Strive Masiyiwa, head of one of Africa’s biggest telecom groups, likens his work to road building. The image of the early roads or railways is often invoked to describe the new telecom networks that span Africa and the economic change they have ushered in their wake. But it’s a pioneering impression that comfortably fits the Zimbabwean founder and chief executive of Econet Wireless, an African company with operations in eight countries and more than 25 million customers, generating an estimated $3bn in annual revenues. It’s visible in the size of the adversaries the slight 51-year- old Masiyiwa has tackled, his trailblazing investments and enthusiastic innovation as well as his keen eye to the future.

It is on the future of Africa’s mobile space that the softly spoken Masiyiwa launches forth, speaking from the London office of one of his many subsidiaries, Liquid Telecom, a wholesale vendor of satellite and carrier services to mobile and fixed-line operators in developing countries. “The penetration game in Africa is essentially over,” he says. “Over the next 18 months, every single phone out there will be a smartphone; the next phase is the conversion of people to the internet.” Here he says social media are already dominating the networks, and Africa, with its youthful population and rapid take-up of the likes of Twitter and Facebook and

its own, homespun derivatives, will be no different. “Social networking belongs to a generation under 30, and 70% of Africa’s population is under 30. Observing people communicate, you don’t see voice – you see text,” he says.

Yet he doesn’t believe social media will play a role in forcing political change in sub-Saharan Africa as it has in North Africa and the Middle East. The reason, he says, is that the democratic process “by and large” is rolling along in southern Africa. It is in countries where it has been crushed, such as Libya and Egypt, that revolutions have taken place. “You need a complete lock-down for a country to explode like this. Where it has is in countries that have masses of youth, angry and jobless, who have watched their leaders develop dynastic projects.” In a nod to his native Zimbabwe, where defiant President Mugabe has ruled for three decades, Masiyiwa says all regions have “exceptions” that “play out in the background” against the broader picture. But he refrains from commentating on the Mugabe regime, saying that he isn’t best placed to talk about a country he hasn’t visited since leaving 11 years ago, following a bruising encounter that defined his entrepreneurial style.

He has told the story so many times, yet, relaxing back into his chair, dressed in black and conjuring an image of an agile boxer where speed and stamina rather than brute force come to play, it’s clear that recounting the fight still gives him pleasure. It was back in 1994, when Masiyiwa was just 33. Armed with a British university education and experience managing his own Harare- based construction company, he went into the ring with the Zimbabwean government. At the time, state-run telecoms operator ZPTC didn’t offer a mobile service, yet refused to license wannabe private operators such as Masiyiwa. His response was to exploit a clause on freedom of expression in Zimbabwe’s constitution, protecting the right to receive information. It took five years but Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice finally ruled in his favour. “He was a white Zimbabwean, a fantastic jurist,” Masiyiwa gleefully recalls. “He leant across the table and he said: “So you are saying that 70% of African people have never heard a telephone ring, let alone used one, and that if we remove this monopoly, money will come in and more people will have telephones.” Masiyiwa got his license and although the company has been based out of South Africa since 2000, Econet is still Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile operator, with 70% of the market. His shares in the holding company which floats on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange are reportedly worth $345m (€245m).

Masiyiwa has tested Africa’s judicial system many times since. His latest legal wrangle is with Kuwait group Zain in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and Zain’s single biggest source of revenues. Econet, a 5% shareholder in Zain Nigeria, is opposing the sale of Zain’s Nigerian operations to Indian group Bharti Airtel, which completed the purchase of Zain’s African assets for $10.7bn last June. The issue is before a tribunal constituted under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the Lagos State High Court.

A successful outcome is vital if Econet is to have a stake in Africa’s biggest telecoms market and compete with Pan-African rivals like South African operator MTN and now Barti. “I’ve got an idea what my company is worth,” says Masiyiwa. “I will tell you when we get Nigeria back.” The majority of Econet’s assets are privately held.

