The richest man in Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa is the founder and executive chairman of Econet. An international technology group and one of the early pioneers of the mobile telecoms industry in Africa.
Strive Masiyiwa Biography
Masiyiwa is a Zimbabwean businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for being the founder and chairman of Econet Wireless International and Zimbabwe’s first billionaire.
Masiyiwa was born on January 29th, 1961 in Zimbabwe. His father was a miner who later became a businessman. His mother was an entrepreneur whose interests ranged from retail sales to small-scale farming and transportation. In 1968 Masiyiwa and his family fled to the north-central Zambian town of Kitwe due to regional government instability.
At the age of 12 Masiyiwa’s parents sent him abroad to study at a private school in Edinburgh, Scotland. After graduating in 1978, he returned to Zimbabwe with the intention to join the anti-government guerilla forces.
But was told by a senior officer that the conflict was almost over. That the country needed people like him to help rebuild it, so Masiyiwa took the officer’s advice. And in 1983 earned a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Wales.
He worked briefly in the computer industry in Cambridge, England, but soon returned to Zimbabwe in 1984, hoping to aid the country’s recovery after the war of independence it had won in 1980.
Masiyiwa joined the Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (ZPTC), the state-owned telephone company, as a senior engineer. ZPTC quickly promoted him to the position of principal engineer. Masiyiwa became frustrated with the government bureaucracy, however, and left ZPTC in 1988 to start an electrical contracting firm named Retrofit Engineering. He was chosen as Zimbabwe’s youngest-ever Businessman of the Year in 1990.
How Strive Masiyiwa Started Econet
Masiyiwa recognized the great potential for wireless telephones in sub-Saharan Africa because the region had only two fixed-line telephones for every hundred people in the 1990s.
He saw that wireless networks would be quicker and less expensive to build than land-based networks that required stringing miles of telephone lines across rough terrain.
Wireless telephone service would also be less vulnerable than traditional landlines to the theft of copper wire for resale. Masiyiwa first approached ZPTC about forming a mobile telephone network in Zimbabwe. The company wasn’t interested, however, saying that cell phones had no future in the country.
Masiyiwa then decided to create a cell phone network on his own. He sold Retrofit Engineering in 1994 and started to finance Econet Wireless through his family company, TS Masiyiwa Holdings (TSMH).
He met with fierce opposition, first from ZPTC, which told him it held a monopoly in telecommunications, and second from the Zimbabwean government, which swamped him with red tape and demands for bribes. As a devout Christian, Masiyiwa was opposed to paying bribes and kickbacks to government officials. He decided to pursue his case through the courts.
Victory at last
After a landmark four-year legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s Supreme Court, Econet finally won a license to provide cell phone service in Zimbabwe. The court declared that the government monopoly on telecommunications had violated the constitution’s guarantee of free speech. Econet’s first cell phone subscriber was connected to the new network in 1998.
While Masiyiwa waited to gain the government’s approval for operations in Zimbabwe, he was able to start a cell phone network in neighboring Botswana. Econet Wireless Holdings then established a presence in over 15 countries, including other African nations, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The company also diversified into satellite communications, fixed-line telephone services, and Internet service.
Econet would go on to have a presence in other African nations as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Masiyiwa later became involved with the privately held London-based Liquid Telecom Group. This company is Africa’s largest fiber optic and satellite business. In 2018 Masiyiwa was named Zimbabwe’s first billionaire and in 2020 he became the first African to be appointed a Netflix Board member.
Masiyiwa decided to relocate his family and the Econet headquarters to the Republic of South Africa in 2000. Some observers suggested that he was going into exile from his homeland once again. Masiyiwa himself said simply that South Africa was the best place from which to launch a multinational corporation because it had the continent’s most vibrant economy.
Strive Masiyiwa Companies
Some of his most prominent start-up companies and investments include:
- Mascom Wireless Botswana
- Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
- Econet Wireless Nigeria (now Airtel Nigeria)
- Liquid Intelligent Technologies Group
- Econet Wireless New Zealand (now 3 Degrees Mobile)
- Trilogy Capital Partners Canada (early investor)
- Cassava Technologies
- Africa Data Centres
- Sasai Fintech
- Telrad Group Israel
- Econet Satellite Services
- Lesotho Telecom
- Econet Wireless Burundi
- Rwanda Telecom
- Econet Wireless South Africa
- Solarway
- Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
He continues to invest privately through his investment companies, and family office.
