News — Black Owned Business

Strive Masiyiwa is a Zimbabwean businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for being the founder and chairman of Econet Wireless International and Zimbabwe’s first billionaire.

Masiyiwa was born on January 29th, 1961 in Zimbabwe. His father was a miner who later became a businessman, and his mother was an entrepreneur whose interests ranged from retail sales to small-scale farming and transportation. In 1968 Masiyiwa and his family fled to the north-central Zambian town of Kitwe due to regional government instability. At the age of 12 Masiyiwa’s parents afforded him the opportunity to study abroad at a private school in Edinburgh, Scotland. After graduating in 1978, he returned to Zimbabwe with the intention to join the anti-government guerilla forces but was told by a senior officer that the conflict was almost over and that the country needed people like him to help rebuild it. Masiyiwa took the officer’s advice and in 1983 earned a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Wales.

Masiyiwa traveled back to Zimbabwe in 1984 after a brief 1-year stint in the computer industry in Cambridge, England. He joined Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunications Corporations (ZPTC) as a senior engineer and would eventually become a principal engineer within the company. In 1988 Masiyiwa left ZPTC due to frustrations with government bureaucracy.

Realizing there was there was great promise for wireless telephones in sub-Saharan Africa, Masiyiwa founded and financed Econet Wireless in 1990. This business venture was met with heavy opposition from ZPTC which had claimed a monopoly on telecommunications and the Zimbabwean government which wanted bribes. After lengthy legal battles, Masiyiwa’s Econet obtained a license to provide cell phone service in Zimbabwe. Econet would go on to have a presence in other African nations as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Masiyiwa later became involved with the privately held London-based Liquid Telecom Group. This company is Africa’s largest fiber optic and satellite business. In 2018 Masiyiwa was named Zimbabwe’s first billionaire and in 2020 he became the first African to be appointed a Netflix Board member.

Known as a philanthropist, Masiyiwa and his wife, the former Tsitsi Maramba, established the Capernaum Trust which is a support program designed to educate Africa’s orphans and vulnerable children. He is also involved with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge initiative. Masiyiwa supports a wide range of health issues and campaigns against cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition. He is co-chair of Grow Africa and has helped organize $15 billion for African agriculture. Masiyiwa’s Ambassador Andrew Young Scholarship, named after a former United States ambassador to the United Nations, provides funds to send African Students to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2015 he was awarded the Freedom Award by the International Rescue Committee for his contributions towards supporting refugees and championing the cause of dignity, individual freedom, and liberty.

Masiyiwa and his wife, Tsitsi have six children. He holds an honorary degree from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and has been named an influential figure by many publications including Time magazine and Forbes.

Lily Adeleye is a six-year-old CEO making big waves in the business world. She is the CEO of Lily Frilly Company that is into children’s hair accessories, clothing, and more. Her children’s accessory brand is launching into over 1,000 Walmart stores and on their website this month.

The six-year-old hails from Orlando, Florida. Launching on Walmart is the second of her retail launch. She and her mom had launched at Target only last year.

Adeleye’s launch on Walmart will bring a new assortment of her brand’s hair bows, exclusively designed for the Walmart partnership, and will be available for purchase, according to a statement on PRNewswire. “These new and exclusive designs include the Gold & Glitter Hair Bow, Galaxy Girl Hair Bow, Safari Party Hair Bow, and the Candy Rush Hair Bow,” the statement further noted.

Adeleye and her mom, Courtney Adeleye, are excited about their new moves. Courtney is optimistic that what her daughter has created will inspire other young girls to follow their passion. “Lily Frilly started out as a brand my daughter Lily and myself created, as I have always believed it’s important to let your children follow their passions, whether that be art, sports or in this case, growing a business.”

She added, “Now, Lily Frilly has become so much more than just that – it’s become a brand children love, as well as a symbol of inspiration and confidence for young girls as well as for the black community. It’s amazing to see what kids can do, and we’re so glad Walmart is providing this platform to give Lily Frilly the room and attention it warrants.”

Walmart’s Omni Associate Merchant Hair Accessories, Jennifer Aguirre, in a statement said the retail giant was excited and honored to work with Adeleye.

“We are excited to bring Lily Frilly to Walmart and honored to work with Lily Adeleye, as she represents the youngest founder among our Black-Owned business initiative,” she said. “We have been enchanted by Lily’s ingenuity and designs. We are certain that the assortment will captivate our young customers and inspire them to express their beauty and confidence with their hair.”

According to Lilly Frilly’s website, Adeleye loves to learn about investments with her parents. She, however, never forgets to watch Saturday morning cartoons with her older brother and sister.

According to Forbes, African-American women are among the fastest group launching and owning businesses. Despite COVID-19 forcing many businesses to close, particularly, Black-owned businesses, African Americans are still winning big.

One such entrepreneur is Tenisha Williams, who is the CEO of Elite Realty Partners, a real estate brokerage firm based in the South Florida area—Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Her firm is the largest Black, woman-owned brokerage in the South Florida area.

Williams’ story is inspirational, braving the pandemic to achieve economic success. Her company raked $100 million in sales within two years. What is more, she and her elite team are not showing any signs of complacency or slowing down. Rather, they are positioning the company to deliver more homes to families.

Williams attributes her success to God’s favor as she could not have managed a thriving business without divine favor. “I cannot attribute the accelerated pace of my business to anything but the favor of God,” she told Sheen Magazine.

“Before I sold one house, I thought of the name ‘Your FAVORED Realtor’, not favorite but favored! It was as if He told me from day one that He was going to favor whatever I touched in this business and order my steps as long as I put in the work and remained faithful. I remember in 2016 telling my former partner, ‘God is going to give us a platform so big because He knows that He can trust us with it.’”

Before venturing into full entrepreneurship, Williams was a county worker but said she did not plan to stay on the job till retirement like her colleagues, who were simply happy to land a position so they could retire and have great benefits. However, it was not until 2017 that she made her final decision not to return to work while she was on a holiday at St. Lucia with her daughter. “While there, I realized that I did not want to go back to work and made up my mind after speaking with my husband,” she said. “From there, two things happened: I found my purpose by loving real estate and made my first 6 figures part-time.”

Williams is more than a CEO. She is also a life coach and uses a chunk of her time to teach, motivate and guide others to achieve their desire goals. Nonetheless, she is sometimes under unimaginable pressure. “Sometimes I cannot sleep at night because my brain will not stop thinking of ways that I can add more value to everyone on the team. I truly am invested in their careers, so I take the responsibility very seriously,” she said.

Williams describes the reality of being the largest Black, woman-owned brokerage in the South Florida area as surreal. She however said there is so much work to be done to change the narrative and diversify the faces in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area as it pertains to real estate.

The real estate guru considers her firm a “ministry” to agents and customers. Over the years, she has witnessed an overabundance of customers and agents break through various hardships and come out on top with the help of her brokerage, she said. “My private coaching sessions sometimes turn into life-changing sessions for me and them. For example, I have had the opportunity to witness agents who did not sell ONE house at their former brokerages, then come onboard with Elite and become our top producers selling millions in real estate,” she said.