Through her new luxury game lodge in Zimbabwe, Vimbai Masiyiwa, the daughter of billionaire businessman Strive Masiyiwa, hopes to empower and bring change to local communities.
“I think nature has a special way of helping us heal and recover, helping us reflect and refresh.”
Vimbai Masiyiwa may be a billionaire’s daughter but is creating her own niche.
And that niche is a newly-refurbished luxury game lodge at the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe where the 27-year-old businesswoman says she will be using “hospitality and tourism as a catalyst for social change and local economic growth”.
“Just before the pandemic started, we ended up making a decision that we wanted to create a new brand of lodges, which we’ve now called Batoka Lodges – really as a social business,” adds the second eldest daughter of Zimbabwean tech tycoon and founder of Econet, Strive Masiyiwa.
With a BSc in Computer Information Systems from Bryant University, and a Master’s in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship studies from University College London, Vimbai joined the board in 2017 when the family invested in a hospitality group. She put together a proposal for what they could do for tourism in the famed Victoria Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, as director of the Batoka Zambezi Sands River Lodge, she talks about how each suite at the lodge will have a view of the Zambezi River, the fourth-longest river in Africa. Later this year, she is also set to launch the four-star Batoka Gorges and Little Lodge close to Victoria Falls.