20 Things you don’t know about Strive Masiyiwa

A South African youth website,YouthVillage, has compiled the following about Zimbabwe’s telecommunications giant, Strive Masiyiwa, who was recently named one of the world’s greatest leaders by Fortune magazine.

Here they are:

1. Beyond telecoms, Strive Masiyiwa’s business activities include operations and investments in some of Africa’s leading businesses in financial services, insurance, renewable energy, bottling for Coca-Cola, hotel and safari lodges.
2. In 1990, Strive Masiyiwa was the youngest ever recipient of Zimbabwe’s coveted Businessman of the Year Award; in 1998 he was named Manager of the Year as well as Entrepreneur of the Year. He was named by Junior Chamber International (JCI) as one of the “Ten Most Outstanding Young Persons of the World” for 1999. In 2002 he was named to Time Magazine’s Global Business Influentials List.
3. In 2014 he was listed as one of the The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
4. Strive Masiyiwa was the publisher of the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, shut down by the Zimbabwean government in late 2003
5. Strive Masiyiwa is a devout born again Christian
6. Strive Masiyiwa devotes his time to educating young African youths on Entrepreneurship.
7. Strive Masiyiwa is also a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.
8. Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Wireless is a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, offering products and services in the core areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, internet and satellite
9. Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet company was duly licensed in December 1997 after a long court battle.
10. When he was 7, his family fled the country and settled in Kitwe, Zambia
11. Strive Masiyiwa’s mother was an entrepreneur, his father worked at first in one of the nearby mines but later joined the family business.
12. At age 12 Strive Masiyiwa was sent to a private school in Edinburgh, Scotland. He graduated in 1978
13. In Britain, he earned a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Wales in 1983(Cum Laude)
14. Starting up Strive Masiyiwa sold his sports car to fund his working capital.
15. Strive Masiyiwa reads a newspaper with a pen in my hand, and always has a notebook.
16. To fund his business Strive Masiyiwa got $250,000, in debt and equity from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank .
17. Strive Masiyiwa named his company Enhanced Communications Network before Dr Nkosana Moyo, who was CEO of Standard Chartered Merchant Bank Zimbabwe encouraged him to change it to ECONET
18. Strive Masiyiwa offered PTC (now TelOne) 51% equity in his mobile business which they turned down
19. When Strive Masiyiwa lost the Supreme Court case in June 1994, he was totally devastated.
20. Vice President of the country, Joshua Nkomo helped cease the persecution against Strive Masiyiwa

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