Strive Masiyiwa is now ranked number 89 on the United Kingdom (UK)’s rich list, up from 159 last year.
Masiyiwa’s fortune has grown to £2 billion (US$2.5 billion), growing by £913 million (US$1.14 billion) over the past 12 months, according to the Sunday Times Rich List for 2022.
The Zimbabwean-born Econet group founder is reported to be Britain’s only black billionaire.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Masiyiwa revealed that he was 12 when he first came to the UK.
He said his parents had managed to get the money to send him to Holt School, a boys’ boarding school in Edinburgh. Masiyiwa said:
I was crying. It was bitterly cold. They said, ‘You have to wear your kilt on Sunday.’
I looked at them and their bare legs, and thought, ‘This is it. I’m dead.’
Masiyiwa went on to live in Birkenhead in Wirral, Merseyside, where he sat for his Advanced Levels.
He later attended Cardiff University, where he studied engineering.
In 1998, Masiyiwa launched mobile telecoms company, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, after a protracted legal battle with authorities for a licence.