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Zimbabwean-born telecommunications tycoon, Strive Masiyiwa has been named as the United Kingdom (UK)’s first black billionaire according to the Sunday Times UK.
Masiyiwa who sits on the boards of Netflix and Unilever is the founder and owner of Econet Wireless Group which now operates in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim.
The business mogul and Econet founder was in January named among Africa’s richest business people and recently named among the top 50 richest in the world.
He left Zimbabwe for South Africa around 1999 where he lived before moving to London in 2010 and has lived in the capital ever since.
Masiyiwa faced resistance from the late Robert Mugabe government when he tried launching Econet but he eventually registered the telecoms company in 1998.
It is believed that the government intended to launch its own mobile network operator, NetOne, therefore, authorities feared Econet would be a strong competitor.
Masiyiwa who is also a philanthropist, also owns a number of high profile properties in New York, including two adjacent apartments atop the 29-storey Eldorado Tower – which have been at various points home to stars such as Michael J. Fox, Moby and Alec Baldwin.
He was born in 1961 and when he was aged seven, his parents fled the country amid the unrest after Ian Smith’s government declared independence from Britain.
His family moved to Zambia where Mr Masiyiwa attended primary school, before moving to the UK aged 12.
He attended a private secondary school in Scotland paid for by his entrepreneur mother before later earning an engineering degree from the University of Wales.
According to reports, Mr Masiyiwa worked in Cambridge in the computer industry for a short period before returning to Africa.
While in the UK, Mr Masiyiwa lives in a detached £2,5 million mansion on an exclusive private estate in Surrey.
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