Strive Masiyiwa

The Zimbabwean entrepreneur whose decade-long legal battle to license a mobile network in his home country produced one of Africa's most influential technology and infrastructure groups.

By L&I Global Bureau·11 June 2026·8 min read

Strive Masiyiwa was born in 1961 in what is now Zimbabwe and trained as an electrical engineer in the United Kingdom. After a five-year legal battle to obtain a mobile licence in Zimbabwe in the 1990s, he founded what became Econet Wireless and later expanded into a broader group, Cassava Technologies, spanning telecommunications, fibre, data centres, fintech and renewable energy across Africa.

He has been an outspoken public voice on entrepreneurship, telecommunications policy and the financing of African digital infrastructure, and has served on the boards and advisory councils of major global institutions, including as a member of the African Union COVID-19 vaccine acquisition task team.

Masiyiwa is also a substantial philanthropist, with sustained commitments in education and orphan care across southern Africa.

Leadership Philosophy

“African infrastructure will be built by Africans willing to spend a decade litigating for the right to begin.”

Notable Achievements

01Founded Econet Wireless after a landmark licensing legal battle
02Built Cassava Technologies into a pan-African digital infrastructure group
03Served as a leading African voice in pandemic-era vaccine procurement

Editorial note: this profile was drafted by the Leaders & Impact AI editorial system from publicly available information and reviewed for factual integrity by the L&I Global Bureau. The Leadership Impact Score is a proprietary L&I composite index and is updated continuously.

Notable Achievements

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