30 years later , Mushanawani tables NetOne’s US$1 bln turn around bid by 2029….

Business Reporter

When NetOne’s network went live in 1996, a mobile phone was a luxury most Zimbabweans could scarcely imagine. Roads were the country’s primary arteries of information, and the notion that a hand-held device would one day serve as classroom, marketplace, bank and clinic seemed fantastical. 

Thirty years on, as the company marks its Pearl Anniversary, its story reads less like corporate history and more like a chronicle of national transformation — from analogue voice to digital messaging, from mobile data to 4G LTE and 5G, each generation of technology bringing new possibilities and new responsibilities.

The billion-dollar horizon

Eng Raphael Mushanawani, NetOne Group Chief Executive Officer’s stated ambition is audacious: a US$1 billion company by 2029 — nearly a sixfold leap in five years. “We want to be the number one network,” he has declared, and the strategy rests on surging data demand, the retirement of legacy technologies, and aggressive expansion of 4G and 5G.

The infrastructure rollout gives the target credibility. In the past 12 months alone, NetOne deployed 86 new base station sites nationwide, including 264 LTE installations and 16 with full 5G capability.

The 5G push, still in its infancy in Zimbabwe, positions NetOne at the frontier of high-definition streaming, virtual conferencing, industrial IoT and precision agriculture. Consumer uptake will depend on device affordability, but the foundation is being laid for long-term growth in enterprise and public-sector markets.

Leaving no place behind

NetOne’s revival has unfolded within the framework of President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030, the National Development Strategies and the Mutapa Investment Fund — and nowhere is that alignment more visible than in the countryside.

The company now accounts for 46.14% of Zimbabwe’s rural base stations, making it one of the largest contributors to rural network infrastructure and a bridge across the digital divide, connecting underserved communities to education, healthcare information, financial services and digital commerce.

The most tangible expression of that mission is the OneHealth–Telehealth Initiative, the brainchild of the First Lady, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, officially launched in May 2024 by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. In October 2025 the programme reached a milestone with the launch of a Virtual Telemedicine Hospital in Ntunungwe, Matabeleland South — one of Zimbabwe’s first fully digital rural healthcare hubs.

“This Virtual Telemedicine Hospital is not just a booth — it is a hospital without walls; a medical bridge between Ntunungwe and the rest of Zimbabwe,” Eng Mushanawani said at the launch.

Patients can consult doctors hundreds of kilometres away, receive immediate guidance and access advanced diagnostics without leaving their village. “Mothers have travelled long distances with sick children. The elderly have endured pain without immediate help. But today, we stand together to say: help has come home.”

As of July 2025, more than 20 telehealth sites are operational nationwide, three of them in Matabeleland, with more planned for Beitbridge and Gwanda. Each booth carries smart health kits, secure video conferencing, cameras for visual diagnosis, multilingual interfaces and on-site support from trained nurses or community health workers. Analysts say the virtual hospital sets a new benchmark for digital health in sub-Saharan Africa — a demonstration of telecom infrastructure delivering critical public services.

The new pickaxe

The social agenda extends well beyond health. Smart Agriculture and Smart Mining programmes offer mobile-based weather analytics, digital mapping and claim management tools, while a partnership with the Ministry of Youth is driving a digital skills programme for young people.

“Technology is now the new pickaxe,” Eng Mushanawani has said — digital surveying and prospecting tools opening the mining value chain to young Zimbabweans responsibly and efficiently. Strategic roaming partnerships, meanwhile, are strengthening international connectivity in support of trade, tourism, investment and regional integration.

Corporate social responsibility, the company insists, is not an obligation but “a commitment to nation-building.” NetOne has equipped schools with computers, rehabilitated school buildings, installed solar-powered solutions, established nutritional gardens, championed support for persons with albinism and led anti-drug campaigns targeting youths.

In July 2025, that ethos was on full display at Mtetengwe Primary School in Beitbridge, where a handover graced by Vice President Kembo Mohadi — with Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri also in attendance — delivered a renovated eight-classroom block, a 40-unit solar-powered computer laboratory, a borehole and a nutritional garden. The interventions, Mushanawani stressed, were “not symbolic — they are substantive.”

Recognition, and the road ahead

The turnaround has not gone unnoticed. Eng Mushanawani was crowned Overall Platinum Winner at the Zimbabwe CEOs Network Awards and named Business Leader of the Year 2025 by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, which described him as “a leader who leads with purpose and passion.”

He took the same ZNCC honour in 2024, the year NetOne also claimed the Innovation Award. “While the award bears my name,” he said, “it is a reflection of the collective efforts of the NetOne family, our Board of Directors, our valued customers, and all stakeholders who continue to believe in our vision.”

As NetOne enters its fourth decade, the mission is plainly stated: connect more people, empower more communities, unlock more opportunities. “The first thirty years were about connecting Zimbabwe,” the company says. “The next thirty years will be about empowering Zimbabwe to thrive in the digital age.”

Thirty years after that first call, NetOne is no longer merely a telecommunications operator. It is a national enabler and a catalyst for growth — a once-turbulent organisation that has found calm waters and is sailing, with discipline and no small ambition, toward a billion-dollar horizon.