudi-Syrian initiative to reach a compromise on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. On 25 January, 68 members of the parliament of Lebanon voted in favor of nominating Mikati for Prime Minister. President of Lebanon Michel Suleiman then invited Mikati to head a new Lebanese government. The process of government formation lasted for five months due to serious disagreements between leaders. On 13 June 2011, Mikati became the Prime Minister of Lebanon for the second time. On 13 June, Mikati announced the formation of the government and stated that it would begin by "liberating land that remains under the occupation of the Israeli enemy". On 22 March 2013, Mikati resigned from office, due to "intensifying pressure between the pro-Assad and anti-Assad camps" and the Lebanese president accepted his resignation on 23 March 2013. On 6 April 2013, Tammam Salam was tasked to form a new government.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
