BUSINESS

Strive Masiyiwa Zimbabwean businessman Often referred to as the 'Bill Gates of Africa', Strive Masiyiwa, 42, is the Chairman and CEO of Econet Wireless, a Zimbabwean company that generates revenue of more than $300 million a year, making it one of Africa's five largest telecom companies, with operations in eight countries, including Nigeria, New Zealand and Britain.

Upon returning to newly independent Zimbabwe in 1984 from Britain, where he attended high school and university (engineering), he took a job with the state-owned telephone company. Shortly thereafter, he formed his own engineering company.

In 1998, after a long fight with the Zimbabwean government that went all the way to the supreme court, his company was awarded the country's first mobile-phone license. Since then his company has expanded to several countries.

In 2001, Econet Wireless became one of the three companies which received the rights to deliver GSM cellular services to Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. In 2002 he was named to Time Magazine's Global ...