How Strive Masiyiwa Built Zimbabwe's Biggest Telco

At heart, Strive Masiyiwa is an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur is a man who solves problems. Wherever he sees problems he jumps at them and attempts to solve them.

Strive Masiyiwa was born in Zimbabwe on 29 January 1961, and from an early age, he was not spared any of life’s troubles. When he was just seven years old, his family had to flee from his native Zimbabwe following the chaos that emanated from the unilateral declaration of independence from the British Government by the then prime minister, Ian smith. The Masiyiwas moved northward and settled in neighbouring Zambia, it was there that Strive completed his primary education.

Zambia made sense as a refuge for the family because his father was a miner, and Zambia was famed for its copper mines. His mother was an entrepreneur, whose business blossomed so much that Strive’s father quit the mines and joined the family business. By the time Strive was 12, his parents could afford him a European education. They sent him to Scotland, where he completed his secondary education, in 1978. 

Upon completion of his secondary education, he returned back to Zimbabwe and offered to join Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo's anti-government guerrilla forces, but was told however, that the war was almost won, and when the country need rebuilding, it’ll look up to people like him to help build it. He took this advice and returned to school in Britain where he bagged a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wales in 1983. He worked briefly in the computer industry in Cambridge, then returned to Zimbabwe in 1984, hoping to help the country's recovery following the end of the Rhodesian Bush War and universal franchise elections in 1980.

After returning from the United Kingdom, Masiyiwa joined the Zimbabwean post and telecommunications corporation (ZPDC) as a Senior Engineer. He quickly moved up the ranks at ZPDC and was eventually appointed a principal Engineer. He resigned in 1988, then went on to establish his own Electrical Contracting firm, Retrofit Engineering.

You can watch the full video about Strive Masiyiwa below;