Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa unseats Patrice Motsepe to become Southern Africa’s richest Black billionaire

Zimbabwe’s richest man Strive Masiyiwa has surpassed South African mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe to become the richest Black billionaire in Southern Africa, according to data retrieved from the U.S. business magazine, Forbes.

Masiyiwa is a London-based Zimbabwean billionaire businessman and philanthropist.

He made his first billion with the 1998 launch of his home country’s mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, as well as his multinational technology organization, Econet Global.

Data tracked by Billionaires.Africa revealed that with a real-time net worth of $3.4 billion, the tech billionaire has surpassed Motsepe, who is worth $3.2 billion, to become Southern Africa’s richest Black billionaire.

Despite having more than 1,000 ultra-high net worth individuals, Southern Africa, which includes Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, has just two Black billionaires.

Masiyiwa’s net worth was evaluated at $2.7 billion at the start of this year, while Motsepe’s fortune was valued at $3.2 billion due to his stake in African Rainbow Minerals, South Africa’s first Black-owned mining corporation.

Masiyiwa’s fortune has risen by $700 million this year, from $2.7 billion in January to $3.4 billion as of the time of writing owing to a jump in the shares of his publicly traded companies and a revaluation of his investments in Econet Global and Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

Shares in his publicly-traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s largest telecommunications services provider — and Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe, now EcoCash Holdings, have climbed by more than 67 and 94 percent, respectively, since the start of 2022.

The market value of his interests in Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and EcoCash Holdings has risen by $243 million and $93 million, respectively, as a result of the price hike.

This amounts to a $336-million gain for the Zimbabwean billionaire since the year began.

In January, Masiyiwa was named to the board of directors of The Gates Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates to combat poverty, sickness and unfairness across the globe.

He is joined on the board by fellow new members Baroness Nemat (Minouche) Shafik and businessman Thomas J. Tierney of Bain & Company.