Econet Wireless Zimbabwe

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe was incorporated in 1993 by Strive Masiyiwa but was blocked from operating by the state telecoms monopoly for several years; after winning a protracted legal battle it launched commercially in July 1998 as Zimbabwe's first privately-owned mobile network operator. It listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in September 1998, at the time the youngest company ever to IPO on the ZSE. Econet went on to introduce 3G services in 2007, one of the earliest rollouts globally, and launched the EcoCash mobile money platform in 2011, which became the dominant mobile payments service in Zimbabwe. It remains Zimbabwe's largest telecommunications operator by subscriber base, with over 70% market share, and is the second largest company on the ZSE by market capitalisation.

Corporate structure

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is the Zimbabwe-listed operating subsidiary of Econet Group, founded and chaired at group level by Strive Masiyiwa. Its core business is mobile and fixed wireless telephony and internet access, alongside a growing fintech portfolio built around EcoCash (mobile money and payments) and EcoSure (insurance products distributed via mobile). The company is governed by a Board comprising executive, non-executive and independent non-executive directors, chaired by an independent non-executive director, with day-to-day operations run by an executive management team led by the Group Chief Executive Officer.