Zimbabwe gets its first ever Billionaire (Details, pics)

A London-based businessman has become Zimbabwe's first billionaire and has been named the 14th richest man in Africa.

Mr Masiyiwa was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to the UK as a child, attended secondary school in Scotland and has an engineering degree from the University of Wales. Telecoms tycoon Strive Masiyiwa, 56, is now worth $1.7bn (£1.26) according to Forbes.

Upon returning to Zimbabwe in 1984, Mr Masiyiwa began working in telecoms and set up Econet in 1993.

In 1998, despite opposition from the now-ousted dictator Robert Mugabe he launched a mobile phone network 'at a time when 70 per cent of the country inhabitants had never heard a ringtone', according to Forbes.

The Econet Wireless group now operates in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, with Mr Masiyiwa living in London as of 2010.Mr Masiyiwa is also known as one of the most prolific African philanthropists, focusing in particular on young people.

He founded the Higherlife Foundation together with his wife Tsitsi, which opays school fees for some 40,000 students in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi and Lesotho who are either orphaned or from low-income families.

They also established the Ambassador Andrew Young Scholarship, which enables African students to attend the Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Recently, he has been trying to stem the huge tide of migration from Africa to Europe, urging young people not to risk their lives in crossing the Mediterranean.

'I understand we face the problem of corruption, bribery, bad policies, but it doesn't mean you should take to crossing the Sahara or the Mediterranean,' he told CNN last month,

'We see the drownings... in the Mediterranean, young people trying to get to Europe.