Net Worth of Strive Masiyiwa
The Richest man in Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of the telecom giant Econet, experienced a significant dip of $1.2 billion in his net worth over the last 12 months.
Strive Masiyiwa, the 62-year-old former Chairman of Econet, boasted a net worth of $3 billion. However, recent data from the Forbes billionaire index reveals that his fortunes have plummeted to an estimated $1.8 billion, marking a staggering $1.2 billion reduction.
Masiyiwa’s wealth is primarily linked to his ownership stakes in Econet Wireless and other ventures, including Netflix.
The primary reasons for this sharp decline can be attributed to the falling share prices of his publicly traded enterprises, notably Econet Zimbabwe and EcoCash Holdings.
Additionally, the depreciation of the Zimbabwean currency has further impacted Masiyiwa’s net worth.
Masiyiwa’s substantial wealth includes a 52.85% stake in Econet Zimbabwe, the nation’s largest telecom services provider, and a 30% stake in EcoCash Holdings, a diverse smart technology group focused on digital and financial technologies, promoting economic empowerment and financial inclusion.
The net worth of Strive Masiyiwa according to Forbes is estimated at US$1.2 billion. Thanks to the robust performance of his wide-ranging assets managed through Econet Global.
Strive Masiyiwa Wife
Strive Masiyiwa’s wife is Tsitsi Masiyiwa. She’s the founder and Co-Chair at Higherlife Foundation.
Tsitsi Masiyiwa is an African philanthropist and social entrepreneur who has devoted her life to empowering the lives of young people through education.
She started working in philanthropy in the early 1990s through the work of her husband, Strive Masiyiwa, in the telecommunications business in Zimbabwe. During that time, the country was gripped by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and many families lost breadwinners.
The impact of the pandemic touched her heart and she started supporting the children of employees and community members that would have passed on due to this pandemic.
She dedicated her life to supporting young children and orphans’ lives. Together with her husband, she founded Higherlife Foundation in 1996, which has supported over 250,000 children to access education services.
It has become one of the largest scholarship programs in Africa and thousands of children have gone on to receive tertiary scholarships to study at the world’s top universities.
Click here to read more about Tsitsi Masiyiwa.
Leadership and International Accolades
In 2011, The Times of London named him one of the 25 Leaders of Africa’s Renaissance Award.
Fortune Magazine in 2014, named Masiyiwa one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the world, and he was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine.
In September 2014, the Chair of the African Union (AU), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, asked Masiyiwa to help mobilise resources for Africa’s response to the Ebola outbreak. This was the first time The AU had asked a business leader to undertake such a role. Masiyiwa, with the help of other leaders, set up the first ever Pan-African fund-raising campaign known as #AfricaAgainstEbola Solidarity Fund.
The fund raised millions of US dollars from the public using SMS donations, with contributions coming from many African countries. The donations enabled The AU to deploy the largest known contingency of African healthcare workers to combat the spread of the deadly pandemic.
Other accolades
In 2015, Forbes Magazine named Masiyiwa in the 10 Most Powerful Men in Africa list for 2015, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) awarded Masiyiwa the Freedom Award. The award is given annually to an individual who makes an extraordinary contribution towards supporting refugees and championing the causes of liberty, individual freedom, and dignity.
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In 2019, he was awarded the Norman E. Borlaug World Food Prize Medallion[30] and named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine. In 2020, he was named a JA Worldwide Global Business Hall of Fame Laureate.
In December 2020 Masiyiwa was named by Bloomberg as one of the 50 world’s most influential people. He was also included in the list as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2020 by the New African Magazine. And in Mail & Guardian’s 100 Africans of the year for 2020. For the second time since 2017, Masiyiwa was named by Fortune Magazine in 2021 on the list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders for his work with the African Union leading COVID response and vaccine acquisition in Africa.
