Southern Africa is proving a strong force to reckon with when it comes to raising funds and trading in companies’ stocks through stock exchanges. Apart from the Harare-based Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which is the country’s foremost exchange, a new stock exchange, known as Victoria Falls Stock Exchange located in one of Zimbabwe’s famous tourism destinations, just in front of its borders with Zambia, has been launched. Victoria Falls Stock Exchange is the second stock in Zimbabwe and will go ahead to trade solely in foreign currency, a big bait on foreign investors worried by currency instability in the Southern African country. 

“We saw an opportunity to work with the ZSE in creating a global platform for the trading of stocks in foreign currency, and to do it in a way that promotes foreign investment into Zimbabwe,” Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was quoted as saying.

Here Is What You Need To Know

• Known as the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, the new market is a subsidiary of the Harare-based Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and will start trading on Monday.
• The new bourse – based in northwestern Victoria Falls, the country’s premier tourism destination – marked “the foundation stone” for building the town into an “offshore financial hub”, said the minister.

Read also: Zimbabwe Suspends Mobile Banking, Stock Exchange Trade

• The stock exchange will cater mainly for mining conglomerates and giant international corporates such as insurance giant Old Mutual.
• The southern African country on Friday, June 26 2020, abruptly suspended all mobile money transactions, the most widely used platform to make and receive payments in the crisis-ridden country, claiming the move would tackle crime and economic sabotage. 
• The government also suspended all trade on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange for a month, accusing the bourse of being complicit in illicit financial activities.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer