I started Econet with only $75 says Strive Masiyiwa, urges graduates to create jobs instead of looking for them

Addressing graduates at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s (NMMU) Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences on Wednesday morning, Strive Masiyiwa said he began his telecommunications business with just $75 and urged university leavers to create jobs.

Said Masiyiwa:

It is indeed true that I started business with only the equivalent of $75. In a few weeks, you will begin the journey that I started in an institution not dissimilar to your own. As hopeful graduates going into the job market, you will be aware that it is an extraordinary time because we have extraordinary challenges. Perhaps it was a little easy for me with a fresh university engineering degree, as it will be for many of you, but still you will be going out into the job market. But where do the jobs come from?  Where will we get the jobs, not only for our finest graduates, but for many others who will not get to university? They must come from you. You must leave today thinking about creating jobs, and not finding them. Your charge, your call is to go and create jobs. Whether it is with $75 or R75, we need an entrepreneurial revolution on this continent because it is the entrepreneurs that must go out and create jobs.

Masiyiwa received an honorary doctorate on Wednesday from NMMU together with globally acclaimed educational entrepreneur, Fred Swaniker, and former Public Service and Administration minister, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, for their immense contribution to leadership, entrepreneurship and social and economic transformation.

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