Home Lifestyle Strive Masiyiwa becomes Britain’s first black billionaire

Strive Masiyiwa becomes Britain’s first black billionaire

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Strive Masiyiwa becomes Britain’s first black billionaire

Strive Masiyiwa has become a billionaire according to Sunday Times Rich List.Econet founder, Masiyiwa, who is based in London has been named Britain’s first black billionaire with a net worth of £1.087bn .The 60-year-old telecom tycoon is a renowned philanthropist and businessman. He currently sits on the board of Netflix and Unilever.  The Zimbabwe-born , and an African Union special envoy on COVID-19,has a more pressing goal in mind – attempting get Covid vaccines to Africa 

Recently, the father of six secured 400 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for Africa.Masiyiwa’s rise to wealth is a notable one, having fled with his parents from his Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) homeland to London in the ’60s, due to the unrest in the country after its independence.

Having moved to the United Kingdom as a child, he attended secondary school in Scotland and had an engineering degree from the University of Wales.For a short time he worked in Cambridge in the computer industry, but later returned to Africa. 

Upon his return to Zimbabwe in 1984, he began to work in telecoms. In 1993, he founded the Econet Group – a telecommunications company, which has now expanded its operations into Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East region. In 2016, Masiyiwa was appointed as a Non-Executive Director in Unilever, while in 2020, he became a member of the board of directors of Netflix.

Author: Dr. Funmi Beckley

fumbeck@gmail.com

Abeokuta, Nigeria

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