By 
By Ross Moyo
Zimbabwe’s richest man is bleeding.
Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa’s latest baby, Econet InfraCo, has lost a third of its value since listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) on March 31, wiping a massive $309 million off a company that was valued at $1 billion. In other words business mogul Masiyiwa has lost $103 million in 4 months as INFRACO crashes 31% on VFEX.
Forbes now values Masiyiwa at $2.1 billion, down from $2.2 billion at the end of March, and the money went in one place – InfraCo.
The numbers are brutal.
InfraCo listed at about 33 cents a share. It now trades at about 22.79 cents, down roughly 31%. The fall is not fresh – it was already trading around 22.7 cents at end of July, meaning the crash happened within just four months of listing and the stock has sat in the gutter since.
Masiyiwa’s share of that loss? About $103 million.
He controls roughly 47.5% of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe through Econet Global, and Econet kept 70% of InfraCo when it spun the business out, giving him an indirect interest of about a third.
THE BIGGEST LISTING IN ZIM HISTORY TURNS SOUR
It was supposed to be a celebration.
It was the largest initial listing in Zimbabwe’s history and the sixteenth equity on an exchange that trades in US dollars. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube himself attended.
What InfraCo holds is everything Econet owns that is not the network itself – telecom towers, renewable energy systems and property – packed into a single platform and listed by introduction, meaning no new money was raised.
A quarter of the company, worth about $250 million, went to existing Econet shareholders as a dividend in specie, and shareholders who wanted out took a mix of cash and InfraCo stock, receiving $24.3 million in cash and 143.2 million shares valued at $47.2 million.
The reason for all of it was a share price nobody believed. Econet was trading at about eight cents before the restructuring, valuing the whole company at roughly $239 million, on revenue of $779 million in 2025. The board argued that a market trading in Zimbabwe dollars could not price the business properly, and shareholders voted to leave the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange after 28 years.
Masiyiwa even came home to make the case. He addressed the extraordinary meeting in February – his first return to Zimbabwe in 26 years.
BUT HIS TECH EMPIRE IS FLYING ELSEWHERE
The man who spent five years in court breaking the state monopoly before Econet Wireless Zimbabwe started operating in 1998 – now carrying more than 82% of Zimbabwe’s internet and data traffic and about 88% of voice traffic – is seeing his tech businesses move the other way.
Masiyiwa launched Econet AI in April as a separate unit selling commercial AI services, including Cassava AiCloud, which runs on Nvidia processors at the Cassava AI Factory in South Africa.
Cassava Technologies, his pan-African digital infrastructure group, agreed this month with Vodafone Business to build what they describe as Egypt’s first AI factory – letting Egyptian companies and government bodies train and run AI systems inside the country.
But back home on the VFEX, his InfraCo is stuck at 22 cents.
Masiyiwa remains the wealthiest person in Zimbabwe. But his homecoming listing is now the biggest market horror story of 2026.
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