ATLANTA – For 17-year-old Abel Gumbo, things couldn’t be better. Only a few months ago he was among more than a thousand students at a high school in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. Today he is rubbing shoulders with future leaders at Atlanta’s Morehouse College.

Gumbo is one of 10 students from Africa who have been awarded full ride scholarships to Morehouse, beginning this fall. Everything is being paid for by billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwe’s richest man, according to the 2011 Forbes list.

The telecom tycoon has committed $6.4 million in scholarship dollars to send 40 African freshmen to Morehouse over a four-year period. This year’s intake comprises of two teenagers from Burundi and eight from Zimbabwe.

“It’s been an experience,” said Gumbo, who is studying for an undergraduate computer science degree. “I have left everything behind to gain an education in America.  Computer science is technologically more advanced in the States and I am learning a lot about people from different cultures.”