Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has overtaken South African mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe to become the richest black man in Southern Africa.
Patrice Motsepe had held this spot since 2008, Business Insider Africa said.
Since January 2022, Masiyiwa (61) has added a staggering US$1.7 billion (R27 billion) to his wealth as reported by Billionaires.Africa. The huge jump was because of a year-to-date share price increase of his telecoms company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, and his smart-tech company, EcoCash Holdings, previously known as Cassava Smartech.
Since the beginning of the year, Masiyiwa’s net worth has risen from US$2.7 billion to US$4.4 billion, meaning he earned roughly US$14.53 million per day. Billions. Africa reports that his wealth increase can also be because of the valuation of his privately held technology conglomerate, Econet Global (which owns Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres, Sasai Fintech, Cassava Remit, Vaya Technologies, and Distributed Power Technologies, among others).
The market value of the Zimbabwean billionaire’s 52.85% stake in Econet Zimbabwe, the country’s largest telecom services provider, has increased by ZWL164.32 billion (US$510.33 million), as investors remained bullish on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange following higher earnings at the end of 2021.
Masiyiwa, the first black billionaire to live in Britain, recently announced his retirement as chairman and director of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited. iHarare reported that his daughter, Elizabeth Tanya Masiyiwa, was appointed to the company’s board earlier this month.
Strive Masiyiwa boasts of sitting on the boards of some of the most prominent organisations in the world. In January 2022, the Gates Foundation, one of the world’s most potent philanthropic organisations, appointed him as a board member.
In December 2020, streaming service and production company Netflix also appointed him to sit on its board. He is also a Unilever board member, among other organisations, and is on the global advisory board of Bank of America, Quartz Africa reports