His confrontational style has earned him a reputation but it’s a label Masiyiwa proudly wears. “People say that I am litigious. They should be very grateful that I am. If you are an investor, these institutions must work.” His real calling seems to be as a fearless, trailblazing investor, testing institutions such as the courts but also, through his renowned zero tolerance of corruption, being a thorn in the side of the likes of Africa’s police and custom forces.

The days of buccaneer investors singularly negotiating with presidents are over, he says with an expansive wave of his arm. “Any investor, big or small, must be able to walk into an African country and know they will be protected. These are the institutions we need to build, and we are buiding them.” The committed Christian calls it his responsibility as an investor and an African to hold institutions to account and “never pay a bribe – not even a little one”. He adds: “Some people are impatient. They want to get stuff done quickly and put an envelope under the table. We will squeeze this out of the system because this will take us forward.”

A similar zeal “to make business a force for good” will drive Econet’s future growth. Unlike operators in developed countries, African telecom groups have to devise ways to generate revenue streams on a continent where few customers have disposable income. He says the industry now needs to “find its feet”, tapping sources of revenue beyond voice if it is not going to be “just a utility”. He explains: “The challenge is to find revenue inside customers’ basic income. I believe this is done by making things easier for them.” With this in mind, Econet is rolling out a range of products in the coming months including a flagship life and funeral insurance product for subscribers – an idea he came up with when a colleague’s gardener died without insurance and the family couldn’t afford to repatriate the body. Other products include remote healthcare and innovative mobile farming tools – daily essentials that will help people but also bring the company revenue. “We pick up about 62 cents per month additional income from these types of subscriptions. With 15-20 million customers, 50-60 cents additional income is a lot more than you get trying to get rich people’s kids to play on ringtones.”

The purposefulness he feels at the helm of his telecoms empire infuses his conversation when he turns to the future of Africa, giving a passion and persuasion that sees him start to punctuate his sentences with “do you see what I mean” and “do you get it”. In what he predicts will be “Africa’s century”, he says the continent’s future rests with nations working as a collective economic group of countries to lure investment and develop, in the same way new markets of India and China have done. “We need to make Africa’s one billion people a reality. If I invest in Nigeria I also want to be able to invest in the whole of Africa.” He doesn’t propose political integration in such a diverse continent but urges an increasing willingness among African nations to reach collective decisions to solve the continent’s own challenges. “To pull ourselves out of poverty we have got to deal with our own problems. Sooner or later we have got to deal with Somalia, for example. We can’t afford to have half our coastline un-navigable because thugs are going mad in this space. It sounds optimistic but what I am talking about is a growing consciousness to show the world that we are a billion people.”

Greater economic cooperation and integration would also help solve Africa’s skills shortage, facilitating the movement of skilled labour within the continent – a cause that excites him more than a strong judicial system because of its impact on economic growth. “I don’t believe it is appreciated how significant skills are; businesses still pay a premium for skills. Africa needs an education system that can deliver the skills we need for growth.” He pauses before adding: “Do you see what I mean?” Masiyiwa offers his own brand of wise, spiritual counsel in his growing capacity as an African business guru and through philanthropic roles. This includes being a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation and involvement in initiatives such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, chaired by KofiAnnan, which works to increase crop yields. When aspiring entrepreneurs ask him how he did it, he advises them to trust in God and nurture relationships. “I always say that the most important currency is the relationships you have with people.” He pauses before launching into another anecdote. “I remember, I had fallen behind in my debts during the court case in Zimbabwe and I owed a Zimbabwean businessman money,” he recalls. “He came up to me and he asked me to give him a list of my creditors. He called them on my behalf and he asked them to ease off on me and they all did.”

Going forward, Masiyiwa envisages himself less as a “telecoms man” and more as a broad-based investor, lending to major projects. Never one to shy away from a challenge, his eye is on Africa’s cash-starved and decrepit power and infrastructure sectors. He hopes to do here what he has helped do for telecoms, and drive GDP growth across Africa. It takes him back to the original premise of road building. With a grin he says: “It is my dream to have a railway that runs all the way down the west coast from Dakar to Cape Town. Just imagine that!”