By A Correspondent- Twenty-eight-year-old Vimbai Masiyiwa has said she emulates her father, Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet Wireless.
Vimbai is the executive director of Batoka Hospitality, the first black, female-owned safari lodge group in Africa.
She and her mother, Tsitsi Masiyiwa, founded Batoka Hospitality, a luxury eco-tourism and community development group. Their latest project, the Zambezi Sands River Lodge, is a safari lodge located at the western end of the Zambezi National Park and will open in June. The project focuses on community-led initiatives centred around women’s empowerment.
She had worked with her father for some years, starting as an intern at 14, throughout her university years and working as a special assistant for him until almost two years ago when she fully stepped into her role at Batoka.
She says she’s learnt from her dad to be a great listener, and says her father always hears people out and then says his piece. Vimbai told NewZimbabwe:
I used to jump into saying what it is I wanted, being very straightforward but as I’ve grown over the last few years I’ve really mirrored exactly what I see him do. I’m sure if you put us in the same room and put screen between us and had someone talk to us we would look identical, I mirror everything … from how he sits to how he responds just because I’ve seen him grow in business over the years and I’ve seen what has worked. I’m an observer and I learn by observing. I’m a bit of a copycat in that sense.
Vimbai has lived in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), and is currently based in the UK and the US.
Strive Masiyiwa is a prominent Zimbabwean businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He also sits on several respectable boards which include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Geographic, Unilever, and Netflix. He has been on The Rockefeller Foundation and is the only African member of the United States Holocaust Memorial. He is also the chairman emeritus of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and African Union Special Envoy to the continent’s response to COVID-19.