In 2022 he was named UK Spear’s Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year. In April 2023, Masiyiwa was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. That was founded in 1780 ‘honoring excellence, innovation, and leadership and recognizing a broad array of stellar accomplishments’.
Masiyiwa’s Business Career and Interests
Masiyiwa returned to his native Zimbabwe in 1984 after a 17-year absence. After working briefly as a telecoms engineer for the state-owned telephone company. He quit his job and set up his own company from saving amount of US$75 monthly from his salary.
He built a large electrical engineering business. The emergence of mobile cellular telephony led him to diversify into telecoms. But he soon ran into major problems when the Zimbabwean government of Robert Mugabe refused to give him a license to operate his business, known as Econet Wireless.
Masiyiwa appealed to the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe, on the basis that the refusal constituted a violation of “freedom of expression”. The Zimbabwean court ruled in his favour after a five-year legal battle, which took him to the brink of bankruptcy. The ruling, which led to the removal of the state monopoly in telecommunications. It’s regarded as one of the key milestones in opening the African telecommunications sector to private capital. The company’s first cell phone subscriber was connected to the new network in 1998.
Econet is listed on Zimbabwe stock exchange
Masiyiwa listed Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in July 1998 on the local stock exchange. As a gesture of thanks to reward the thousands of ordinary people who supported him during his long legal battles against the Zimbabwean government. Today, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has gone on to become a major business that dominates the Zimbabwe economy. It is currently the second-largest company in Zimbabwe by market capitalisation.
In March 2000, fleeing persecution from the local authorities, Masiyiwa left Zimbabwe, never to return to the country. He moved first to South Africa, where he founded The Econet Wireless Group. A new and completely separate organisation to the listed Zimbabwean entity.
The company he created is known to have operations and investments across Africa. Plus the United Kingdom, Europe, US, Latin America, and New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, and China.
After more than ten years in South Africa, Masiyiwa moved to London. He still retains significant business interests in Africa.
Strive Masiyiwa’s Quotes
“Entrepreneurship without skills limits your growth potential.”
“Integrity is better capital than money. You can accumulate it just like money, and you can use it just like money, but it goes further, and is enduring.”
“A vision on its own is not enough. Hard work and dedication is required to make that vision a reality.”
“The opportunity is in the problem. The moment I see a problem, I immediately begin to think about the opportunities that can be created by trying to solve it”.
“You can only find opportunities if you are looking for them”
“Attitude determines your altitude, if you have a bad attitude, even if you are way up there, you will come crashing down, and if you are still trying to take off, a bad attitude will keep you on the ground, revving your engines but going nowhere.”
Strive Masiyiwa’s Philanthropy
Masiyiwa is one of the prolific philanthropists on the face of Africa. Strive Masiyiwa and his family founded the Higherlife Foundation in 1996, a non-profit organisation that is invested in the future of Africa through education.
Four foundations under Higherlife Foundation:
- Capernaum Trust
- The Christian community Partnership Trust (CCPF)
- The National Health Care Trust of Zimbabwe
- Joshua Nkomo Scholarship Fund
Each of these foundations have their specific agendas which they are fulfilling.
Higherife according to tsitsimasiyiwa.com has directly and indirectly granted access to education to 250,000 children. The Foundation has grown to become one of the largest scholarship programs in Africa.
Higherlife Foundation also supports other programs like the cholera outbreak in 2008 in Zimbabwe, resuscitation of operation of college of medicine in Zimbabwe in the 2008-2012 period.
The foundation has gone ahead to streamline its operation and is focused on identifying highly intelligent orphans and giving them a chance at education. Higher Life Foundation has an in-country presence in Zimbabwe, Burundi and Lesotho.
Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwaalso established a $6.4 million scholarship fund. The fund sends students to Morehouse College in the United States. Also, they co-founded Muzinda Hub which tackles unemployment in Zimbabwe by training young coders in digital skills and IT programming.
Theresa May, the British Prime Minister also recognized the work that Strive Masiyiwa and his wife, Tsitsi Masiyiwa are doing with Higherlife Foundation by awarding them with the Points of Light award.
Additionally, Masiyiwa is a member of the Bill Gates and Warren Buffet initiative known as the Giving Pledge.
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